Bleak Christmas in troubled chamber

If you have painstakingly followed my lamentations on behalf of senators, you would understand why I sympathise with them now. If you fall into the category of those expecting some goodies and niceties from senators this Christmas, douse your expectations and celebrate with what you have got. You will wait in futility. Senators are broke. Yes, they are broke. Too broke to even fund some of their fake lifestyles.

Barely two days to Christmas, no truck load of bags of rice. No cows, vegetable oil, goats or rams to share to anyone. TSA has crippled MDAs. As a concerned Nigeria, let me make an appeal. Remember the good old days and have pity on senators. They are human and bleeding silently. They can’t tell you because you won’t believe.

Some senators who are not so popular and despised by their constituents, are saving for the raining day. In this era of vote buying, they are saving their little resources to secure a return to the Senate. This is nothing, but the truth.

When next you see a senator, don’t ask for anything. Hug him or her and move on. Life is tough for them already. Don’t add salt to their injuries, please.

In other climes, lawmakers are elected primarily to offer three services: lawmaking, representation and oversight. Their functions stand on this tripod. In sane climes, senators don’t embark on road construction. They don’t sponsor weddings of constituents and friends. Senators don’t pay hospital bills of those they represent.

When they offer scholarships, it is not borne out of compulsion. They do that freely. Constituents don’t hang around their offices to get their own share of the national cake. Wives and children of senators in saner climes don’t spend taxpayers’ money to fly to other countries to spend week- ends.

If there are cases of vote buying in sane countries, they will be isolated. Senators don’t have to save money to influence the outcome of elections. Girlfriends don’t get car gifts from senators. If that happens and it becomes an open affair, the senator involved resigns honourably. These are the realities in saner climes.

But not so for Nigeria. Senators are overburdened with demands and responsibilities that should ordinarily not fall within their jurisdictions. Senators, out of pressure, cut corners to satisfy the avarice of some constituents and desperate family members.

If you desire a paradigm shift and expect our senators to be accountable, we must change the narrative. Let’s restrict their responsibilities to the three pillars of legislative business: lawmaking, oversight and representation. This is a tall demand and I doubt if Nigerians are ready to pursue this shift we so much desire.

The change we seek in Nigeria will not come if we don’t initiate deliberate moves. Things are tough and everyone is bleeding, including the rich. The stipends senators dole out to people may meet a particular need, but practices like that will not usher in the change we seek. This is my appeal.

Merry Christmas Nigerians!

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Let’s set the records straight

Last week, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and its Leader, Ahmad Lawan, disagreed over the political party with the highest number of law- makers in the Red Chamber.

While Lawan claimed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was in the majority, with 56 senators and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 46, Ekweremadu said there was no reliable statistics to back the claims.

Lawan, while faulting the reports about the current configuration of the Senate in terms of numerical strength of the two dominant political parties, said he needed to set the records straight.

Senate Leader said: “The media reported that APC has 57 senators, while PDP has 58. For the record, APC senators are 56, while PDP senators are 46.

Countering Lawan, ‎ Ekweremadu explained that “as regards the party configuration, I want to say there is no any particular statistics for now. We cannot talk about the figures that each political party has because there is no such statistics. So, let it be on record that we have no such record now.”

Since our politicians lack the moral decency to stick to one political party, I urge the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, to do the needful and set the records straight. Although it is infinitesimal, Nigerians deserve to know which party holds the ace in the Red Chamber. Until that is done, no one should cry when journalists opt for any figure that suit them.

This is not rocket science. It is something any idiot can do. Oga Bukky, set the records straight and mandate those who should do the needful to come up with the current structure in the Senate.