Their action is shameful
and a disservice to their constituencies, many of which are labouring under
heavy economic yoke to keep hope of advancement alive. Rather than seek absurd
consolation from the fact that such bickering are not uncommon among
legislative houses in other climes, it is imperative for the lawmakers to
rethink their action, and make genuine public service the backbone of their
political terms.
If anything, the current
legislators, by their action, are rudely reminding citizens of greed and other
manifestations of misrule of their past lawmakers. And this, at a time many
Nigerians are trying to forget the unpleasant experience.
The upshot is that members
of the lower chamber have been fighting one another on the floor of the
hallowed chamber. Their recent fight was triggered over the sharing and
apportionment of committees to groups that have been linked to different
factions. In effect, the distribution of committees has led to
fractionalisation of the house.
Thus, the lawmakers who
belong to the House Leader, Femi
Gbajabiamila’s camp accused their colleagues who are in the camp of the
Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of
short-changing them by allegedly appropriating what they considered as
lucrative committees. Since the re-introduction of civilian government in 1999,
the country’s democratic space has been marred by the avoidable exuberance of
its lawmakers.
Instead of making laws that
birth grand policies with a vision to improve the lot of the people, successive
lawmakers have turned the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly into a
sullied arena for selfish battles for supremacy. Such battles have been
characterised by verbal altercations, the snatching of mace, throwing of chairs
at one another and outright fisticuffs. Amid such fights, it is the people who
lose since governance suffers.
With the emergence of the
All Progressives Congress (APC) as
the ruling party, it was expected that the eighth assembly would mark a break
with the detestable fixation of using crude means to achieve objectives in
legislative houses. But in less than six months, the members of the House of
Representatives are proving to Nigerians that this expectation is highly
misplaced.
These fights are
distractions and they must stop. They do not add any value to the business of
lawmaking for which the legislators were elected into the National Assembly.
Rather, they betray their greed for the pecuniary gain that their offices
confer. Granted that being on committees would enable the lawmakers to exercise
oversight functions over some agencies, membership of committees was not a
primary consideration in their election, but the members’ disposition to use
the hallowed chambers to uplift the citizens. If these committees were really
avenues for service, would they fight to be on them? And if it is service the
lawmakers want to render, why must some committees be labelled as juicy, and
others as not juicy committees. For whom are the committees juicy, for the
lawmakers or for the citizens?
In other countries,
lawmakers use their presence on committees to influence policies for good; not
to make money for themselves. Even if the lawmakers disagree over committees,
this should not degenerate into physical brawl. It is disheartening that
lawmakers who ought to model good conduct before the rest of the citizens are
the ones who forget the necessity of adherence to the dictates of decorum in
their selfish fight for committees. Their action is reprehensible and a
negative example for young Nigerians. Their conduct presents the citizens as a
people who belong to a primordial era and who cannot resolve thorny issues
through constructive debate.
If the APC to which many of
the lawmakers belong represent change, the party must not fail Nigerians in
discharging the responsibility of entrenching real departure from the actions
that portrayed past lawmakers as irresponsible and greedy. The legislators
should concern themselves with making laws that would improve the lot of the
people, particularly in areas of infrastructure, electricity supply, education
and employment opportunities, among others.
Political leaders in the
National Assembly and outside it must take cognisance of the fact that a
divided party cannot bring positive change to the people. The party can only
implement its promised change if its members in the National Assembly are
united. Otherwise, the party stands the risk of implosion, and when this
happens, the losers are the people being purportedly represented. (guardian)
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