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This is an opinion for your consideration and
publication.Regards.Sufuyan Senateand Omo-Agege’s absurd theatrics
BySufuyan OjeifoIf the invasionof the Senate in plenary on Wednesday,
April 18, 2018 by two thugs sponsored bysuspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege
(APC, Delta Central), during which theyattacked the Mace, the legislative
symbol of authority, and made away with itin a Rambo-like operation, is a
foreshadower of what to expect in the weeks andmonths ahead of the 2019
general elections, then we must all worry.To be sure,Omo-Agege was
suspended for his remarks that that the amendment of the 2010Electoral Act
that reordered the sequence of the 2019 general elections, movingthe
presidential election from the first to the last in the sequence,
wastargeted at President Muhammadu Buhari. Prior to hissuspension,
Omo-Agege had apologised to the Senate in plenary; but, in avolte-face, he
had proceeded to file a suit against the Senate President, Dr.Bukola
Saraki and the Senate when he got winds that the Ethics and Privileges
Committeehad recommended him for suspension from legislative activities
for 180 days.But theSenate, considering the plea by Saraki, decided to
reduce the 180-daysuspension by a half to 90 days. This, according to the
Senate, was to serve asdeterrent to other senators who might contemplate
taking the Senate to courtover its powers to regulate or determine its
internal affairs.Omo-Agege, insteadof allowing the matter in court to run
its full course, was beside himself anddecided to resort to that odious
self-help. I wonder what he intended to achieve by that. Will his
storming the Senate with thugs and disruptingits sitting in a day force a
reversal of the decision to suspend him? Certainlynot! Instead, it would
worsen his situation as it has done.Did he thinkthat the attack on that
particular Mace could have prevented a replacement withanother Mace?
There are so many Maces inthe custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms that could
serve as replacement. I justcannot understand what Omo-Agege, a supposed
gentleman, wanted to achieve. It is sad that a senator of the Federal
Republicof Nigeria lost his sense of equanimity when it mattered most and
ended upbeing a misguided role model.He is an unfortunateproxy in a
seeming battle in defence of the electoral interest of the President. If
the motivation for the show of shame wasto ingratiate himself to the
Presidency in the battle for 2019 tickets of theAPC, then beyond being an
unenviable role model and unfortunate proxy, he is a reprehensibletragic
hero, putting his reputation and family name at stake.How could anelderly
man, head of family and father who is supposedly educated descend solow
into the gutter in a desperate bid to achieve what end that is at
bestmundane? “A good name,” according to theBible (Proverbs 22.1), “is
more desirable than great riches and a loving favourrather than silver and
gold.” By thattreasonable act of attacking the authority of a revered
democratic institutionof the Senate of which he is a part even though
suspended for 90 days, Omo-Agegeis nothing but a felon and should be
appropriately dealt with in accordance. Hehas lost his respect as a
senator in the estimation of well-meaning Nigerians.I watched ashe was
being led away by two very senior Police officers into the back seat ofa
waiting Hilux van and driven away amid the blaring of siren. That was a
pitiable anti-climax to an actionthat could not escape essential
indictment as jejune. The Omo-Agege saga is a reminder of another
similarincident that another politician from Delta State choreographed in
2015 at theInternational Conference Centre where the result of the
presidential electionwas being collated. I refer to formerMinister of
Niger Delta, Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe, who was the agent ofPresident
Goodluck Jonathan where the results of the presidential electionswere
being announced. At a point, on March 15, 2015, Orubebe went
overboard,seized the microphone and for several minutes, insisted that the
INEC Chairman,Professor Attahiru Jega, should leave the centre because,
according to him, hewas biased against the ruling PDP. Openlyaccusing Jega
of being “tribalistic and partial”, he said the INEC chairman
actedpromptly on the complaints from the opposition APC but refused to
accept apetition from the PDP. Although that did not deter Jega from
seeing through hisassignment, the Orubebe rascality that could have
encouraged a rejection of thepresidential election result by the PDP was
eventually put down by GoodluckJonathan’s decision to, without consulting
his party leaders, accept the resultof the election in a historic
telephone call to Muhammadu Buhari. That was even when two states were
yet to beannounced by the INEC.I have drawnthis comparison in order to
question what the problem is with politicians fromDelta State that
accentuates their rascality. Well, it may not be solely peculiar to Delta,
but the people of thestate should begin to interrogate the antecedents and
psychologies of thosethey vote in as their representatives in the National
Assembly as from 2019. Other statesshould follow suit. It is unfortunate
thatOmo-Agege found himself on the wrong side of the authority in the
Senate;otherwise, this side of him would not have been known. His
colleague, Dino Melaye, from Kogi State,obviously has more capacity and
multiple competencies for mischief thanOmo-Agege, but he is on the right
side of the Senate authority and he is beingmollycoddled; his nuisance
values tolerated and deployed to utilitarian advantage. I rememberwhen
Dino Melaye was a member of the House of Representatives, he fought on
thefloor of the House and had his dress torn into rags in defence of the
thenHouse leadership under the Speakership of Hon. Patricia Etteh. There
were others who had, in the past,thrown decency to the wind and fought one
another on the floor of the House. Because of theyouthfulness of the
preponderant members of the House, they were and are stillalways eager to
flex muscles and actually deliver the punches. But the Senateambience is
different. While senatorsare not giving to fighting, they are at home
exchanging banter. Historically, senators’ action of personally
hijackingthe Mace is not new to us, but the dimension that Omo-Agege has
justintroduced, sponsoring thugs to invade the chamber in plenary to
attack andmake away with the symbol of authority is, no doubt, novel.The
ease atwhich the thugs entered the chamber and grabbed the Mace calls for
a review ofthe security in and around the chambers of the Senate and the
House of Representatives. Besides, the legislators’ personal
securityshould be taken seriously by them as the 2019 politicking for
elective postsenter into frenzy. Significantly,we should henceforth place
a demand for proper and respectful conducts from oursenators and spell it
out to them that whoever perpetrates this sort of Omo-Agege’srascality and
allied misbehaviours will be recalled. In fact, Nigerians in the various
senatorialzones who know the antecedents of those aspiring to represent
them, should usetheir votes to screen out the likes of Omo-Agege from
finding their ways to theSenate in particular and House of Representatives
and State Houses of Assembly ingeneral. This will help to sanitise the
legislativearm of government.
– Ojeifo, editor-in-chief of The Congresswatch magazine, contributed
this piece via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com