Nigeria in the cage of Lawless Lawmakers

There is something wrong with the members of Nigeria’s National Assembly. They don’t think like lawmakers. They seem to be possessed by a kind of demon. It is so bad that any fresh person elected into the assembly will eventually become possessed as well. Majority of those elected into the National Assembly have deficiencies in experience and academics, yet they were elected. They lack the psychological and philosophical knowledge to understand the Nigerian need of today and how the world or life works.

They engage themselves in meaningless argument and get paid for it. Their fight and argument is always centred on money and power sharing mechanisms instead of how to improve the constituencies they claim to be representing. Many of them do not even have the mandatory constituency office. Yet, it costs Nigeria fortunes to maintain the National Assembly. Nigerian legislatures are among the most highly paid in the world, yet majority of Nigerians are living in abject poverty. According to Vanguard of August 8, 2017, about N6.1 billion was budgeted for new Peugeot 508 cars that will be distributed to all the 360 members of House of Representatives. Mr. Victor Okhai who commented on this stated, “At a time when barely a fraction of Nigerians could afford to comfortably feed themselves, these lawmakers are buying cars that they don’t need”.

Nigerian Senate is the apex lawmaking body in the country, vested with the powers to check the excesses of the executive and other arms of government, yet many of these law makers defraud Nigeria. They give fictitious names of aides that does not exist to the National Assembly Commission and collect the salaries and allowances meant for such aides. According to This day of September 24, 2016, each lawmaker is entitled to five legislative aides, as provided for by the National Assembly Act. Principal Officers in the senate are entitled to much more aides. E.g, the senate President is entitled to 45 aides, his deputy, 30 aides and each of the principal officers, 20 aides. In the same vein, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is entitled to 30 aides, his Deputy 15 and each of the six principal officers, 10 aides each. Yet, their impact is not felt. They waste time on meaningless bills that has no relevance to the current issues Nigeria is facing, while the major issues are pending.

They are nothing but fraudsters and ought not to be identified as distinguished or honourable. They have destroyed the Nigeria they are supposed to protect and are not worthy to continue serving as legislatures. Nigeria can do better without them.

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

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