Date Published: 06/02/09
A PEEP INTO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ‘S AUGEAN STABLE
By Adejuwon Rasheed
The Nigerian tragedy seems to be multiplying geometrically, when one thinks he has seen it all something new would shoot out of the horizon making the previous one pale in comparison. The sheer magnitude of the amount involved in the current scandal rocking the National Assembly is mind boggling. Our (s) elected representatives about eighty percent of whom were Obasanjo’s impositions simply sit down and appropriate our commonwealth into their own pockets.
My first grouse with these heartless charlatans is the constituency project allowance. This is an anomalous contraption which has no antecedent in a democratic setting. The principle of Separation of Powers clearly anticipates conflict of interest hence, each organ of government has its well-defined functions in the constitution. Few of these legislators can account for the past constituency project allowances they collected on behalf of the citizens of their constituencies in the past. In this year’s budget, about 60b naira was appropriated as constituency project allowance despite economic meltdown ravaging the global economy.
They serially abuse their powers of appropriation by devoting a substantial part of the government revenue to themselves under the guise of sundry allowances. While the poor masses suffer daily from pangs of malnutrition induced by hunger, these so-called undistinguished crooks and dishonourable representatives keep on amassing wealth they do not deserve. Not satisfied with an average of 20m naira monthly salary for a Senator and 15m naira for a representative respectively, they have appropriated the power of the executive by awarding contracts to themselves. They simply award bogus contracts, share the money and smile to their banks. No small thanks to our born-again Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under the corruption- disabled leadership of Mrs Farida Waziri; ably protected by her mentor and kinsman Mr. Michael Andooaka, the man who would go down in history as the most corrupt Attorney- General this country has ever had the misfortune of coming across till date, Mrs Waziri a retired DIG of police has proved to us that the leopard can never change its spots.
Freedom they say is never given but taken that is quoting an old adage, until and unless Nigerians rise up and emancipate themselves from the chains of slavery of the political overlords who are holding the nation to ransom, things will go from bad to worse. To me it is a misnomer to say that the worst civilian administration is better than the best military dictatorship, after all Ex President Jerry Rawlings bloody stamp is still visible on the political consciousness of the Ghanaian political elite. Now everyone is quick to praise Ghana for the tremendous steps they are taking towards building a durable democracy but few remember a certain Flt lt. Jerry Rawlings who made it all possible.
Nigeria of today is similar to Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana of the 60’s and 70’s, the rapacious political elite of today who have prevented democracy dividends from percolating down to the masses think that they have the ticket to Eldorado at our expense. They are looting the country blind. Apart from Ndidi Elumelu whose group is suffering an act of vengeance and retribution for his probe into the $16b IPP projects, similar cases are simply gathering dust in the EFCC archives and some obscure law courts. Our zero tolerance for corruption president is comfortable looking the other way while glaring cases of corruption rot away in courts, talk about “ruse of law...”
We take consolation in the fact that change is the only permanent thing in life, whether now or later this set of rogues populating the Nigerian political landscape will gnash their teeth in agony and regret while the poor masses of this country will eventually laugh last.
Adejuwon Rasheed
