The legislature’s arrogance

Last week I was chatting with a father and a mother on their child’s university degree plans. The couple’s high schooler has been visiting university campuses to have a feel of what it’s like to be an undergrad. The parents would be delighted to have the child attend college out of country. Our universities produce […]

Last week I was chatting with a father and a mother on their child’s university degree plans. The couple’s high schooler has been visiting university campuses to have a feel of what it’s like to be an undergrad. The parents would be delighted to have the child attend college out of country. Our universities produce half-baked graduates as the schooling system is corrupt. Their reasons were both germane and altruistic.
If we had the money we would send her to an American University in Dubai, Malaysia or even Ghana but our finances are down and our salaries are usually withheld on very flimsy excuses. If you are an engineering student entering an American university this fall you can plan to spend $35,340 per year for tuition, boarding and other expenses.  That’s $141,360 (approx. N40m at current exchange rate) for the degree – if you are able to graduate in four years.
I was surprised. I had always believed that even if their head was under water they would breathe. That when they blinked, the naira popped. But that turned out contrary to the truth. In fact, the mum confessed to me that she considered her husband to be suicidal because their economy had been in the red for a while.
These are normal Nigerian parents. They want the best for their kids but the best is out of reach. And there are many people like them. But even so, data we collected recently showed that there are more Nigerians attending university abroad than there are other nationals of wealthy nations. What this means is that Nigerian families are bankrolling the future of other nations, while leaving Nigeria in a quandary.
We are living in a country where the income of an average legislator, apart from being the highest in the world, is also enough to educate a village. Our senators cart home N8.72bn while their green-chamber counterparts take home N6.58bn. This is why families would spend a fortune just to send one of their own to the National Assembly.
It is for this reason that my brilliant brother who is also a high-schooler surprised me last week. He had come from Numan to sit his Post-UME for entrance to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Concerned, I tried to coach him. But when I asked him what course he desired he said to me Political Science and stoutly defended himself that he was aspiring to become a politician. It is the lure of lucre, even on a town-boy.
It makes our national cookie to crumble. The senator or representative, contrary to his constitutionally defined role of legislation for the good of the country, has become lethargic to the plight of his people. He has succeeded in diminishing other professions. With his stash of cash, he is obtaining the good things of life from other countries while leaving his own country and its peoples impoverished and hounded by hunger, disease and misery. I had the rare privilege of interviewing several legislators across this country and most of them have no immediate plans for their communities. What stood out the most was their chorus of lack of funding. I thought to myself that funding is something that is usually associated with development, and when you seek funding, it comes with a business plan. From most conversations I had with legislators, their business plan is to run water from the areas that have water, which is the government, to areas suffering a drought (read – their pockets). This plan, whenever the cost was mentioned, was in billions of dollars. Immediately, all I could think about was, (since they couldn’t articulate a business plan) what on earth would happen to the billions? I could visualize many Mercedes Benzes and Audis bouncing around on the roads that still are not potholes free. The picture of the high schools that were financed by the colonial masters at or before Independence immediately came to mind. Alas, not many people remember that, and even fewer knew that good schools ever happened.
At the same time, I recognized, as plainly as I heard most of their representations that they also missed the mark for what MPs are to do in Parliament. I am saddened, but hardly surprised that no matter how many times one asked them about the rest of the country, they kept circling back to their constituencies like crows who have spotted a carcass. (No offence intended, but the analogy gives a visual.) Nobody told them that, as MPs, their primary function is to facilitate legislation. And legislation is not limited to constituencies, they impact entire countries.
Perhaps this is about the fact that many politicians are not really politicians but business people using our taxes to enrich themselves and creating dynasties of power and glory for their families. The result of this lack of depth is the dearth of educational facilities, poor and substandard infrastructure, under-performing banks and derelict health care delivery. I have often wondered for example why government officials, like the minister of education would have all his children attending educational institutions abroad. What then is the incentive for making the educational institutions in this country worth elevating if ones children do not attend them? Our medical doctors always refer people to medical institutions abroad where they are consultants while the primary health care facilities in Nigeria where they are Chief Medical Directors are in very bad shape. These are all problems of legislation. Or its arrogance!
If the average legislator who rakes in billions does not legislate in the best interest of the country, things will continue amiss. The records of the 8th Assembly this year is already pathetic. They sat for only fifteen days, went on a twelve week recess but earned N36.4million each while the reps earned N25million each. Not a single bill was passed by people who cost the nation a whooping N13bn. To allow the legislators to continue on this path is dangerous because their arrogance will make other professionals to lose focus and seek political office just to amass wealth while leaving the country to wallow in neglect.