All over the world, parliaments perform three core functions: to represent the interest of the citizens, pass laws and monitor the actions of the government, which in our parlance is called oversight function. Those are exactly what lawmakers are meant to do.
There is no place where lawmakers are expected to distribute money, do bogus empowerment or have homes that are always crowded with those seeking one monetary favour or the other, except in Nigeria.
Aspiring lawmakers are always big spenders. They spend their way to the parliament and while they are there, every spore on their skin is oozing with money. There is this joke about a lad that is adept at pilfering. And whenever he is asked why he is doing so or where he thinks he would end up, he quips and says: the National Assembly!
And this culture has been going on for a long time. An aspiring lawmaker would start giving out handouts to potential voters and before long, he has gained popularity and on election day, he carries the day and he becomes an honourable either in the State Assembly or National Assembly.
So he opens a constituency office where he shares freebies occasionally and in his house, there is always a crowd of those who come to “see” him. It is believed that there is a shrine in the parliament, where lawmakers pluck money, which they throw around as something going out of fashion.
For example, a typical “empowerment programme” by a veteran member of the House of Representatives in Lagos State is always a carnival of sorts where about 40, 60 vehicles are distributed among the constituents. Then numerous tricycles, motorcycles, sewing machines, grinding machines are distributed. And when everything is summed up, it always comes to about N300 million or N400 million. And this is what the ex-Rep did annually for more than 20 years. He has now moved up to something bigger for the executive.
There is a particular lawmaker who after spending years representing a particular district in a state, he shifts to another district in the neighbouring state and because of his reputation as a “cheerful giver”, he was given a particular appellation, which has nearly overshadowed his real name. In fact, many of his constituents don’t know his real name. This lawmaker does not know “which money they don’t spend” as they say in Yorubaland.
Apart from money or food items, he distributes electric transformers as if the equipment is a candy. When he contested election in his new found district in the neighbouring state, he recorded another landslide victory as “usual”. An opposing aspirant who boasted that no “foreigner” could just stroll in and contest and win an election where he had been representing for years found out on election day that he was just alone. He suffered a devastating humiliation as he recorded zero at the end of the day. That is the power of this ‘generous’ lawmaker. He is still there doing lawmaking!
Up north, a former principal officer of the upper chamber was always in the habit of donating N200 million, for example, for burnt markets, or in aid of building a hall or mosque. Anytime this particular senior Senator travelled home, he was sure to distribute or donate hundreds of millions. He is still there in the Assembly now as just a floor member.
Even recently, lawmakers distributed thousands of bags of rice and other edibles to constituents as their own palliatives.
There is a sore point, which is always conveniently overlooked when lawmakers embark on their spending spree: the source of their income. What is even their salary? In the entire life of a parliament, which is four years, no lawmaker earns a salary up to N200 million. But when at just a donation event, the same lawmaker conveniently puts down N200 million and the following week another N100 million. Where does he get all the money?
That is why every aspiring politician now thinks that going to the National Assembly is the ultimate. There must be a particular shrine where members surely pluck money. Their constituents assess them based on their deep pocket instead of their prowess in the act of lawmaking. In fact, most of the time, many of those who aspire and eventually get elected into the parliament have no business being there at all. The business in the chambers is at variance with their intellect, their mission.
And the result is what Nigerians have suffered for a long time. The quality of those who represent them in the parliament and the kind of law they profess to be making is evident that most of the time, the electorates are scammed into electing their representatives. Many of them end up spending years in the parliament without contributing anything meaningful on the floor.
Even before they get inaugurated, they begin negotiation as to who gets appointed into “lucrative” committees and their principal officer, who gets the post at the pleasure of the president, becomes a chess player by juggling which lawmaker he puts as chairman of particular committees and those to remove. They believe that their interests have to be protected by their lackeys so that their spending spree does not stop abruptly. Most of the time after an election, when members are supposed to settle down for the act of making laws and other core functions of the Assembly, fighting over distribution of “lucrative” committees is the major highlight of a new parliament.
That is why most of the time, lawmakers are believed to be making money through their oversight functions. There are insinuations that they get huge cuts at their oversight jurisdiction at least to oil their “spending spree” for their constituents. Other people even believe that the lawmakers have companies which they run by proxy that get jumbo contracts which earn them resources. And when someone who is expected to carry out an oversight function in a particular area of the economy compromises his position, what is he then over-sighting?
But as the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Society has contributed a great deal by conveniently looking away when politicians behave typically. In fact, by the time they start spending, everybody wants to get as much as they can, then nobody remembers to remind them of what they are actually elected to do in the parliament. There is a saying that most of the time, it is the electorate that corrupts the representatives to a very large extent. It is very obvious.
Any politician’s home is like a typical mecca to his supporters. They get all manners of requests from their people: they want to pay house rent, their wife wants to give birth in the hospital, their mosque/church needs renovation and their representative should be the special launcher at the fundraising event; they want to pay school fees; they want palliatives; they want to go to Mecca or Jerusalem as the case may be; they want to bury their dead parents; they want to marry another wife; they want to acquire traditional titles, etc. In fact, all manner of requests and the politician must satisfy everybody in order to harvest their votes on election day.
The irony of it all is that it is the same society that begins to shout blue murder that the national assembly is the nation’s fat cow that corners everything that is due to them illicitly. They often say that Nigerian lawmakers collect the highest allowance all over the world. So, what the Nigerian lawmakers collect as their pay packet has always been a very contentious issue. But when they are reaching out, the same society conveniently looks away. Then, their spending representative is a godsend. He is their benefactor, their god, their saviour!
This culture should stop if the society must progress. The lawmaking chamber is just a kind of foundation of a building, which has to be robust, strong in order to withstand a formidable building. When brilliant, purposeful men and women who desire to change their society are free to aspire to the parliament without being intimidated or encumbered by the ‘spending power’ of some garrulous fellows, they will represent the society well. And when the executive understands that they have a quality parliament to contend with, they will sit up. When they know that the chamber is not full of yes men and or rubber stamps, of course, there will be sanity.
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Today, the executive muzzles everybody because it determines who gets what at the parliament. He goes for those that are pliable and once he gets them to pander to his whims, that is all.
It is time that society stops being hypocritical while lawmakers should face their core functions. Lawmakers all over the world are not expected to be heavy spenders and the earlier everybody understands this, the better.
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