9th November, 2010
The recent resolution of the House of Representatives calling on the Accountant General of the Federation to seize the monthly allocation of the Ekiti State Government as well as those of two other states of the federation has once again brought to bear the recklessness of our so-called Honorable members. The grouse of the House is the dissolution local government council in the state by the governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
However, the resolution of the House on the issue has also brought to the fore lots of very fundamental issues in the affairs of the House in particular and the nation at large. For one, the speed with which the resolution of the House was passed is rather curious bearing in mind that this is the same House that has not been able to come out with anything tangible in respect of the Freedom of Information bill which has been in its custody for years. One cannot but read political undertone to the whole issue, considering the fact that same House has not been able to react as swiftly as it has done in the Ekiti case to the much more frightening situation in Ogun State where a group of minority legislators has been holding the state to ransom for quite some time.
How come our Honourable members could not attend to the Ogun case with the same dispatch they handled the Ekiti issue? How come the House has not shown same interest it displayed in the Ekiti case in the power sector? If only it has come with such speedy resolutions on the power sector, perhaps, we would have been celebrating one year of nonstop electricity supply in the country.
The crux of the matter is that the House seriously erred in this matter as it has displayed outright ignorance of the critical issues involved in the Ekiti question. One , the disgraced administration of Engineer Segun Oni was nothing but an aberration as far as the Appeal Court judgment that outlawed it is concerned. Consequently, the Ekiti State Independent Electoral Commission as constituted by Segun Oni was an illegality and as such the result of any election it conducted remains null and void. In the same vein, those who benefitted from the illegal election are usurpers as they were sworn in by an illegal government.
It is unfortunate that at this stage of the nation’s democratic experience, those who are supposed to safeguard our democracy are the ones exhibiting acts that could jeopardise the democracy that MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane, Suliat Adedeji, Bagauda Kaltho, and numerous others laid down their lives to bequeath to us. What a shame! Nigerians are sick and tired of politicians whose stock in trade is to play politics with the lives and destinies of the masses.
One wonders why the same House could not pass a resolution on the sack of Madam Ayoka Adebayo, the then Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, who was roundly indicted by the Court of Appeal in the verdict that sacked the Segun Oni-led government. Couldn’t that have been a greater service to our democracy?
Is it not a shame to the system that Madam Ayoka still retains at her present job as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State despite being a crucial factor in the Ekiti State disgraceful guber re-run of last year? Is it not curious that members of the House of Representatives do not see any vital need for it to pass a resolution on this matter? Is it not rather equally probing that the same House has not been able to demonstrate similar ‘efficiency’ with which it handled the Ekiti case in the all important questions of kidnapping, unemployment, corruption, electoral fraud, armed robbery, infrastructure decay among other numerous plagues that have held the country captive for long?
Is it not rather disturbing that months after Labour and the Federal Government agreed to implement a new salary structure for federal civil servants they are yet to receive same and our ‘Honourables’ at the House have not deemed it fit to pass a resolution on the issue? The bottom line, of course, is that Nigerians know whom their true representatives are. They know those they could trust. They know those who have stood by them through thick and thin. They know those who will shamelessly move from one party to the other for the sake of their pockets. They know those that fought, at the risk of their lives, to confront military dictatorship in the country. They know those who wined and dined with the enemies of democracy who today parade themselves as lovers of democracy.
It is unfortunate that rather than learn from history our ‘Honourable’ members are turning themselves to victims of history. While his reign lasted as the last (?) Emperor of the Niger, OBJ assaulted the sensibilities of Lagosians by seizing the revenue allocated to local government council in the state. What became of this act of illegality, as they say, is now history today. Those whom history will destroy, never learn from history.
As 2011 approaches, Nigerians are more determined than ever to ensure that their votes count as they are tired of pretenders who have nothing to offer them but to compound their woes.
•Tayo Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
