It is discouraging that the Nigerian senate and the House of representative are now trying to turn both Houses into House of thieves where impunity will reign supreme. Both Houses and some state legislatures are plotting to confer immunity to the principal officers of the House namely the Senate president, deputy senate president, the speaker of the House of Representative and his deputy. Some are even proposing to extend immunity to the speaker of the State Assemblies and their deputies. Their ultimate aim in the long run is to confer immunity to the entire National legislature and possibly state legislatures. To add insult to the injury, the senate president and his deputy wants a new constitution for Nigeria by early next year. Incidentally, the senate president trial and appeals may run through next year so the new constitution with immunity clause for him and his deputy will make his trial mute. More insidious is that the National Assembly and the state legislatures want to amend the constitution to eliminate the requirement that the president has to consent to the amended section of the constitution before it can become law. Some want life pension for the principal officer of the legislatures which they can extend to the entire legislatures at a future date.
The end result of all this nonsense is that the National Assembly will become unrecognizable by Nigerians. Governments and other criminals will who steals and plunders the national treasury can run and win election and then sit in any of the Houses until their crime is forgotten or the statute of limitation runs out. Nigeria is facing unprecedented economic crises and their priority is to amend the constitution. The truth is that the current constitution is the least of Nigerian problem. The best constitution in the world will amount to nothing if the people who are supposed to implement it are dishonest, crooked and lacks integrity. One will think that the effort of the National Assembly should be directed to the economic crises.
The National Assembly is pushing Nigerian tolerance to the limit. Do the National Assembly realize that they are endangering Nigeria democracy. Nigerians may get to the point where they will not see any difference between military regime and their so called democracy. That is how late Hugo Chavez came to power because oligarchs who were ruling Venezuela became so corrupt that Venezuelan masses decided to try something else. The end result is that Hugo Chavez got elected and his economic and authoritarian government destroyed the country’s democracy and economy. The same could happen in Nigeria if this nonsense continues. Nigerians could lose confidence in the whole concept of democracy.
Their diabolical plan is coming on the heal of the accusation of sexual misconduct and solicitation of prostitutes by the three House of Representative members who came to the Unites States on a conference. United States ambassador will not report the allegations of misconduct to the House Speaker if it did not happen. Challenging the U.S. ambassador to prove it is fine but those legislatures may get their wish. They are cameras in most hotel rooms in United Sates. Also, the parking lot guys the two legislatures solicited their help to procure prostitutes may indeed come forward if the ambassador are pressed to provide evidence.
For the sake of Nigeria, the senate president, Mr. Saraki and his Deputy Mr. Ekweremadu should be removed from office before they destroy Nigeria. The duo are the ones pushing immunity clause for themselves. Why are there not pushing for removal of immunity for all public officials if they do not want other branches of government to have it. Why should the legislatures be given pension when some of them were former governors and are already receiving pension from their state government? Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world and cannot afford to pay pensions and all this benefits when regular civil servants are owned months of salaries. Nigerian legislatures are already one of the highest paid legislatures in the world even though they are one of the least productive body in the world.
Another man Nigerians need to keep their eyes on is the Speaker of the House of Representative Mr. Dogara, who is moving legislation in The House of Representative to amend the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 and move Code of Conduct Bureau from the office of the secretary of the federal government to the National Assembly. How can the National Assembly be in charge of the agency that is supposed to make sure that they and other public officials fully declared their assets. It is not practical and constitutes a conflict of interest. Why not move it to the judicial branch. Amendment of criminal Adjustment Act will clearly forestall prosecution of corrupt official and directly benefit senate president who is on trial for non-declaration of some of his assets.
The federal government on the other hand need to be evenhanded in their prosecution of public officials. It is not a secret that most people under prosecution are members of the of the opposition party namely People Democratic Party (PDP) when some of the ruling party’s (APC) members are not innocent. The latest purported charge leveled against senate president and his deputy for forgery is an overkill. It portrays the administration as desperate to nail the senate president and his deputy so they can take over senate leadership by paving way for their stooge . Why not wait till his current trial of the senate president is concluded? Why is the federal government inserting itself in the procedural affair of the senate? The federal government cannot convey the impression to the world that their corruption prosecution is one sided directed at the opposition. The federal government will destroy their credibility if this continues and it will give credence to the National Assembly members advocating immunity for their members. The good news is that President Buhari will never allow some of these amendments to become law unless his veto is overridden by the National legislatures.