Before suicide-bomber legislators strike

It will not be surprising that for some time to come, last Wednesday being April 18th 2018 will serve as a reference point in any conversation on Nigeria’s legislature and indeed politics, both in the country and beyond. For the purpose of recall, last Wednesday witnessed a most brazen assault on the Nigerian Senate by […]

It will not be surprising that for some time to come, last Wednesday being April 18th 2018 will serve as a reference point in any conversation on Nigeria’s legislature and indeed politics, both in the country and beyond. For the purpose of recall, last Wednesday witnessed a most brazen assault on the Nigerian Senate by a dare-devil (armed?) band of five miscreants, who in Japanese ‘kamikaze’ style, invaded the Red Chamber during plenary session, and whisked away the Mace in broad daylight, after inflicting serious injuries on the Sergeant-at-Arms staff who tried to restrain them. 

The culprits had reportedly come into the Senate Chamber following a well-rehearsed script, and surreptitiously exploited the company of Senator Ovie Omo Agege to strike. The Senator who is serving a 90 working days suspension for breaching Senate rules, had sauntered into the Senate Chamber thereby causing a distraction for the seated legislators, since he was not expected to be there in the first place. In the ensuing disorder the culprits pounced on the Mace and ran away with it. Simplicita! 

As is to be expected, a legion of questions have been raging over various aspects of the development. Why the seemingly ‘easy entry and exit’ of the culprits into the hallowed Chamber of the Senate? Why was the Mace easily picked by the culprits in spite of the dedicated attention to it? Why did the Police officers on duty who were supposedly armed spare the perpetrators of such a heinous act? Why were the ubiquitous operatives of the Department of State Security Services (DSSS) when it mattered most? Also on the list of questions is what would interest anybody outside the Senate or any other legislative chamber in the theft of the Mace even if it is for decorating his or her abode as an ornament? Why also was a daylight brazen approach to steal this emblem of authority, the preferred style of attack by the assailants? Why and why…? 

To these will also be a parade of answers – some of which will be informed and therefore correct, while others will not be and therefore may only be useful in mis-directing the public towards untenable conclusions. For instance on the issue of how the suspended Senator gained access into the hallowed Senate chamber is easily explained by his patent abuse of the privilege granted him by the security staff on duty. Granted the benefit of privileged access to the National Assembly precincts for legislators, with Omo-Agege being a serving Senator, and who could come in and go out as of right with a retinue of aides, it was understandable that the security officials allowed him into the place with his team. Moe significantly the officers in the National Assembly bureaucracy have been conditioned by convention and experience not to take up issues which border on the privileges of the legislators with the latter. 

Incidentally this time around, Omo-Agege was wittingly or otherwise, leading a ‘demolition team’ into the ordinarily restricted Senate floor on a mission that would place him in the ranks of the Englishman Guy Fawkes. Fawkes was a soldier and explosives expert who in November 1605, along with fellow conspirators planned to blow up the British House of Lords during a session that would have the King in attendance. He was arrested while tending his bags of gunpowder already placed in the building and in wait for the right moment to strike. While awaiting execution for his crime however, he committed suicide. But the anger of the British public over his plans, could only be assuaged by cutting (quartering) his dead body into four parts and distributing the pieces to the four corners of the British Isle. 

Coming back to the matter on hand, by fitting some of the seemingly unrelated issues about it together – such as the antecedents of the drama and its bizarre run, the emerging picture clearly indicate that the target of the mission was beyond seizing the Mace – an ordinary piece of fine sculpture that was adopted by the Senate as its ceremonial symbol of authority. The target was ostensibly something more profound and bordering on what the Senate may be standing for and which is inherently against the interests of whoever are the assailants and their sponsors. These are the persons for whom suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has by an unholy association, provided an infamous face for.  

While the incident under consideration could be seen as one of executing only a ‘disruption’ of the Senate proceedings, who knows what other plans which the fingered Omo-Agege  and his co-travellers had in mind, just in case their ‘snatch and run’ effort failed? This angle is provided credence by the fact that around the time of the development, the Delta State Chapter of the All Progressives (APC) had issued paid newspaper advertisements discrediting the suspension order placed on their Senator Omo-Agege by the Senate.

The foregoing notwithstanding, a key lesson from the development is that a major portion of the woes of the country’s legislature is at the behest of some of its operators whose wiles can even be more vicious than whatever constraints it is facing from extraneous factors. With the questionable enterprise of Omo-Agege, the establishment remains vulnerable to the extent that even some of its most prominent lights can degrade to adorn the toga of infamy, in pursuit of personal agenda. This is a complete antithesis to the refined sensibilities expected of a legislator and more significantly a Senator. 

As it is, Nigerians are watching to see how this drama will run further, with concern over whether it will be buried under the carpet or will mark a turning point in the code of conduct for legislators. Clearly a lot of vigilance and changes are required in the country’s legislative terrain, as nobody can guarantee that someday, some time, some bomb-strapping legislator(s), will not cite one grievance or the other, and access some legislative chamber, only to detonate some lethal substance with calamitous consequences for our dear country.

 On such a day, Omo-Agege will look like a saint.