By Bayo Oluwasanmi
A hard truth about being a Nigerian senator is that there is almost never a time to declare good news.
Nigerian senators always inevitably collide with a fresh tragedy. That’s what happened to Senator Kabir Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central).
The senate about a week ago had announced the suspension of Senator Kabir Marafa spokesperson for the Unity Forum. Marafa in an interview with the Sunday Punch February 7, 2016 concurred to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s submission that corruption thrives in the National Assembly through its budget shrouded in secrecy. Marafa also called on the corruption tainted Senate President Bukola Mesujamba Saraki, to resign from his position in the face of his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct tribunal (CCT) on charges bordering on alleged false assets declaration.
“With this judgement,” says Marafa, “ the honourable thing for Saraki to do, is to resign his position as Senate President, so as to save the already battered image of the senate from further battering.” “If the senate president refused to step aside,” continues Marafa, “we expect Nigerians especially those who voted for us to represent them at the senate to ask questions. We expect them to ask us why we failed to take action, despite the bad image that the development is creating for the federal parliament.”
“Our constituents should even recall us if we find it it difficult to take action,” Marafa argues. “This is somebody who had committed constitutional blunder, when he unilaterally increased the numbers of committees in the senate,” says Marafa.
The senate however, through a motion moved by Senator Ahman Misau (APC, Bauchi Central) and seconded by Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South) took serious exception to Marafa’s comments and ordered the Senate committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition to interrogate him over the comment.
“Senator Kabiru Marafa granted interview misleading the public,” contends Misau, “telling lies against this institution, the Senate… We cannot allow one person to continue to tell lies against the Senate, and mislead the public.”
The Edo Senator Urhoghide says “…We need to take a drastic decision, that will serve as a deterrent to other person… that will bring this distinguished Senate to disrepute.” Which “distinguished Senate” is Urhoghide talking about? The senate of David Marks? The senate of Kasamu Burujis? The senate of Dino Melayes? The senate of Ibn Na’Allahs? The senate of fools, idiots, and ignoramuses? Which senate?
The Nigerian senate is such a hollow chamber of contrasts that one wonders how the different pieces form part of the same whole. How does Marafa co-exists with the Bukola Mesujamba Sarakis? Is anything criminal or offensive or illegal in what Marafa said that Mesujamba is not fit morally, ethically, and constitutionally to lead the senate because of his criminal case? Who is defacing the image of the Senate Marafa or Mesujamba? Is it a lie that Mesujamba had committed “constitutional blunder”? Is it a lie that he has brought disgrace and ridicule to the upper chamber? Is it a lie that a crook, forger, and a criminal is not fit to lead the senate? Who’s lying Marafa or Misau?
Who should be ostracized and treated like an outcast better still, as a leper in the senate? Who should be held liable for violating the ethics of the senate? Who is the criminal that should be sanctioned and be prosecuted? Obviously the answer to these questions is Mesujamba. This contradictory reality makes the Nigerian senate a true paradox. A senate hard to understand where the future path is less clear than it should be. When I look at the senate I see a senate where chances of success are often directly correlated to the level of corruption because the corrupt senators have more largess to distribute and a tyrannical institution that holds our people in bondage and servitude.
So, who are the real senators? There are two groups of senators. The first is the one that is honest, hard-working, carries the aspirations of the large mass of Nigerians. There are very few senators in this group. Then there is the other senators – the one that is driven primarily by self-interest. The motive of this lot of folks is self-enhancement, aggrandizement, pilfering, stealing, corruption, and hypocrisy of all sorts. These senators believe in the subjugation and exploitation of our people by any handle – whether it be based on opportunity, economics, religion or ethnicity – as long as it perpetuates financial and political interests.
They flout the rules, don’t believe in growing Nigeria and certainly not in sharing it. The group indulges in corruption on a vast scale, and thrives on politics and crimes. The group gets or doles out large government contracts and benefits personally in the bargain. This is a senate where public funds are diverted to line senator’s pockets at the cost of the poorest and the most dispossessed constituents without battling an eyelid.
This is the group of senators that shield the Kasamu Burujis of the world. This is the group of senators that harbor the Dino Melayes. This is the group of senators that remains adamant on getting exotic cars. This is the group of senators that have been in the senate for 16 years without giving anything back to their people back home. This is the group of senators that are loyal and solidly behind embattled Mesujamba. This is the group of senators that have no souls.
The senate is steeped in nonsense, disdain and bullshit, self-denial and reality-evasion by whining sickos. The Ethics Committee in a whole barbarian chorus shouting for the head of Marafa while Mesujamba the real criminal is left untouched to preside over the hollow and shallow chamber. No doubt, ours is a senate swaddled in an echo chamber of its own foolishness and selective persecution of its courageous members. This is an intolerable anarchy in a democracy full of tragic contradictions.
The Nigerian senate is unequivocally paradoxical. The senators without shame have become dictators and enemies of our people. They have behaved worst than animals toward our people. They have raped our daughters and sodomized our sons. They have seized our land and our goods. They have turned us into slaves to toil for their future and to sweat for their amusement. We have been led in fear, suspicion, and hatred of the other. It is this primitiveness and sadism that make the senate undesirable, mutilated, and hollow. They have employed and continue to invent all forms of exploitative means to further colonize their own people. It’s a senate of scalawags!
… Mesujamba On His knees…
This Nigeria!
Every community of human beings is regulated. Without law and order, rules and contracts, there is total chaos resulting in disagreements and unnecessary squabbles which will result in anarchy. The story that Mesujamba begs “Mere Commissioner” Yemi Osinbajo to help beg Jagaban went viral. Mesujamba accompanied by Abubakar Atiku, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, Senate Majority Leader Ali Ndume and several senators arrived at the VP’s office in Abuja yesterday to beg Jagaban Bola Tinubu “for forgiveness” meaning to sweep his criminal case with the CCT under the rug. My first reaction was indignation and outrage that the VP and APC leaders should even grant audience to the forger and enemy of our March 28, 2015 Democratic Revolution. But on a second thought, I realized that Mesujamba’s action would serve as admission of wrong doing and would serve as an additional incriminating evidence at his trial. His begging Jagaban would also mean he has purged himself of the heresy he unleashed on the APC leader. The end of Mesujamba has come. No amount of begging can save him from going to Kuje or Kirikiri. Nigerians are eagerly awaiting his arrival at the maximum penitentiary. It will come sooner than later.