“The National Assembly cabal of today is worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national government or system. The National Assembly is a den of corruption by a gang of unarmed robbers.” – Olusegun Obasanjo
When renowned political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, advised [unsolicited] Senate President Godswill Akpabio to shut up and talk less to do his work well, the uncommonly loquacious MP took no heed. Instead, Akpabio jumped from one blunder to another, no thanks to his uninspiring jokes. The problem with those who think they speak well and enjoy their voices is that they roll over the bar, without realising when they overstep the bounds of decency.
If it was meant to be a joke, Akpabio taking on Governor Similaya Fubara of Rivers State, whose oration at the Herbert Wigwe funeral had queried the essence of life’s struggles, fell flat on its face, leaving attendees unamused. But that is the character presiding over the nation’s Upper House for you! The tragedy of the 10th Senate is that the one who ought to maintain order in parliament is the chief architect of the house’s misfortunes.
To get Senator Akpabio to learn circumspection may require appeasing all the deities of Annang land. All the controversies already recorded in the eight-month-old parliament were generated by the Senate president. The latest brouhaha is spearheaded by Senator Abdul Ningi from Bauchi State. It has the Senate president as a key figure in the dramatis personae.
Why is the 10th Senate almost always so heated up that it totters from one crisis to another? Could it be in the MPs’ stars or their president’s? How responsive are the senators to the prevailing situation in the country? What concerns has the Senate shown as a critical arm of government to the hard times facing many Nigerians? What have been the legislative contributions to reduce the collective hurt of the populace? Has the carriage of these distinguished(?) senators been reflective of the current hardship? Have they shown any empathy in their actions and inactions?
However, you assess the Senate’s situation, especially the recent imbroglio generated by Senator Ningi. His action is patriotic even though engineered by ethnic interest. We must look beyond his perceived ethnic and geopolitical considerations to the patriotism of his rabb’erousing exposé. Still, it’s already yielding positive results nationally. Whether suspended or expelled, Ningi has uncovered Pandora’s box and a lot of hidden things have been rolling out. Not even the attempt by the Senate leader Opeyemi Bamidele to arouse ethnic and geopolitical sentiments is removing the already noticed corruption underneath Ningi’s alarm.
The 10th Senate will never be the same again. Senator Ningi’s allegation has unveiled what ordinarily would have remained hidden from the public forever. Perhaps, even the squealing Ningi did not know the extent of his outburst would go. He was alleging nepotism against the North whereas the shortchanging was to the whole country by a group of 109 persons cornering a chunk of the nation’s resources in the name of constituency projects.
We have had to write repeatedly that whenever you see Nigerians suppress their ethnic, religious, and geopolitical sentiments, know that they are individually benefiting. Under the watch of Senator Akpabio, the 2024 fiscal estimates were hurriedly passed just as has been every issue from the executive. Why? Any delay of executive things is tantamount to a delay in the flow of the accompanying largesse.
When you see the 10th Senate try to argue or question anything know that it must be in line with the wish of the executive like the rejection of Nasir El Rufai for a ministerial position which was an executive ploy to dump the man considered to be Nigeria’s most dangerous accidental politician.
If Ningi did not cry out loud, how would you have known that 109 Senators each have a minimum of ₦200 million for constituency projects? Each senator will be both a contractor and executor!
What is happening to the 10th Senate is similar to what happens to a gang of armed robbers who, after their operations, are unable to agree on one sharing formula of the spoil. They even get caught in the process.
Senator Jerigbe Jerigbe of Cross River State didn’t understand the sharing formula that gave ranking Senators ₦500 million. But he got less and he is a ranking Senator. Jerigbe said whistle-blowing Senator Ningi should not be isolated for punishment because every senator’s finger is in the corruption pie. Rather than heed Senator Jerigbe, the Senate went ahead to punish Ningi and indirectly expanded the scope of the allegations.
Nigerians now know that just presiding over the Senate for eight months, Senator Akpabio will have over ₦21 billion constituency projects to himself just for one year, including but not limited to ₦2.5 billion for buying deep freezers for the Senate President’s constituents. Thanks to Senator Jerigbe, we now know that in the Senate, 10 untouchable Senators are not equal to their colleagues.
Borno State Senator Ali Ndume, who is also the Chief Whip, informs us unashamedly in a television interview: “Like in Animal Farm, all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others.” He said that he and some Senate eggheads including those in opposition got more than ₦200 million because they too are senior senators. Ndume refused to disclose the amount allocated to him, but as the Chief Whip of the 10th Senate, he may even be in the billion ₦aira bracket. Senator Ndume’s attempts in the media interview to compare with US Congress, which always had constituency projects allocated to Congressmen made him clever by half. He refused to say that no American Congressman can collect a dollar project and fail to execute it, what no Nigerian politician will do
Senator Ndume’s senatorial zone in Borno State has been a theatre of Boko Haram carnage since 2009 and a sizable number of his constituents are in the IDP camps. He has been representing his people in the National Assembly since 1999. Imagine the ₦200 million projects channelled to the people’s welfare, some critical areas like education and healthcare will be impactful.
And since paddling has been a culture in the National Assembly, the likes of Senator Ndume who has been there since 1999 must have been a huge beneficiary of the yearly proceeds of corruption.
The Ningi exposé also answered the question by some National Assembly watchers: why are the opposition, especially members of the populist party like Labour not talking but instead playing along?
But the former Nigeria President, 87-year-old Olusegun Obasanjo provided the answers to all the questions in his recent tirade on the National Assembly on padding.
“Budget paddling must not go unpunished. It’s a regular and systematic practice, nobody should pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians. And they should not intimidate and threaten the life of a whistle-blower. It’s deplorable and undemocratic. Also, the so-called constituency projects are a veritable source of corruption.
“These constituency projects are spread over the budget for members of the National Assembly for which they are the initiator and the contractor directly or by proxy and the money will be fully drawn with the project only partially executed or not executed at all.
“The National Assembly cabal of today is worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national government or system. National Assembly members pay themselves allowances for staff and offices they do not have or maintain. Once you are a member you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and corruption that you cannot opt out of as you go home with nothing less than ₦15 million a month for a Senator and N10m a month for a member of the House of Representatives. The National Assembly is a den of corruption by a gang of unarmed robbers.”
President Obasanjo has said it all about what is going on in the nation’s legislative arm, a body established by the founding fathers of democracy to act as a check on the executive arm. But here they are conniving with the same executive in a rub-my-back-I-rub-yours deal. They divide the nation’s resources among themselves and feel no qualms about the prevailing hardship in the land.
If Education, Healthcare, and Youth Empowerment are funded where ₦126 billion is allocated to the Housing Authority where the President inlaw is in charge, billions of ₦aira are earmarked for luxurious items like SUV cars and the building of carriages for cars etc, which legislators do you expect to raise question on behalf of the people when they are all in it, ranking themselves and wrecking the nation.
The 29th President of America Warren.G. Harding might have had a situation in Nigeria in mind when he said, “There is something inherently wrong, something out of accord with the ideals of representative democracy when one portion of our citizenship turns its activities to private gain amid defensive war while another is fighting, sacrificing, or dying for national preservation.”
A country is very well endangered whose executive breeds corruption, its judiciary sleeps on it, and its legislators manure it. From the stories emanating from the 10th Senate, no one should be left in doubt that the three arms of government, the executive, the judiciary and the legislators are in cahoots, hands in glove to undermine the democratic process for their selfish gains. This wicked and irreligious marriage involving the triumvirate is being nurtured by corruption and if not nipped in the bud may likely be escorting this democracy to its final resting grave. God help us.