Political theorists have long found out that the legislative arm of the three Nigerian estates of the realm is the least developed. This uncommon situation is the result of long military interregnum during which the brass-hat executive arm abrogated all legislative functions to itself. The events unfolding in rapid succession on the national turf since the inauguration of the Eighth National Assembly and the interplay of roles with the Muhammadu Buhari administration, have especially pronounced Nigeria’s stunted legislative growth.
It beggars belief that the highest legislative office as represented by the Senate Presidency is being devastated by the agents of the Executive, while the combined legislative arm lies supine like an emasculated snake waiting for beheading.
In fact, the police and indeed all the security agencies are the scourge with which the executive arm intimidates perceived opposition members, either in the PDP or APC. The Nigeria Police dubbed Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue as a sinking man, and declared former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso, who is also a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a persona non grata in his home state on the orders of the sitting Governor Abdullahi Ganduje
If any had conjectured that Dr. Bukola Saraki would last this long as the President of the Nigerian Senate, such a person, irrespective of his or her high station in the society, would have been branded myopic. Saraki is still plodding on as the Number Three Citizen of Nigeria despite being herded from one court to another and being perceived as corruption personified and a common felon. The unfolding Saraki episode is tantamount to giving a dog a bad name.
Each time I saw Saraki somehow fixated in the box at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, I tend to perceive the entire National Assembly as being paraded in crass nudity before the constitution that bequeathed the Second Estate with the widest power ever. Such national absurdity was always beamed to the world to paint a wrong picture of the Buhari administration, as possibly corrupt in its entirety.
A time it was when the two topmost officers of the upper legislative chamber in the persons of the same Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were being touted for trial over forgery of the House Order that led to their emergence as President and Vice President of the Red Chamber. I am not in the know as to why such charade was not pulled through. Saraki and his deputy’s real crime is not corruption but their emergence as Senate heads to the chagrin of the powerful ones in the All Progressives Congress. After all, Buhari himself cannot pass corruption tests, some are wont to say.
It’s all characteristic of the folklore of a vicious animal that was preying on an extremely frightened community whose members would take individual shelter in the comfort of their respective homes, thus enabling the preying animal a very wide latitude to roam until a victim is caught and taken away for food. To that extent, the National Assembly has yet to see the executive assaults on its headship and other members as directed at the whole legislature. There lies the bane of the National Assembly.
Close to three years, the burden on Saraki still stacks ominously high and those perceived as his loyalists, the Dino Melayes, are being chased across the country like scoundrels, instead of according due honour to these individuals whom their respective constituencies considered honourable enough to represent them at the highest legislative chamber in Nigeria. If this is not pernicious enough, I can hardly think of anything worse in the realm of perfidy.
Melaye, the Kogi East Senatorial Division representative, is about the most vociferous senator in the country today. But he does not see eye-to-eye with his state governor – Yahaya Bello – over the way the latter ascended the gubernatorial seat. This, in itself, is not a crime but his opponents are criminalising every step of this lawmaker. More trouble came the way of Melaye because he sided with the leadership of the Senate. Therefore, Dino, like his boss, must be silenced.
First, was the trump-up recall saga. The fox was not caught. The most truculent and highly abrasive executive’s agency – the police – has been sent to haunt down the fox.
Why on earth could a detachment of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, be deployed to a court premises to hunt down Melaye as if the senator was Lawrence Anini or Isola Oyenusi incarnate?
Another senator from up North is being chased around, arraigned and palloried as would a common felon for his audacity to criticise the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris.
Is it not a national disgrace and shame of unmitigated proportion for the national policing agency to display great air of arrogance of power as being done under Idris? Has the civil police won the war against the rampaging herdsmen that have overridden the Boko Haram insurgency in the area of brutality and carnage, what with the age-old massacres in Southern Kaduna? Can’t the dreaded SARS go after the captors, rather, abductors of the 110 Dapchi School girls in Yobe State? The Benue, Adamawa and Zamfara states’ bloodletting is still very fresh to command the attention of the presidential hounds called the police.
In fact, the police, and indeed, all the security agencies are the scourge with which the executive arm intimidates perceived opposition members, either in the PDP or APC.
The Nigeria Police dubbed Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue as a sinking man, and declared former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso, who is also a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a persona non grata in his home state on the orders of the sitting Governor Abdullahi Ganduje. Governor Nasir El-Rufai has bulldozed his opponent’s property in Kaduna – using his affinity with the President and his executive impuni-immunity with diabolical gusto. El-Rufai’s opponent is not only a Senator but a chieftain of the ruling
APC.
It is also nauseating to behold the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that could dare not investigate serving ministers whose hands are seen to be dripping with fresh corruption.
The Executive’s recklessness stinks to high heavens, seeking legislative curbs. The cowed Second Estate appears to have found solace in docility and is at odds to call the Executive’s bluff.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s prerogative of performing oversight functions has been grossly whittled, abused to its very face without qualms from the legislature. Ibrahim Magu remains the EFCC Chairman despite failing Senate confirmation screening on two occasions. The Customs Department is being bullied by a retired Army Colonel who greatly despises the department’s official wear. He is at liberty to arrogantly ignore National Assembly’s summons without flinching.
What have we not heard of this weak and bullied National Assembly?
*Owolabi, a veteran journalist, writes from Otta, Ogun State
