It was late sage,Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who describe Nigeria as a reactive country made up of reactive citizens.

As for him,Nigeria has the natural penchant for crying when the head has been cut off instead of asking why and how the head was cut- off and taking steps to stop such evil things.

But as a people who deal with symptoms, we keep on moving in circles and never border to go to fundamentals to solve our multi -various problems but only enjoying noise making after the horse has bolted from the stable.

Ordinarily, the National Assembly that yours truly got to know in the Second Republic and to some extent the aborted Third Republic, never spoke or debate about finances beyond mere approvals of annual budgets presented by President as a ritual.

And the annual ritual does not go beyond scrutinizing contents of the Appropriation Bill for fairness to all constituents and judicious allocation of resources to good ends for the benefit of the people they represent.

Today,we cry foul of the ‘peculiar mess’ going on in our hallowed chamber when Senator Abdul Ningi from Bauchi state,cried foul over budgetary matters accusing his colleagues of padding the 2024 appropriation Bill with N3.2trilion naira making a princely N28trillion as proposed and subsequently aporoved by the troubled house.

 

Senate President Godwin Akpabio..in the eye of the storm

 

From all indications,the ‘mess’of our latest budget padding wouldn’t have seen the light of the day had Ningi not been suspended last week by committee of the whole house for what Senator Olamilekan Yayi and his Appropriation committee members described as subjecting the house to ridicule and public oppprobium with his accusation of the leadership of the national assembly made up of All Progressive Congress,APC.

To the enraged Senators,Ningi not only broke the rules of internal engagement but also falsely accused the Senate of falsifying the budget to meet their personal needs.

However,had Ningi been able to give a breakdown of the sectoral Allocations from where the padded N3Trillion emanated maybe Adeola defence would have been properly punctured.

Senator Ningi..raised the padding alarm

 

But with his three months suspension from the Senate robbing him in the process of leading the Northern Senate caucus, Ningi was only provided the ammunition to bare it all.

By mentioning that some senators actually passed the budget to cater for their constituency projects with some getting as much as N500million and others N300million for projects most of which were never executed in most cases,the nation now has the privilege of knowing the selfish motives of Senators which in a way cuts across party divide.

What Ningis suspension has revealed is that perhaps for allegation of unfairness in the distribution and sharing of the ‘national cake’ as represented in the of constituency projects,
the citizens wouldnt have known that appropriation Bills have since the beginning of Fourth republic never passed through screening without being padded.

Battling to save the Senate Appropriation Committee

This is done to cater for fake and dubious constituency projects which by themselves are a duplication of executive functions.

The furore at the NASS coming barely three weeks after Honourable Abdulsamaad Dasuki and his group of 60 in the House of Representatives came up with the Bill to return the nation to Parliamentary democracy is quite interesting and instructive.
The nation with the on going scenarios may just have discovered some unexplained reasons and facts behind Dasukis groups effort to adopt Parliamentary democracy.
Te expensive nature of Presidential system of government was cited as one of the reasons.
Dasuki and his patriotic group as members of the lower legislative chamber must have seen the rot thrown up by the elite sharing arrangement among and between the senators whereby they corner sizeable portion of our national resources into their pocket through dubious constituency projects allocations.

This is in spite of the humongous salary, Allowances and other out of the world pecks fixed for themselves to manage their expensive lifestyle.
Their lifestyle itself is apparently out of tune with the living condition of those who elected them into power.

In other words,Ningis revelation of padding which the appropriation committee members are still struggling to explain and justify, is an indication that Dasuki and his team are embarking on an uphill task already dead on arrival.

Except we have national upheaval and understanding similar to what occured in Senegal some years ago where they scrap the Bicameral legislature and replace it with Unicamera to save cost, Dasuki and his men might just have lost the battle before the race started.

The revelation by Ningi, though coming from the opposition,is also an indication that there is no difference between the legislators in all political parties except quest for money and power.

It is apparent that among and between all Senators and Reps members in the national assembly, when issues of money and materialism are concerned, there is unity of purpose on that.

It is also necessary for us to be reminded of the ‘Ghana Must Go’ episode in the NASS during the aborted Third term project .

Ironically, former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was also alleged to have distributed money in ‘Ghana must Go’ Bags to the defiant legislators to facilitate amendment of the constitution to pace way for his Third term project ,also recently described the NASS as cesspit of corruption.

Though,he never confess his own arm- twisting of the NASS during the episode mentioned above ,his recent comment is one of the proofs that introduction of constituency project remains the ‘poison chalice’ that distorted the job of our NASS members.
For it , they abdicated their primary role ofaking laws for good governance but preger to extend their brief by showing interest in Who got which Contract in the Ministries and patastatals.

Until, we all collectively remove or redefine the financial oversights which has become the ‘feeding bottle’ of our legislators both in the state’s and National Assembly, we have a long way to go in waging war against Corruption.
This is because, the lawmakers have joined the recalcitrant Law brakers feeding fat on the nations resources to the detriment of its citizens.
Time to checkmate the NASS is now. Tommorrow may be too late.