Nseobong Okon-Ekong discusses the severance package approved by Nigerian legislators for themselves with Rivers State chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Tonye Princewill who concludes that Nigerian politicians know how to use power to generate money for themselves
What credible explanation can be advanced for the severance package approved by Nigerian federal lawmakers for themselves, when they are already enmeshed in a struggle to justify their jumbo pay?
None. And they don’t feel the need to. Is there any consequence for their actions? No. We can’t expect to plant a mango and pluck oranges when it’s time to harvest it. I’m not surprised and neither should you. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) can do what they want once they are in charge. They know how to use power to generate money for themselves. It’s using money to generate power that they have a problem with. But one may argue that the National Assembly is not made up of PDP members only. That is true. However, we have been witnesses to the crude force that members like Senator Ali Ndume and other who have attempted to raise their voice against the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki have been subjected. The least punishment slammed on them is that they are not recognised to speak on the floor. Sometimes it gets as bad as suspension. The leadership of the National Assembly, originally populated by PDP members pretending to be members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who have since assumed their true identity as PDP have found willing allies in the APC to make the numbers and constitute a majority that rides rough shod over the views of the other members. That is the situation.
Perhaps, the most alarming of the lot is the case of former governors who already enjoy a similar package from their respective states. Should they benefit from this bonanza?
If the issue was not so serious, I would have nominated this severance package as the best comedy act by a politician for 2019. But alas it is a serious matter and unfortunately, the resources allocated to it belong to Nigerians. We fail to realize that it’s our scarce resources, not theirs, maybe because we don’t pay taxes. If they continue like this, soon it will be more lucrative to leave the National Assembly than to stay. Maybe, we might just have found a solution to injecting new blood into the legislature. It is beginning to look like the struggle to remain in the National Assembly will ease off, naturally. I mean if I am going to get that kind of money to take my leave, why should I spend more money on an election trying to return. You must understand that for many of these legislators, the motive was not to serve. Many of them are absentee legislators. Have you ever had a situation that a legislative session was attended by all the members? Where do they go? Why are they never in the legislature to do the work they were elected for? A governor who has already leveraged on his position to feather his nest while in office for four years or eight years and already has the state assembly pass a bill that provides houses for him in choice parts of the country, cars and domestic staff is also given additional monies for coming to rest at the National Assembly. Is that fair?
Is there a reason these legislators don’t attend to matters concerning the populace with the same speed?
It’s no longer a secret that many Nigerians don’t care about corruption. They don’t care about Nigeria. They don’t really care about our children. They just go through the motions as if they do, but the fact is, they don’t. Not really. Some of us would have been the first to go out and condemn the act of granting themselves tens of billions in severance and shout it out to the world as an offense on the sensibility of Nigerians. But, for one, will not. The 2019 national elections showed me that too many Nigerians are either not patriotic or not bothered. They don’t mind a corrupt system so long as that system is benefiting them. I know this, you know this and the National Assembly knows this too. So they don’t care what Nigerians think. The funny things is that no public hearings were done. They did seek the views of anybody, they just went ahead and secretly inserted into the budget. Of course, that shot up the 2019 budget. If that item was something that was going to benefit the generality of Nigerians, its passage would have been delayed till thy kingdom come. These are shameless people. It is okay for them speed up approval of an item that services their fancies. Ultimately, Nigerians decide the type of persons who represent them. Perhaps, we do not deserve any better.
Do you think the anticipation for monetary gain encourages the cut-throat contest our politicians engage in?
Yes. I’m surprised they only took N27 billion. They should have taken more. Maybe N54 billion. Nigerians will only shout for a few days and go back to their usual routine of looking for the next payment wherever it’s coming from. I’ve seen it in Rivers. I hear it is alive and well in Abuja and I expect it to continue. In fact some Nigerians will be heading to the National Assembly to get their own share like they did in Rivers while several unsuspecting patriots like you and I will be shouting and protesting to people who won’t or can’t listen. If you have the means to enter a contest in anticipation for that kind of big money, minus other pecks, won’t you? Politics in Nigeria is looking more like business. It is cash and carry. The stakeholders at every level, from the voter, to the manager of the electoral process, the judiciary and the contestants know this. It is strictly about the money and whatever gains can accrue to each participant.
Your voice is well respected by the young and old alike. If people like you give up, are you not sending a message that we have failed as a nation?
No way. I admit I am sending a message, but it isn’t that we have failed, but that they, the old and the young alike, are the ones who are failing. By their failure to act on our messages, they have failed. The issue at hand in Nigeria demands a sustained collective push if we must witness the change we desire. Look at what happened in Kwara. The people decided that they could not take it anymore. So, they acted in unison. If it was about money, there is no individual or group of individuals who could match the Saraki war chest. What happened was that the people decided they if they were offered money, they would take it, but Saraki and whatever interest he represented had to go. There is karma and there is God and since what goes around comes around, eventually all who have authored this script, will have to pay. We are almost at the tipping point of the old way of doing things. If it can happen in Kwara, it can happen anywhere. I expect it to happen in Nigeria, sooner than later. When it finally collapses, a lot of what you see going on will disappear. But seriously, the executive has a role to play in correcting what has happened in the legislature. They know what to do.
