Our dis-honourable NASS ‘honourables’

Legislators who insist on prefixing their names with the word “honourable” are perennially in the news for the wrong reasons. Dishonourable behaviour by Members of the National Assembly (NASS) who use their position for personal aggrandisement is no longer news. The forging of senate rules, the quite silly attempt to engineer immunity for themselves and […]

Legislators who insist on prefixing their names with the word “honourable” are perennially in the news for the wrong reasons. Dishonourable behaviour by Members of the National Assembly (NASS) who use their position for personal aggrandisement is no longer news. The forging of senate rules, the quite silly attempt to engineer immunity for themselves and pensions for their leaders, and the USA sex scandal currently rocking the House of Representatives are just a few examples of shameful behaviour associated with NASS members. The height of such behavior came when the Senate chamber was twice shut down to allow senators follow Senate President Bukola Saraki to answer charges of corruption at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). It’s an indication of the abysmal calibre of legislators currently parading themselves as “honourable”. Honourable isn’t a title, it’s an English word with a clear meaning relating to decency, respectability, righteousness, and principled proper praiseworthy behaviour. While the rest of the nation is pre-occupied with dousing tensions caused by separatist movements, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram and economic downturn, our NASS members of diverse religious, ethnic and political identities prefer to concentrate on sharing our national wealth and satisfying their hedonistic desires rather than set a good example. The USA sex-scandal vividly illustrates the poor standards of behaviour of our “honorables”.    
On June 9th 2016 the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, wrote to the Speaker of the House of Reps concerning the visit of members of the NASS to Cleveland, Ohio, where they ostensibly participated in the International Visitor Leadership Programme on good governance. During their stay, the US Department of State and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs received reports from hotel employees alleging that one “honourable” fondled a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex, while two others requested the hotel parking attendants to assist them solicit prostitutes.” Although they haven’t been found guilty of any offence by a court of law and the named “honorables” are entitled to fair hearing, it’s unlikely that the US Government would lay such weighty allegations without conducting thorough investigations. The fact that an “ordinary” housekeeper and hotel parking attendants resisted sexual overtures from our egocentric “honourable” members and reported their misconduct to the authorities, is evidence of the disparity between American and Nigerian society. Although heavily paid from the public purse the dignity of the common man is treated with utter disdain by our lawmakers.               Our virtually unproductive and yet expensively maintained NASS has acquired a reputation for nefarious activities such as using constituency funds for personal benefit; demanding kickbacks from Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) before discharging their constitutional functions; and collecting outrageous unearned allowances while at the same time consistently failing to meet stipulated number of sittings.
Time and again the NASS has failed to resolve issues of mis-governance and corruption while using their oversight power to collect gratification to facilitate cover-ups and dampen the political will to bring perpetrators of dishonorable acts to justice. In recent memory there was the Maina Pension Scam in which the Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team looted N195 Billion. Although the NASS set up an investigative committee the report wasn’t implemented. There was the failure to investigate the $15 million private jet arms scandal in which cash was sent to South Africa for a purported arms deal. There was the Kerosene subsidy scam in which several billion naira were stolen and the neither issued an indictment nor took concrete steps to resolve the issue. The NASS also failed to investigate Senators who were accused of benefiting from the N32.8 billion Police Pension Funds loot. In Ekiti-gate  a tape of former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro; the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan; former Deputy governor of Osun state, Iyiola Omisore, and the eventual winner of the election Ayo Fayose discussing how to manipulate the Ekiti governorship polls was leaked. The NASS failed to investigate the matter and instead approved Obanikoro’s ministerial appointment! Again an “honourable” member House of Reps Farouk Lawan, was taped collecting $620,000 out of a $3million bribe from Femi Otedola when his committee was investigating the fuel subsidy scam. Nothing has happened since.         Speaker of the House of Reps Yakubu Dongara promised to set up a panel to probe the sex-scandal. Listed for probe are Mahammed Garba Gololo a “devout” Muslim from the north east, (Gamawa, Bauchi), Mark Terseer Gbillah a Christian from the Middle Belt/North Central (Gwer East, Benue) and Samuel Ikon an elder in the Apostolic Church of Nigeria from the south-south (Nsit Ibom, Akwa Ibom). There is no need wasting time and money investigating them, as habitually nothing happens after “honorables” are indicted by the either chamber of the NASS. Quite scandalously and dishonorably the billions spent yearly on public hearings, investigations, capacity development tours and oversight functions continue be a waste of money and an unjustifiable drain on national resources.