BY O'Femi Kolawole
Aside a gloomy 56th independence anniversary across the country marked on Saturday, nothing better explains the fact that we are really in perilous times as a country than the evidence which the House of Representatives under Yakubu Dogara again provides with last week’s suspension of Abdulmumin Jibrin over the budget-padding allegations he raised against the house leadership.
Instead of using the matter to try and come clean on the allegations raised by the Kano lawmaker towards cleansing the very terrible public image and perception of the house, Dogara and company chose to suspend Jibrin for 180 legislative days.
We should make no mistakes about this. Our lawmakers don’t respect themselves or regard us as Nigerians. They have no integrity. And honour means absolutely nothing to them. In fact, I believe they generally have nothing of substantial value to add to our country. They are basically out for their bank accounts. And they should be ashamed of themselves.
With the type of sly and evidently-corrupt lawmakers led by Dogara at the House of Representatives and Bukola Saraki at the senate, we must be clear that our country is still swimming in vast oceans of corruption despite the much-vaunted anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration.
Further worrisome is that despite his avowed fight against corruption which is clearly far from achieving its desired impact, President Buhari has continuously shied away from addressing the endemic graft among our lawmakers, seeing no evil and hearing no evil. The import of that, to me, is that this Presidency is very much at home with corruption. And that’s irrespective of postures or claims to the contrary!
For our country to get better value from those in power, there must be openness and transparency in government. Dogara and his gang want none of those because they know they have dirty secrets that mustn’t see the light of day but perpetually kept in the dark. That our country is grossly underdeveloped today is a direct consequence of the gluttons and kleptomaniacs we have been unfortunate to have in power for just too long.
Dogara and his self-serving colleagues describe themselves as honourable lawmakers. But there’s no honour in their conducts. They are lawbreakers who give no damn about due process or the Rule of Law. They serve no one but themselves. And their claim to being patriotic is nothing but a ruse. For them, honour, service, and patriotism don’t just matter. This is a shame. A big shame.
Quite painfully, our current lawmakers, every passing day, remove all doubts as to the fact that they are simply out to represent themselves and their own selfish interests and not those of Nigerians whom they are supposed to represent and whose interests they are expected to pursue.
I believe the case of our ‘representathieves’ can be likened to the Yoruba adage, “omo to ni iya oun o ni sun, oun naa ko ni foju kan orun,” that is, “a child who says his mother won’t sleep will also not have any sleep himself.” Even the scriptures tell us that there is no peace for the wicked.
The wickedness of our politicians, a good number of them at the national assembly, undoubtedly goes beyond description. If they continue to do things that will give Nigerians sorrow and no peace of mind, they must also realise that peace of mind will be far from them and we won’t give them any respite. But it’s also a matter of time; they will be out of that honourable office which they continue to tar with dishonour.
Meanwhile, just yesterday, Jibrin, at a press conference in Abuja, announced his desire to disclose more dirty secrets in the days ahead, especially on how investigative hearings of the house are used to perpetrate corruption. Nigerians are all ears. And on this matter, I stand with him.
Padding budgets to siphon government funds and loot public treasury like some of these lawmakers have done must not be allowed to continue. The large-scale corruption involved in constituency projects must also be curbed without delay.
That is why as things stand in our country today, I believe Dogara is so unfit to continue as Speaker. I suggest he reads the national pledge again. If he has any honour left, then, he’ll understand that he needs to step down from that office immediately. And he needs to do it, not tomorrow, not next week, but today!
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