The Senate has just resumed sitting after one of its holidays. That is not the news that should be of interest to Nigerians, especially since the legislative body’s relevance to most people is becoming doubtful.
What is noteworthy is the duplicity of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who, in his welcome address on the floor of the chamber, lamented rising hunger and insecurity in the country after earlier scoffing at protesters against bad governance. We recall that he had told the protesters then that while they would be marching in the streets, he and his fellow predators of national resources would be drinking tea in their homes.
Now the leader of the National Assembly is suddenly born again and is raising what is, in our view, a dubious alarm to the effect that there was an incremental rise in hunger, poverty and insecurity in the country.
In his opinion, the realities on ground regarding banditry, terrorism, soaring food prices and natural disasters demand urgent action by the federal and state governments.
As part of this lamentation, he claimed that 33 million Nigerians face acute food and security challenges that call for urgent legislative attention. Not to mention the mass of unemployed youths aimlessly roaming the streets.
For effect, Akpabio added, “let us hear the cry from the farms and the markets across the nation. Hunger cannot be defeated with words. Hunger requires policy direction and diligent execution to defeat it.”
Are we to assume that the Senate, which Akpabio leads, is about to wake up from its self-induced slumber? Or perhaps, his remarks are a deserving apology from him for legislative inaction on matters of national significance?
Otherwise, we would be compelled to ask Akpabio and others like him where they have been since their inauguration, because the pervasive opinion among discerning Nigerians is that the 10th National Assembly, which he leads, is on record as the worst since the institution of the Fourth Republic. Actually, it is considered a department of the Executive arm, lacking in any grasp of the dictates of checks and balances on which democratic governance relies and thrives.
Akpabio presides over a senate where it is speculated that an average senator goes home monthly with a salary and allowances of not less than N21 million in a country where there is still an ongoing debate over the acceptability of N70,000 as the minimum wage for a worker whose wife goes to the same market as the senator’s wife.
This excludes the corruption-laden constituency projects, sleaze from oversight rip-offs, and other under-the-table deals that must be satisfied for legislation to proceed smoothly.
It is from this perspective that Nigerians would regard Akpabio’s remarks as self-serving and utterly offensive to their sensibilities. Nigerians do not expect their leaders from any of the arms of government — executive, legislative, or judicial — to remind them of their plight, the drudgery they experience daily in their efforts to survive in an environment of uncaring leadership and the absence of governance.
We are, however, enamoured by this rebirth and self-realisation of Akpabio regarding the shortfalls of the ruling class and his decision to embark on a spiritual expiatory ritual resulting from pangs of conscience.
But we do not believe that this is genuine. Akapbio is a politician, and their chameleonic propensities are legendary. The nation is about to enter a new election cycle. Politicians are adopting their pleasant modes to lure the unsuspecting electorate, who may be swayed by the remarks of the type Akpabio is unleashing on them, to be led astray to waste their franchise.
During their holidays, they may have been confronted by the stark reality of legislative ineffectiveness, leadership failures in their various constituencies, and the near volcanic anger of a population that feels betrayed by those they mistakenly placed their hope in.
That may explain the new Akpabio that is on display. We do not believe that this National Assembly is capable of providing any policy direction, let alone execution that can bring about the kind of positive effect he is envisaging within the short time left between now and the 2027 election, the campaigns of which, by the way, are already in full gear.
We are calling on Nigerians to see the remarks by the Senate President as essentially a political gimmick to hoodwink, again, an electorate that is so gullible and credulous.
We do not want any politician, of whatever status, to remind suffering Nigerians of rising hunger, banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and unemployment because they know and feel it.
What we expect of Nigerians, as a newspaper, is for them to put on their thinking caps and promise themselves that they will never again sell their votes or mortgage their consciences for filthy lucre.
That is the only way democracy can be relevant to them – by putting food on their tables, providing jobs for the school leavers, enabling them to sleep with two eyes closed and putting in place quality infrastructure that makes life worth living. Enough of politicians with sugar-coated tongues.
