The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Legislators

  • Legislators urged to pass anti-tobacco bill

    Legislators urged to pass anti-tobacco bill

    Non Governmental organisation (NGO) is pushing for the passage of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB).

    The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) said Nigeria is among the 180 countries that signed the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) treaty 10 years ago, to control the use and sale of tobacco products.

    The organisation spoke on the 10th anniversary of the treaty.

    ERA’s Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the occasion should be a re-commitment to fighting the devastating health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco and tobacco use.

    He said Nigeria’s effort to domesticate the treaty in form of the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) has suffered setbacks, adding: “For instance, in 2011 when it went through the readings, scaled Public Hearings and was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives it was not signed by President Goodluck Jonathan.”

    Oluwafemi said there is a renewed attempt to pass the bill by legislators, adding: “It is still suffering from tobacco industry attempts to ensure only a weak legislation is passed.”

    He also said: “As we join the rest of the world to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the FCTC we are renewing our call for the National Assembly to pass the NTCB into law without further delays”

    “The health of our citizens continues to hang in the balance as the National Assembly delays the passage of the bill. The tobacco industry is very content with the delays and hiccups bedeviling the passage. The anniversary should therefore be a wakeup call for our lawmakers to expedite action and take this life-saving treaty serious”

    Oluwafemi said life-saving provisions of the FCTC can help to cut down growing tobacco-induced deaths, which the WHO puts at 5.4 million yearly, stressing: “It can also ensure price and tax measures, ban on Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorships (TAPS), provisions of packaging labeling, ban on sale to minors, among others.”

    Quoting the WHO, he said, the full implementation of the FCTC will support worldwide commitments to achieving a 25 per cent reduction in premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by 2025.

    This, he said, includes a 30 per cent reduction in prevalence of tobacco use in persons aged 15 years and over.

  • State legislators to seek financial autonomy

    State legislators to seek financial autonomy

    State assembly legislators are regrouping to assert their independence, it was learnt at the weekend.

    This may not be unconnected with the alleged sweeping influence of state governments over  assemblies.

    The legislators unfolded a body, the National Association of State Assembly Legislators (NASAL), in Abuja at the weekend to articulate and enforce the views of the lawmakers.

    The Interim National President of the body,  Mr. Valentine Ayika, said NASAL became necessary to liberate the state assemblies from strong personality leadership to build strong institutions.

    He said state assembly legislators were making a strong statement with the inauguration of NASAL that democratic governance based on the rule of law had come to stay.

    Ayika noted that the body would pursue financial autonomy to state assemblies, especially with the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

    He said: “Individually, a state assembly can be dealt with, but with an association like this, we can surmount any recklessness of the executive.”

    Ayika said financial autonomy was what the state assemblies needed to be independent.

    He said: “Our salaries are paid by the state governments. It is a fact that he who pays the piper dictates the tune.”

    Asked why the state assemblies rejected the autonomy granted them by the National Assembly during the last amendment of the constitution, Ayika said there was no organisation to articulate the feelings of the assemblies then.

    He added: “If the opportunity comes our way again, I am sure we will grab it.”

    Ayika regretted that only about two state assemblies of the 36 voted to deny state assemblies the opportunity to be financially-independent.

    On the gale of impeachment by state assemblies, he noted that “whatever any state assembly construes as gross misconduct remains gross misconduct until the constitution is amended.”

    Ayika listed the vision of NASAL to include “to unify and build an organisation that can forge a strong bond of collaborative engagement in driving state development in the country and contribute in nation building with enhanced grassroots participation.”

  • APC: Legislators’ demand unconstitutional

    APC: Legislators’ demand unconstitutional

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed the PDP members of the Nasarawa House of Assembly for demanding the dissolution of the panel set up by the Chief Judge to probe the impeachment charges against Governor Umaru Al-Makura, saying the call is unreasonable, unconstitutional and way too late.

    In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the demand by the lawmakers shows they either have a very poor understanding of the Constitution or they are blinded by their desperation to impeach the governor.

    ‘’Either way, they have boxed themselves into a tight corner. Holding an illegal sitting in Abuja with a fake mace is as ridiculous as the demand by the lawmakers for the dissolution of the panel set up by the Chief Judge.

    ‘’Section 188 (5) of the Constitution is clear: ‘Within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Chief Judge of the state shall, at the request of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, appoint a panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provided in this section’.

    ‘’It is important to point out to the desperate lawmakers that the key words in that section is that the Chief Judge must appoint persons WHO IN HIS OPINION (emphasis ours) are of unquestionable integrity. At this juncture, it is neither the opinion of the Speaker nor that of the legislators that counts, it is the opinion of the Chief Judge.

    ‘’Therefore, neither the Speaker, the lawmakers nor the Chief Judge can dissolve the panel at this stage, and none of them can stop the impeachment process. Once the Chief Judge has appointed the panel under section 188 (5), he becomes ‘functus officio’, that is he has no further powers on the matter. This is the situation of things at present and the lawmakers can only await the report of the panel,’’ it said.

    The APC said, however, that it was not surprised by the unwarranted and illegal call for the dissolution of the panel by the PDP members of the Nasarawa legislature, because that call falls within the realm of the runaway impunity for which the PDP and the Jonathan Administration have become infamous.

    ‘’The Jonathan Administration, for one, is always scoring a first in the area of impunity. This is the first time in the history of our democracy that a House of Assembly is seeking to dissolve the panel of seven judges it requested to be set up. This is unacceptable and it will not fly.

    ‘’What the House is suffering from now is called boomerang. Against sound advice, it went ahead to initiate the impeachment process. Well, it must now follow it to its logical conclusion. The Chief Judge cannot be made to dissolve the seven-man panel because he simply lacks the power to so do,’’ the party said.

  • Memo to legislators

    Dear Legislator,

    “Let there become of you a nation that shall call for righteousness, enjoin justice and forbid evil. Such men shall surely triumph”.

    Q. 3: 104.

    This is the second time in three years that a letter of this kind is coming to you from this column. The first was in 2008 barely nine months after some of you resumed in your respective legislative houses. Though the contents of both letters are hardly different the need to write again is informed by the fact that a genuine preacher should never be tired of repeating himself even where and when the addressee chooses to be deaf and dumb as in the case of some of you.

    “Conscience”, according to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, “is an open wound which only the truth can heal”. But one can talk of healing a wounded conscience only where it has not become cancerous. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) told us in one Hadith that hypocrites are known by three signs: “When they talk they lie; when they promise they renege and when they are trusted they betray”. Most of you so much typify that Hadith as if the Prophet had Nigerian legislators in mind when he expressed that axiom.

    You will recall that when you started nursing the ambition to become legislators, whether at the federal or state level, or even as chairmen or councillors in local governments, your first announcement was that you wanted ‘to serve your people’. Based on that announcement, people rallied round you and embraced you as their representatives. That announcement was your first political covenant. It was not between you and the people in your constituency alone. Since it entailed your promise and the trust of the people, Allah’s hand was in it and He will surely hold you accountable for it because you made such promise voluntarily. It does not matter whether you were genuinely elected or rigged into office thereafter as usual.

    Deception

    Your original intention for making the announcement will be weighed against your action on getting to office. And you will be judged accordingly when you leave the office. That is quite different from the actual rigging that brought you into office (if you are part of that abominable gambit) after depriving your fellow human being of that position which rightfully belongs to him. Just as you will call on God for justice if you were in his shoes so he will take your case to God’s court. And the prayer of a cheated person, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), never suffers divine denial.

    You must remember that it is only God’s judgment that can neither be manipulated nor appealed. And no matter how long it may take, Allah’s judgment will be executed perhaps when you least expect. On that, you are left to your conscience if you have one.

    In Islam, two issues are exceptionally fundamental which Allah does not treat lightly. These are sacredness of life and justice. It is a great iniquity for any human being to engage in murder and injustice under any guise. Thus, anybody who kills fellow human beings extra-judicially in the name of religion is nothing but a pagan. In Islam, killing of a fellow human being deliberately is such a grievous sacrilege that cannot and should not occur without commensurate punishment.

    Besides paganism, nothing draws the wrath of Allah as fast as these two crimes which Satan may continue to ask you to ignore at your own peril. Murder is physical termination of the life of a fellow human being. Injustice is to kill a person mentally, psychologically and spiritually by denying him his right.

    In Islam, rule of law is the foundation of justice but legislation is the material with which that foundation is built. Those who voluntarily chose to legislate for others must see themselves as the foundation layers of justice who should not, deliberately or inadvertently, betray the course of justice. Can this be said of you?

    How honourable?

    Honourable legislators, you are addressed as honourable today neither because you are more qualified intellectually than those for whom you are legislating nor because you are wiser and more experienced than them. What makes most of you legislators is sheer expediency arising from queer inadequacies sadly fostered by our so-called political system which gives room for gerrymandering. If such opportunity comes your way illegally, let it not be mistaken for good luck. It may rather be a calamity waiting to strike in future. And when it strikes, no one except Allah can tell the extent of its effect. At least you can see how the consequences of the heartless annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election have become a draconian spectre chasing the ghost of Nigeria even after two decades of licking her wound.

    Due to lack of conscience, most of you may not have noticed, but you need to be hinted that shortly after you took oath of office, most of you started subverting the covenant you voluntarily reached with the people who elected you. That covenant is to serve them (the people). And those who serve are nothing but servants. But no sooner had you been sworn into office than you started calling yourselves leaders. That is why most of you often find it difficult to bend a little backwards and report to your constituencies on how you are serving them.

    The focus of some of you, as soon as you reach Abuja or your state capital or even the headquarters of your Local Governments automatically shifts from service to the people (which was your promise) to self service. And the betrayal is not of the electorate alone. It also affects your matrimonial homes.

    Surrogate spouses

    Since most of you are in those headquarters without your spouses, the first thing you do after settling down is to search for alternative but illegitimate sexual partners who act as surrogate your spouses. And the cost is borne by the same betrayed electorate. Not only that. You also began your primary duty of legislating by first fixing your own salaries and allowances against all norms of morality and at the expense of those who made it possible for you to become legislators. We have started hearing of the varying figures of amounts of money you are regularly sharing as inconvenience allowances even prior to the commencement of your legislative duty.

    You turn the privilege of legislating into a right and use it to intimidate the poor masses and ride roughshod over them. When you occasionally pretend to interact with those masses it is for the purpose of preparing their minds for the next election in which you hope to be returned, possibly, unopposed. And for this reason, you cunningly pay them pittances while making another fake promise to improve their well-being during your second or third term.

    Some of you have spent twelve or eight years in those legislative houses. Yet, there is no sign at all in your immediate constituencies that anybody is representing the people of those constituencies. You are satisfied with their milling around you for pittance even as you assume that they are satisfied with such pittance.

    Self aggrandisement

    When you travel abroad officially, at people’s expense, you are never alarmed by the way political or economic systems work in those countries. The primary concern of some of you is the latest cars plying the roads of those countries and the most magnificent mansions in their estates that you consider as befitting to your new status. Thus, when you return home, your next goal is acquisition of those elements of vanity. That is why every political office holder in Nigeria today is riding or eager to ride the newest jeep from the European, American or Japanese factories even as you own or want to own mansions in the choicest estates in Nigeria. Why won’t corruption be legislated into legitimacy?

    And now, Nigeria is held to a standstill because you must doctor the annual budget presented to you by the executive to your own favour so that the largess generated by the executive arm may be jointly shared in the spirit of ‘rub my back I rub yours’.

    Most of you as fathers and mothers will want your children to grow up as responsible men and women, yet, most of you have nothing in you that can serve as good examples for those children.

    Reminder

    Perhaps it is necessary to remind you that everything in this world is based on condition. The world itself did not come into existence without condition. Man was originally created to be Allah’s servant in the garden called the earth. And all other things in that garden were ordered to obey and serve man on condition that he (man) would also obey and serve Allah. That service was not an imposition. It was voluntary.

    Before putting man in charge of the world at all, Allah had consulted far and wide with all the stake holders concerned. Each of them declined responsibility except man who, out of greed and arrogance, volunteered to take charge and be responsible for it.

    Allah states this clearly in Q. 33 V. 72 thus: “We offered the ‘TRUST’ (of the world) to the heavens; to the earth and to the mountains; but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it. Man who undertook to bear it, has proved to be unjust, foolish”.

    By consulting so far and wide, Allah had elicited and got covenant from every creature. Those among them, that declined responsibility cannot and will not be asked to account for the occurrences therein. Accountability of the world solely rests on man’s shoulder according to the covenant he reached voluntarily with Allah.

    Covenant with Allah is the most fundamental law of existence. It is not one sided. As man has responsibilities to bear so does Allah has obligations to fulfil. It is from the covenant with Allah that all other covenants in the life of man, including those of marriage, trust and confidentiality, are derived. That covenant is what others call oath.

    Oath of office

    In Islam, oath, whether private or public, does not necessarily require Muslims to carry the Qur’an in one’s hand as done in Nigeria particularly at this time when oath of office has become a meaningless symbol. No oath is ever made without Allah being a witness to it. Besides, He has assigned two Angels (Raqib and ‘Atid) to every human being as secret police officers. The duty of these Angels is to record all utterances and secret actions of each person to whom they are assigned. The one records good deeds, the other records evil deeds. Their recordings are both in video and audio forms.

    This is fact contained in Q. 50: 16 where Allah states that: “We surely created man and ‘We’ know the promptings of his mind and are closer to him than his jugular vein. We assign two guardians to watch him, one on his right and the other on his left. No utterance (from him) or action shall escape the records of these vigilant guardians….”

    It is from the functions of these invisible police that researchers came about the idea of video, audio and other technological devices used especially for espionage.

    Blind trust

    With this scenario, you can see what damage some of you (legislators) are causing to the present and future generations of this country in a bid to display your illegally acquired loot through corruption. By interpretation, the problem of corruption engendered by gross indiscipline in Nigeria today is not with the youths alone. It is rather more with the parents, some of whom are in the legislative arm of government.

    Nigeria remains in darkness today after 50 years of independence because the priorities of those of you in government are permanently at variance with the country’s national priorities. For instance, one would have thought that rather than fighting corruption the way Obasanjo presumably started it, what a focused and sincere government should have done was to initiate a re-orientation revolution to enable all Nigerians know why corruption is evil. The Murtala Muhammad and Buhari/Idiagbon regimes experimented this successfully and Nigeria was briefly better for it.

    Fighting corruption haphazardly as Obasanjo did during his agonizing eight year tenure is like starting the building of a house from the roof. Nigeria wasted those eight years chasing shadow in the name of fighting corruption while the monster kept feeding fat on the blood of poor Nigerians using ‘BLIND TRUST’ as cloak. That method must change.

    Rare opportunity

    Legislating is a rare opportunity to serve one’s nation meritoriously. But some of you seem to have turned that opportunity into one of self-enrichment as well as that of securing the future of your own children at the expense of the lives of other children. All these are done at the expense of the wretched people around you whose role in democracy has been relegated to voting once in three or four years. You have forgotten that wealth is Allah’s endowment which cannot be inherited except by Allah’s will. Who inherited the expansive wealth and kingdom of King Solomon? Haven’t you ever seen some money bags of yester years wallowing in abject penury today? When will you learn your lesson?

    My dear honourable legislators; search your conscience and fear God. Remember that some people had legislated for this country in the past. There were even those who usurped the roles of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary together, in the name of military rule, made possible by coup d’état. Where are they today?

    Legislation, like governance, has its tenure. Four years may look endless, but for the wise, it is not more than a flash of lightening which only a fool may want to rely upon while walking his way through the darkness of the night.

    Peculiar factor

    You are in the house of legislation to make laws for today and tomorrow. Ordinarily, that duty should be on part time and not full time basis in a serious country where patriotism holds sway. But since everything in Nigeria has a peculiar factor, it has become a rule that those who are legislating for us must take the lion’s share of our national cake even through the budget. That is why you randomly roar to the total embarrassment of the country that the President or the Governor must be impeached. Such impeachment becomes a serious business only when your salaries, allowances or social welfare are not provided as at when due and as you want. It does not matter to you whether or not the entire workforce in Nigeria remains unpaid for years or all the Universities in the country close down completely and permanently. It is rather shameful and disappointing that even some of you (especially Muslim legislators) can participate in such evil charade despite your proclamation of Islam.

    Conscience, though invisible, has a mirror which only a few people know of. That mirror is shame. A person without shame is a person without conscience. And that is the main distinction between a genuine Muslim and a nominal one. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) admonished thus in respect of shame: “once you are bereft of shame, you can go ahead to do whatever you like”. This means that without shame you are a nonentity who can even strip naked in the market place. We can all see the example of this in a former President of this country.

     Service to humanity

    Honourable legislators, let it be kept permanently in your hearts that the only thing which keeps people alive in history even long after their demise is service to humanity. Prophets Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad (SAW), had neither bank accounts nor estates to bequeath to anybody. Their heritage is more than any material wealth for the entire world today. That heritage is service to humanity. What is your own planned heritage if only for posterity? That is a big question which only people with conscience can answer.

    Remember that you are in a ship already voyaging on the high sea towards the shore. At the shore are the customs officers waiting to check the contents of your cargo. Be always at alert. Remember that if you cultivate friendship with Satan he will favour your wish. But if he grants you one favour, he will take ten from you in return. Be Muslims by name, conduct and mannerism. Whatever you do as Muslims will affect the image of Islam in one way or the other. I hope you will return home as Muslims that you claim to be and not as renegades. Remember all this and adjust now that you may be able to raise your head aloft when others will be losing theirs.

  • Impeachment without quorum

    Impeachment without quorum

    Legislators involved in the Rivers Assembly fracas should face sanctions too

    Many journalists readily agree, in defining the concept ‘news’, that when dog bites man, it is no news; but when man bites dog, then that is news. Of course, this makes sense because, what they are trying to say in essence is that ‘news’ properly so-called is usually about the bad and the ugly. Bad news is therefore good news. It is common to see dogs bite man but it is unusual for man to bite dog. Here, we are not talking about the Ondo people who see ‘lokili’ (dog) as a delicacy and the Calabar people who also enjoy its meat that they fondly call ‘404’. To eat something is not necessarily the same as biting it.

    This analogy came about in view of what is happening in Rivers State. That state has not known peace in the last few months and it is not likely to know it anytime soon. One of the major actors in the crisis has only recently boasted that he would make the governor uncomfortable, and perhaps the state, ungovernable. That tells us the extent that people can go when seeking political power in the country. In sane environments, the man would have been invited by the security agencies because his statement is self-explanatory. I have said it often, and it bears repeating, that this country would have been a far better place if those seeking public offices put in half of the energy they put into the struggle for the offices into governance when they eventually get into those offices.

    Imagine all the resources that have been wasted in the efforts to ‘overthrow’ the Rivers State governor just because of the personal ambitions of a few persons. A serving minister of state for education, Nyesom Wike, who should be overseeing the crucial sector is rather busy doing unimaginable things while thousands of our youths in the universities are on the streets when they should be in the lecture rooms, due to strike by their lecturers. Their colleagues in the polytechnics went on strike for weeks while Mr. Wike was in the forefront of the battle to remove the state governor by hook or crook. I wonder why it has not occurred to those who appointed Wike that something is bound to suffer when a man in such a crucial sector abandons his beat to lead a campaign just because he wants to become governor. In saner climes, it is only people who performed creditably in lower capacities that get promoted in government. This is a minister without any clear achievements already eyeing a higher office, putting his hopes on some benevolent cleavages. Again, in countries where the government is serious, it would have seen such a person as a liability rather than an asset and promptly shown him the door.

    But this is not where I am going today, it is nonetheless useful though in bringing into perspective the unfortunate developments in Rivers State.

    Chinua Achebe says in his celebrated Things Fall Apart that “if a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Shut my eyes and pretend not to see him?” He says that cannot be; he will rather carry a stick and break his head! Well, I may not necessarily be talking about physical retaliation. But, Achebe’s novels, as is the Igbo culture generally, are replete with proverbs which are like oil with which yam is eaten (again, apologies to Achebe).

    What happened in the Rivers State House of Assembly on Tuesday July 9 falls into the category of the defecation that I have in mind. But I must stress that I am also not talking about someone in whose house another man has defecated carrying a physical stick (as it were) to break the intruder’s head. But the man who has been wronged deserves some pacification. Now, when only five of a 32-member House of Assembly attempted to impeach the speaker, Otelemaba Amachree, whereas the constitution stipulates that at least two-thirds of the members is required for such to be legal, what did they expect? Did they expect to be pecked or kissed and warmly embraced by their colleagues who are in the majority?

    Certainly not. But the five must have been that audacious because of the ubiquitous ‘federal might’ that they thought they had behind them. With the police merely playing the role of observers, they had thought they would just carry out their illegality while Nigerians would make the usual noise over a period and the result of the illegality of impeachment without the requisite two-thirds majority would have stood, until a time when the courts will declare the action illegal and order a return to status quo ante. And, in Nigeria, that could take as long as the usurpers want and that is understandable; they have nothing to lose; it is only the person that has been cheated out of the office that has everything to lose. And, as we all know, justice travels at a snail speed in the country. Injustice travels faster!

    However, the miscalculation of the misguided five legislators led to (probably) unanticipated violence and now, we are talking about one of those involved in the illegal impeachment saga, Michael Chinda, lying critically injured in hospital. Interestingly, the same police that have been partial since the crisis started promptly ensured that the majority leader in the state house of assembly, Mr. Chidi Lloyd, was promptly arraigned for attempted murder.

    This is the kind of thing that happens in a country where might determines right. If legislators who did what the ‘Rivers Five’ attempted in the past had been made to face the full wrath of the law, it would have served as a deterrent to others. Unfortunately, they did not pay for it because the then President Olusegun Obasanjo was solidly behind them. This was despite the fact that fortunately, the judiciary in that era reversed almost all the illegalities, in Oyo, Anambra, Plateau where the governors were said to have been impeached without the required quorum in the houses of assembly.

    Perhaps it was because the ‘Rivers 27’ in the house of assembly did not want to take any chances that things went awry on July 9. This underscores the need for people to respect the sanctity of the law and due process. I am not opposed to justice for the injured legislator but I am also strongly of the view that something triggered the violence in the house. In my view, this too should be of concern to us. In the light of this, someone should also test the judicial waters to see if any case can be established; that is, if under any circumstance people can try what the ‘Rivers Five’ did without facing judicial sanctions. If we saw such in the Obasanjo era, it does not make it right.

    Whoever goes to equity must go with clean hands, remains the usual refrain. When someone causes rain to fall, it doesn’t seem right to me for that person to complain if the rain is eventually accompanied with thunderstorm. If sustaining of injury during an illegal legislative process is newsy, then, getting justice for those cheated by the illegality should be newsier. If five legislators decided to impeach a governor when between 20 and 21 members are legally required, they should know that whoever their godfather is, that action is illegal. I therefore see nothing wrong in their paying for it through the judicial process. It is high time Nigerians challenged such illegalities in court.

  • Senate opposes immunity for legislators

    Senate opposes immunity for legislators

    •Backs sack of NCAA DG

    The Senate yesterday opposed the plan by the House of Representatives to create immunity for parliamentarians.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the plan would not sail through the upper chambers.

    The House of Representatives is considering a Bill which seeks immunity for Senators and members of the House.

    The Bill specifically seeks to make the provision in the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act, which grants immunity to legislators on the floor of the Senate or the House, a constitutional provision.

    But Abaribe said at a news conference in Abuja that the Senate believed that seeking immunity for legislators outside the two chambers was asking for too much.

    He wondered why any legislator would ask to be granted immunity outside the National Assembly precinct.

    He said: “I think that the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act already gave every legislator immunity of whatever he says on the floor of the chamber.

    “That is already a settled law and fact. The Bill has not been brought to the floor of the Senate.

    “I guess when it comes to us, then, we will see the different positions.

    “I will be very surprised if somebody is asking for immunity outside the two chambers of the National Assembly.

    “Why would anybody ask for such? We do not want to grant anybody such immunity.

    “I don’t think that will pass through any floor of the National Assembly.”

    On the removal of the Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, Abaribe said nobody is indispensable in the country.

    He noted that the Senate took a stand on the aviation sector part of which was the resolution that NCAA DG should be removed.

    Insisting that professionals could be found in every aspect of the country’s national life, the senator said that in an effort to make things to work better, necessary changes were bound to be made.

    Abaribe said: “When we make our resolutions and we pass it to the Executive Arm of Government, most of the time, there is expectation that there will be immediate effect syndrome.

    “That has to do with the way we were brought up under the military.

    “But I have also cleared the air here to say that when we pass things to the Executive, we have to give them time to be able to work through their own processes and necessarily, those processes may take a little while.

    “There is no doubt that the Senate has taken a stand on the aviation sector and there were sets of resolutions that were taken.

    “This (removal of Demuren) was part of it and if the Executive finds at this time there is need to look into those things, it is in the best interest of the country.

    “Nobody in this country is indispensable.

    “We can find professionals in every aspect of our national life and therefore, in making things to get better, necessary changes would be made and that is what we were elected to do.

    On the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), Abaribe said that contrary to insinuations, it did not divide the Senate.

    Rather than divide the Senate, he noted that the Bill brought out all the different provisions and aspects of the Bill Nigerians were concerned about.

    He said that the debate also showed Senators as patriotic Nigerians.

    He noted that Senators also agreed to the need for an overhaul and restructure of the petroleum sector.

     

  • Greedy legislators? Try Kenya

    Greedy legislators? Try Kenya

    people who think our legislators are the worst in terms of their desire for primitive accumulation and ostentatious lifestyle will tender unreserved apologies to them when they see what their Kenyan counterparts earn, and are still yearning earnestly for more. As a matter of fact, I now believe that truly, it is one who has not travelled far that does not see squirrels with hunchback; if one travels far, he is likely to see ants that are lame.

    That exactly was the impression I got on reading the story of Kenyan lawmakers who want extraordinary end-of-term bonuses and other mouth-watering pleasures. They want their bonuses tripled; they want diplomatic passports for themselves and their spouses, bodyguards for life, of course paid for by taxpayers; they also want State burial for themselves when they die, a thing reserved only for their president and notable achievers. Thank God the legislators have President Mwai Kibaki to contend with. At least twice in three months had the legislators made the demand, and twice had Kibaki turned them down.

    And, as if to prove that they were actually being driven by what a newspaper called ‘eccentric greed’, the lawmakers, in their lack of regard for time and space, did not even care that they were repeating the demands in their last act before the parliament closed for the March 4 elections. One would have thought they would have been mindful of the coming polls, and at least pretended as if they cared about reelection or the people more than they did about themselves; but they didn’t. “But even the most cynical among us would not have bet on the lawmakers sticking their hands in the public pocket on the last day in office … one would have expected that politicians facing an election would have had the decency to exit without creating a ruckus”, the Standard Newspaper said on January 12. If the Kenyan lawmakers’ prayers had been answered, the taxpayer would have incurred an extra cost of two billion shillings to pay the higher bonuses alone, to people considered by the electorate as already overpaid, lazy and corrupt. As a matter of fact, Kenya’s lawmakers are seen as among the best paid in the world.

    I know Nigerians are very clever; (most of them now take Panasharp) they would therefore want to remind me that $107,200, the end-of-term bonus being demanded by the Kenyan lawmakers (about N17,152, 000) is only a fraction of what our National Assembly members take for Constituency Project; that is true. But you can only see the sense in my point when you note a few things about Kenya. Kenya’s lawmakers earn about $13,000 (N2, 080, 000) a month, the bulk in tax-free allowances. This may look small, but is no doubt huge in a country where an unskilled urban labourer may earn as little as $60 (N9,600) a month, and with a per capita GDP of $800. In 2011, the legislators refused to pay back taxes demanded by the government, then bought new seats, worth $2,400 (N384,000) each, for the members in the chamber. For a country facing a ballooning wage bill to meet pay raises for teachers and doctors, and at a time when economic growth has slowed and unemployment remains uncomfortably high, this is simply outrageous.

    So, when compared to their Kenyan counterparts, we will see that our own National Assembly members only want to be spoilt a little, unlike their counterparts in Kenya who want to be spoilt big, irrespective of whether their pleasure would amount to pain for the average Kenyan. I will give you just one example to prove that our legislators here care about how they spend public funds in a way that it won’t tear the people’s pockets. Just a few weeks back during the unnecessary debate on how much we should sink into our vice president’s palace (remember I told you then we don’t just spend or procure when the issue is such high-class project, we sink money into projects), whether it is N14billion, or N13billion or even N16billion, one of our senators who himself was enraged by the big big billions being mentioned for the project rose in defence of the people by rounding up the figure to a moderate N10billion, which he felt was adequate. Instead of clapping for him, some of us still condemned him because we did not think our Number Two Citizen deserved to live in such opulence. I can only imagine the kind of embarrassment we must have caused the gentleman vice president by subjecting his abode to such debate in the market square.

    Back to the Kenyan legislators. Who says they do not know what they are doing by making those extraordinary demands? When you see people who spit on the ground and quickly rub it with their foot, it is because they know what spittle could be used for. After skinning the Kenyans while in office, the legislators need life bodyguards in retirement lest they get torn to shreds by the people. Of course they need State burial so Kenyans would also be responsible for their funeral expenses. After serving the people so lazily and corruptly, there cannot be a better way to complete the insult than to ask the people to pick the bills of their burial as well. I think they must have heard from the Yoruba people here that Aye l’Oyinbo nje ku (the Whiteman enjoys till he dies). Kenyans have to carry the responsibilities of their legislators in life and death.

    Bad as our own legislators could be, have they been asking for diplomatic passports for their spouses? Bad as our lawmakers are, I have not seen anywhere that they ever asked us to give them bodyguards for life, maintained by the taxpayers. The best we see is for those of them who have the means or have stolen enough, to acquire bullet-proof jeeps. There are no accident-proof cars yet; otherwise Nigerian lawmakers and political office holders generally would scramble to have some. May be this is an area Nigerians have to pray to God to grant the White Man speed, wisdom, knowledge and understanding to manufacture accident-free vehicles to at least spare these leaders from knocking down the people they lead in their attempt to get away fast from God-knows what on our death traps called roads! Bad as our legislators are, I have also not seen them asking that they be given State burial when they die. So, we can now see clearly that if we compare children, we will flog one to death for the other.

    The point is that people do not appreciate what they have until they lose it. We may never appreciate our crop of legislators until they travel to Kenya to see how their Kenyan counterparts are doing it and return to insist on the same measure, after being bitten by the Kenyan bug. Unlike the Kenyan legislators who would rather follow dead bodies to the grave in their quest for insatiable wants, our own lawmakers know the limits of their greed. At least they are not as lazy, corrupt and overpaid as their Kenyan counterparts. We owe our Senate President David Mark and House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, a debt of gratitude for the enormous sacrifices they are making in order to make laws for our good governance!

     

  • Illiterate legislators

    Illiterate legislators

    •Lawmakers who cannot read and write have no place in the National Assembly

     

    Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President stunned the nation with his bombshell in Awka, Anambra State, when he said that some of his colleagues (legislators) can barely write their names. He reportedly bemoaned why the South-East “…still sends to the National Assembly some people who can barely write their names” despite its educational advancement.

    The occasion was the 2012 Zik Lecture organised by Anambra State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists where he delivered a paper titled: ‘True Federalism and the Political Ideology of the Great Zik’. Other than the fact that such a revelation came from the deputy senate president, we would have considered it to be a wild one that could not have happened in the country this century. But the revered Senate’s number two man must have considered the implication of what he said about some members of that important arm of government.

    We want to believe that he was not just frivolous or grandstanding for that may generate undue public attention to his person and office. It is sad to know from someone that ought to know that some members of the hallowed Senate chambers cannot write their names and, by extension, may rely on aides to read and properly understand the proceedings going on in the chambers. Such legislators presumably will not be able to think beyond their immediate milieu and obviously may have nothing to offer not only their people but the entire nation.

    Something must be wrong somewhere before any member of the Senate in this age would not be able to write his/her name. Contrary to Mr. Ekweremadu’s position that pointedly accused the South-East of being guilty of this, we want to state that this educational absurdity could not be peculiar to that region. Further scrutiny would have exposed the educational farce in other regions.

    Expectedly, nations are governed by laws which regulate peaceful cohabitation and bring about developmental initiatives. Thus, the rigorous business of lawmaking should not be left in the hands of dregs in the society. But to now imagine a situation where law makers cannot read or write in the Senate is preposterous. How can the desired end of lawmaking and its amendment processes be guaranteed if semi-illiterates or half-baked literates are the people making the laws?

    We are aware that the standard of education has generally fallen in the country. Otherwise, how can anybody attain the enviable height of a federal lawmaker and he would not be able to write his/her name? The 1999 Constitution (as amended) in section 65(2a) provides that ‘A person shall be qualified for election under subsection (1) of this section if; he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.’ From the rattling revelation of Mr. Ekweremadu, and the obvious descent in educational standards in the nation where even some university degree holders cannot speak or write good English, being the lingua franca of the land, then, this constitutional provision on School Certificate qualification that also applies to election seekers into executive positions has become meaningless.

    The need to embrace a more civilised approach in determining the literacy level and suitability of prospective legislators and others seeking elective office in future must be earnestly considered in the on-going constitutional review exercise. Public debate on issues and policies relating to the country’s wellbeing and the people is pertinent here. Nigeria needs men of rigour and mental alacrity to wriggle her out of the current stillness in governance. Ignorance arising from mostly uneducated men in the corridors of power may be too costly if the nation intends to get to the Promised Land.