Senator Nuhu Aliyu had no qualms, made no mistakes, spared no one when he declared that fraudsters had infested the National Assembly. But for the intervention of the Senate President, he probably would have entertained the nation with a roll- call of who is who and infact who tops the chart among these desecrators of our hallowed chambers.

Contributing to the debate on a motion tagged Direction and Tempo of the War on Corruption, sponsored by Senator Sola Akinyede, Senator Nuhu Aliyu, after identifying with the content and spirit of the motion, declared that Ribadu made a world of difference in the fight. He proceeded by recapping the world preception of Nigeria as a nation of 419ers and added that they even abound in the the Senate.

Alifa Daniel of The Guardian newspaper rightly captured what followed after that statement, “voices were raised, accusing fingers pointed, eyes (turned) red, egos were bruised and the angry Senator flashed documents with names of alleged fraudsters”, threatening a scandalous disclosure of its contents. Well, Senator Aliyu could not manly enough to carry out his threats.

Like an ostrich, he has long buried his head in the sand in order not to lose it, but not before raising a moral dust within the nation and beyond. We were about rising to approbate his courage and distinction when he extinguished , chickened out and swallowed his words. Whether he stood by the allegation or not, it remains clear that several ethical and moral issues have been dragged to the front burners by that singular, self pointing accusing finger coming from the Upper House. A peep into those issues might help the ethics, priviledges and public petitions committees in resolving this hybrid motion in national interest.

Among the issues begging for attention is the propriety of tolerating every shade of moral leaning in the National Assembly. The lesbians, perjurers, fraudsters, gay, cultists and vampires, street fighters and people of questionable marital paternal or maternal footing.

Isn’t it about time we started aiming at a more decent legislature, in both ethical and moral sense? For instance, should we allow an avowed sexual pervert, a notorious 419er, a serial rapist, and blood drinking cultists to rub shoulders with saner, more decent senior citizens in the hallowed chambers of our legislature when their likes are languishing in Kirikiri and Gashua prisons? Should such base characters be allowed to enact laws that will drive national issues? Will this caliber of people not legislate us into crisis?
I see so many horrible sights and hear several outrageous reports about our legislators that anyone whose bowels yearn for a standard in our polity cannot afford to look the other way. I had dreamt of having the word, senator, prefixed to my name or at worst, honorable.

That was when I held the opinion that with all our constitutional provisions regarding those who should stand for elective positions in our polity, only decent and respected noble minds who have paid their dues in life should occupy those highly respected legislative bodies. I dreamt of having my views positively influence matters in my nation. The disgusting things emanating from those chambers is certainly proving too disgusting for any polished gentleman to want to join issues with certain members of this supposed hallowed arm of the government. Please join me in this minor drift.

Heaven is revealed to us in the Bible as a stainless city of righteousness, implying that sin cannot enter there. If God almighty, whose name is holy, decides in his magnanimity as the sovereign one, to admit into heaven everyone who obeys him in all points except one, say lying, cheating, anger, adultery or fornication, pilfering or outright robbery etc., at the end of such exercise, wouldn’t the heaven, the avowed kingdom of righteousness and hollowed abode of the mighty God, become a mere replica of sinful, depraved, earthly kingdom? Wouldn’t even the integrity of the holy one be called to question? Now, let’s come back to the terrestrial arena in context.

The National Assembly prides itself as a powerful and revered arm of governance in a democratic setting. Every knee bows before the Senate. They try to force all tongues to confess their loyalty to them. They wield the power to kill and raise from dead (note, they can kill a nation with their legislation and they could kill an institution & raise it to life again using the same weapon.) Infact, this explains why they take pleasure in summoning whoever they will for interrogation.

In recent times, they have even decided to arrogate to themselves the enormous burden of supervising the anti corruption institution in our land (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). They say their sitting place is hallowed.

We can now begin to appreciate the reasons for my disgust with the happenings in that arm of government. The hallowed legislative floor of the National Assembly has on several occasions doubled as a boxing ring within which some members not only got knocked down but outrightly lost their lives .Before our very eyes the (hollow) hallowed chamber has become bureaux de change with each bill turning to cash cow at the detriment of national interest, courtesy of the so – called 419 legislators in the legislature.

In the National Assembly, we find ‘Toronto’ certificate holders presiding over commitees to certify the professionals bodies that should eventually certify qualified professionals in our land. Isn’t this an absurdity? Public treasury looters charged with the responsibility of budget appropriations.

It is for this reason that I advocate that whether Senator Nuhu Aliyu retracted his ealier threat of mentioning names of fraudsters in the National Assembly or not, the Ethics and Priviledges Committee should dig until it gets to the root of the matter, identify those in breach of high – moral conduct expected of our National Assembly, sanction them and possibly force them to clean up before being readmitted to the respected chambers.

Nwokoji is on the staff of The Sun