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Taming deadly anger among House members
By Uchenna Awom
National Assembly
Correspondent, Abuja
Speaker of the
House of Representatives Aminu Bello Masari was at his worst state last
Thursday morning in his office when some female members of the House stormed
his office to register their protest over the embarrassing conduct of one of
them, Iquo Inyang, who threw caution to the wind and threw some slaps,
accompanied by blows and kicks, leaving a deep caught on the face of her
Committee Chairman, Emmanuel Bwacha.
Unknown to the
women led by Sadautu Sani, who came to urge the House leadership to punish
Inyang severely for her ugly conduct, the Speaker with his colleagues
comprising other members of the House leadership has resolved to impose the
extreme form of punishment in line with House rules against the lady from Akwa
Ibom State, even if it means lording it over other members. Masari furiously
told the women that he was ready to go the whole hog to discipline Inyang who
is also the Deputy Chairman, Committee on Police Affairs, because she committed
‘sacrilege’ and besides it will serve as a deterrent to orders who
may cash in on the trend to resort to violence as the only means of settling
scores.
But the good
thing out of the rage was that Masari and his members have come home to roost;
they have suddenly realised that a new code of ethics for the lawmakers may be
the only panacea to whip recalcitrant lawmakers into the line. So the reality
has dawned on him to accept the new code of conduct prepared by some
international agencies to guide the conduct and sundry behaviours of members in
and out of the chambers. Before now, they have pretended as if the code was
meant to malign them and bring their ‘good’ image to public odium.
Ironically, their fears have now been helped by the same ‘good’
character they have been striving to help.
So the Speaker,
without the prompting of his colleagues, or waiting to be armed by the
resolution of the House plenary, directed the Chairman of the Rules and
Business, Ita Enang, to present to the House within one week the new code of
conduct, to check the rising wave of lawlessness among some members of the
legislature cutting across both chambers.
Inyang, who was
formally known as Iquo Minima until she changed the name early in the life of
this House, may have surreptitiously decided to take a queue from what had happened
penultimate week when the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on States and
Local Government, Isa Mohammed, assaulted his Chairman, Senator Iyabode
Anisulowo, for allegedly spending the committee money all alone.
Inyang may have
miscalculated, as she chose a very inauspicious place in the presence of some
members of the House leadership to ‘scatter’ the face of her
chairman for simply not allowing her to perform the committee’s oversight
function in the South South oil producing states.
The import of all
these is not lost on the people, and the people are also not surprised that
what may have been the propelling force of the lawmakers’ morbid loyalty
to things that are practically anti-people is to maintain and service the
conduit to keep amassing wealth to the detriment of the people whose mandate
they are keeping. What may however be the surprise was that what is supposed to
be an in-house fight now is coming to the open, meaning that the once hope of
the Nigerian people has so degenerated to a state of stupor, looking like a
jungle reminiscent of the Hobbessian state, characterised by the principle of
the survival of the fittest.
Slap and get your
cut of the pie, without shortfall. But the fear is that it may come to a state
where the people may decide to withdraw the mandate forcefully, not resorting
to the cumbersome and very conspiratorial process of recall put in place by the
heartless elite, to make the entire democratic process look real.
Perhaps that was
the motivating force behind the assault on a senator from Kogi State, who was
slapped by his constituent who came visiting, to demand to know what he is
doing in Abuja without caring a hoot whether the constituents exist or not,
and to know whether they stuck out their necks on his behalf to merry and party
in Abuja, while the people live in uncertainty.
But the young man
was beaten to a pulp by security agents and the lawmakers aides. But on the
second thought, the Senator sensed that the action was rather aggravating his
precarious position at home, and in the company of the security men, he
apologised to the blood-drenched man, who there an then ‘passed a
personal resolution’ to rather die in the complex in the full glare of
the Senator who he claimed to have risked his life to rig into power in Kogi
State in 2003 than leave the complex alive.
Funny enough,
rather than reflect on the import of that action, the lawmaker relapsed into a
self-delusion, to wield a transient power that is the lot of elected leaders
and ask the National Assembly security to tighten security around the complex
and prevent any person that cannot properly identify himself from entering the
complex.
That was the
stunning reality last week within the National Assembly complex as the air of
insecurity pervaded members, such that to enter the complex for constituents on
visits and some others who ordinarily have no business being in the place, is
like applying for a visa to heaven. So code of conduct or no code of conduct,
beefing up of security, preventing visitors from trooping to the complex to see
those they elected, will still not address the problem on the ground.
With this show of
shame the lawmakers felt that to bar visitors to the complex will restore their
acceptability and integrity in the estimation of the Nigerian people, but all
that sounds like an illusion. What has happened points to a hard fact,
suggesting that time for justice has come: steal in the night, pay in the
morning as the genuine owners of the mandate have begun to ask questions,
having been suddenly awakened from their slumber.
You can block the
Assembly gate permanently, but you cannot dodge the people, unless if they
lawmakers have decided to permanently imprison themselves behind the
‘Assembly fortress’ and never to go home to continue the profession
of politics. So what will the new code of conduct do to the mind that is
already made up?
Shutting the door
against the public negates the very essence of representative democracy for
which the National Assembly is the main pivot. With the constituency by
constituency representation covering the entire 774 local government areas, the
primary function of the National Assembly is to bring governance closer to the
people through a regular lawmaker-constituent interaction. This can be done at
the constituency level where the constitution has provided for its funding or
at the National Assembly.
But the reality
suggests that these lawmakers have subtly jettisoned this on the alter of money
and selfish interest, so it is not surprising when members resort to fisticuff
to settle scores that have nothing to do with service delivery, but purely on
money and how juicy a committee assignment is.
Masari may have
hit the head of the bull, but will he tame it? That is the question that only
time will answer for him. One thing should be clear to him and that is to
realize that there are so many Iquo Minimas locking around, holding important
positions in the House in which he is the head. Again, the danger is that the
House may form a character based on such ugly influences.
The Speaker
should know that he was not the cause of the problem, it is perhaps the system
that threw up the new trend, and so he may not help it. As he is now being
forced to rather keep defending it, however, it goes to show that the people
cannot easily be assuaged by rhetorics, because they now know better.
Ostensibly, it is a blessing in disguise as the people have been afforded the
opportunity to learn fast on the implication of the wound inflicted on them by
the hollow ritualistic electoral process that brought characters that are
better consigned behind bars to represent the people.
One day, and it
may not be too far, the electoral system will reform itself and not the phantom
code of the parliament that will only regulate an unruly mind.
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