6th June, 2011
If there is anything the 6th Assembly (House of Representatives) will be remembered for, it was the proclivity of the members to take decisions that were beneficial to them even though such decisions were at the expense of the people who elected them.
The lawmakers didn’t care a bit if the decisions were controversial as well. Because they had powers to make laws, they abused such powers several times. Their last abuse of office was the decision they took at their plenary on 1 June to sell their official cars and office equipment such as scanners and computers to themselves. The items were sold at very ridiculous prices. For instance, a Peugeot 607 car which costs N6 million was bought by the lawmakers at a rock-bottom price of N200,000 or N300,000. This amount cannot even buy a fairly used imported (tokunbo) car.
This unpopular decision has attracted condemnation from Nigerians who believe the legislators were utterly wrong. The people want them to rescind that decision. Many believe they are sending a wrong signal to the people that they can do things with impunity and nothing would happen to them.
These same lawmakers paid themselves jumbo salaries and when federal allocation could not sustain it, the leadership of the House went and borrowed N10 billion from a bank to offset the huge wage bill. Now the loan has become a scandal as no one is able to account for it.
The former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole is now in the custody the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, where he is expected to explain all he knows about it following a petition the anti-graft agency received about the scam. The House of Representatives has kept portraying itself as a bastion of scandals and corruption.
These issues always generated heated debate leading to uproar on the floor of the House, with members exchanging blows and expletives in full view of TV cameras. For the first time also, the former House of Representatives Speaker had a running battle with the Senate President, David Mark over who should presided over the joint sitting of the National Assembly.
Members of the 6th Assembly were also described as indolent and loafers who did not achieve much throughout the four years they spent in the House. During this period, more than 100 members did not sponsor any bill or motion. Besides, out of the 481 bills received, only 187 were passed or withdrawn. And of the 360 members in the House, only 128 members sponsored 355 bills. This clearly testifies to the legislators’ poor performance between 2007 and 2011.
We hope that this trend will change in the 7th Assembly. We’ve had enough of its self-serving decisions and scandals in the past twelve years. The House should be peopled by lawmakers who are upright, prudent in spending public funds and ready to serve the people not themselves. They should be alive to their responsibilities in this new era where Nigerians will now act as watchdogs over their activities. We need change agents in the House so that the laws they enact will impact positively on the people and the nation’s economy.
