By Andy Ezeani
The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as with most public institutions in the country, hardly gets embarrassed with anything or under any circumstance. Were it otherwise, the upper chamber of the country’s National Assembly would have ended last week with its tails between its legs. It ought to. But that was not so. On the contrary, the lawmaking institution embarked on a bullish pushback against an obvious gaffe that it ought to feel thoroughly embarrassed at.
The strenuous effort last week, marshalled by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramola, on the umbrage taken by some citizens at the seeming mockery of the poor on the floor of the Senate led by the Senate President himself, was quite pathetic. Couched in highfalutin language that came across more like a students’ union composition than any purposeful communication from such height, the Senate missed an opportunity to cast a better image of itself.
The statement from the Senate Media and Publicity chairman read, “The Senate is alarmed at the insidious misrepresentation enunciated by some surrealists, who always leave the causes of their troubles to look for unnecessary scapegoats…The personal tirade and character assaults hauled at the Senate president, His Excellency, Godswill Akpabio, are misdirected and uncalled for…”
And what was the root of all this grammar? The Senate, last week, in an expansive mood that belied the present crisis of existence for the majority of Nigerians, engaged in what clearly came across as a mockery, as it voted amid laughter and banter among members on those among them who wanted the poor to breathe and those who did not. That portion of the Senate’s session on that faithful day was definitely not elevated at all. It is doubtful that any sober mind who watched that motion, the voting and the demeanour of the Senate president after he banged his gavel against the backdrop of hearty laughter from the floor of the Senate, will not be offended. It was simply a joke in bad faith, made more so by the present excruciating pains Nigerians are going through to survive.
There obviously is no argument about the fact that a vast majority of Nigerians have been rendered poor since the present government mounted the saddle. And the Senate is an arm of the government. If at this juncture in the trials being faced by Nigerians the Senate and its leadership do not understand that being sensitive to the sensibilities of Nigerians is the least they can do, that is too bad.
Against the national backdrop of economic uncertainty and daily struggle by citizens to even feed or move, the dark humour in a vote on those who want the poor to breathe and those who do not was ill intended and ill timed. The Senate Committee on Media and Publicity is entitled to its justification. The tone and posture of the committee to public disapproval of that vote, even makes a bad case worse.
Their disposition is very uncomplimentary of the Senate. Singling out Professor Pat Utomi for harassment for speaking up against an insensitive joke at the Senate speaks of the long way the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity still has to go in managing public communication. Maybe the committee needs to be told that, in effective management of corporate communication, you let some negative reactions pass, especially in the face of an obvious faux pas. Out of Pat Utomi’s mouth on this instance came the reaction of millions of Nigerians.
The 10th Senate should actually rein in its excitement, insensitivity and unguarded utterances. The mood of the country at the moment does not welcome that. So far, there are quite a lot that are not exactly high at the upper chamber. Penultimate week, it was disputation on its floor over the public statement by Adams Oshiomhole, to the effect that office facilities in the Senate were vandalized and stripped before the new senators arrived. Oshiomhole may not have accused anyone, but preceding Senate and the Senate management were in the dock, as it were.
In an effort to explain what must have happened, one of Oshiomhole’s colleagues, informed him and, by extension, Nigerians, that the practice at the Senate is that after every four years, the office equipment, provided with public fund, is assessed as depreciated items, often to zero cost. The senators are then given first right of refusal to buy off the equipment at a cost of their zero worth assessment. That, he said, must be what confronted Oshiomhole. Very insightful explanation.
So, the legislators earn an emolument still commonly viewed as inciting in the prevailing economic environment of Nigeria. At the end of four years, they go on to purchase at near zero cost equipment installed therein for service delivery. Then they proceed to collect sumptuous severance pay at the end of the tenure. Interestingly, in the scheme of sharing of the N500 billion that the federal government recently borrowed from abroad to throw in the face of suffering in the land, the National Assembly of 460 citizens was to be allocated N70 billion. Instructively, too, the Senate explained that the N70 billion was, among other things, to buy seats, tables and sundry office equipment. Only the Senate is probably not seeing how so untidy and unconscionable the whole enterprise is. This is the backdrop against which the Senate moved and voted on a motion on its floor to allow the poor to breathe.
Eight months ago, in November 2022, the National Bureau for Statistics [NBS] released a report that 133 million or 63 percent of the projected 200 million Nigerians resident in Nigeria live below poverty line. Eight months back almost appears like a century ago. There may be no point at the moment gathering statistics to determine what the present level of poverty is. Nigeria’s place as the poverty capital of the world has been firmly cemented. Any doubt about that status in the past has certainly been cleared in the last two months.
Following the release of the NBS report in late 2022, this column, on November 29, 2022, wrote: “As is borne out by verifiable facts, politics offers the fastest and most assured route to escape poverty in contemporary Nigeria…Clearly, this category of citizens accounts for the chunk of the odd 37 percent of Nigerians out of the poverty loop…Interestingly, it is the politicians, the purveyors of poverty that are, imperiously and impudently asking: what can the poor do? They have been asking the question repeatedly, impetuously.
Stripped of all coatings and pretensions, the reality is that Nigerians are being held hostage. The increasing insensitivity and effrontery being put up by prime political office holders after the 2023 elections constitute a statement that is not too difficult to comprehend. Having assumed their offices, substantially through self-help, the question of what can the poor do? has assumed a reinforced relevance.
The Chairman of the Senate Media and Publicity Committee is within his territory to contend that “insinuating that the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Godswill Akpabio, was mocking the Nigerian masses with the phrase ‘Let the Poor Breathe’, is dressing falsehood and mischief in an undesirable garment”. May be. It will be helpful, however, if citizens at such stations as the senate never forget Chinua Achebe’s admonition that “those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit (or by sundry principalities, as the case may be) should not forget to be humble”. That clearly was what Pat Utomi was saying.
*Ezeani is a commentator on public issues
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