Lewis Obi
It took the distribution of
exquisite luxury cars that cost N57 million apiece to members of the Senate to
shock Nigerians from their slumber and resignation. To a great many Nigerians,
the National Assembly has become like the malady without cure, which must be
endured. Perhaps the nearly N3 billion spent on vehicles the senators did not
need, at a time the nation could not afford it, might be the overreach that
finally serves as the last straw.
It might not. But the “Occupy
National Assembly” protests which began earlier in the week was a signal that
at last Nigerians are beginning to lose their cool and are starting to voice it
out.
The demands of the protesters
were modest: immediate resignation of the Senate President, Dr. Olusola Saraki;
the return of the expensive vehicles by the senators; and the revision of the
2016 budget. In a real democracy, the students and others who staged the
“Occupy National Assembly” would never have needed to protest. A senate
president facing something akin to felony and perjury charges would not need a
reminder to step aside. It’s expected to be automatic. The vehicle purchase by
the senate was a clear case of abuse of power, a flagrant misuse of the
constitutional power of the purse, and the senate cannot point to any country
in the world where such a purchase would be contemplated much less executed.
Senate Majority Leader Ali
Ndume took on the protesters and was quoted in a newspaper as saying that no
form of protest would force anyone to resign from the National Assembly
because the protesters were not the people who elected them in the first
place. The 107 vehicles would not be returned because they were meant for the
senators to carry out their various committee assignments and the vehicles
remain the property of the National Assembly. On television Senator Ndume said
that the National Assembly was the difference between autocracy or
dictatorship and democracy. In other words, take away the National Assembly and
all you have is dictatorship.
Senator Ndume is never given to
modesty and when he speaks Nigerians see a tyrant in democratic garb. The
reason no form of protest would force anyone to resign from the National
Assembly is because the National Assembly is not a democratic institution in
the first place. With very few exceptions, the seats were bought and paid for
in millions, sometimes, hundreds of millions of Naira of dubiously acquired
wealth which partly accounts for the desperation of members to claw at
everything and use all kinds of machinations in their quest for wealth in order
to retain their positions.