Yesterday, I met, by chance, a former schoolmate of mine who also served as a member of the National Assembly for eight years. There are things Nigerians can only tell you when they are outside of a system, that is, when they lose out and no longer benefit from it.
Of all the many things he said about the way and manner the National Assembly operates, in the course of my discussion with him regarding the state of the nation, the two issues I found instructive were his claims that, most times you see our federal legislators arguing about a point or insisting in passing a particular resolution, they are doing so to attract patronage. He said that some members would raise a critical point of interest and threaten fire and brimstone during plenary, but Nigerians would not hear anymore about the matter raised once the people or organisation concerned make the necessary approach and reach a settlement with the concerned member or members.
He also said that most times you see a branch of the assembly, or the two chambers jointly, passing critical motions on a particular matter more than once or twice, the meaning is that the organisation concerned has, perhaps out of principle, decided not to grease the palms of the concerned legislators. Is that why Nigerians have never got to know the true outcome of the countless investigative hearings carried out by the House of Representatives or the Senate, for which billions of naira have been spent by the assembly? Nigerians need to demand and insist on knowing the true answers to some of these posers.
The other claim he made was that the National Assembly members are fully aware of the fact that Nigerians do not have an iota of respect for them. And so, he told me, some of the members would meet and decide that the best approach to burnish their image and gain some respect is to adopt playing to the gallery as a strategy to gain the sympathy and respect of Nigerians. By this, he said, they key into any matter Nigerians, or at least the vocal ones, are passionate about so that they, too, could ‘belong.’
An example he gave me is the current calls for change of service chiefs. According to him, those making the calls might not have done so if they had been settled, but that even beyond that, they see it as a good opportunity to deceitfully make ordinary Nigerians believe they share in their pain.
While, certainly, this cannot apply to all members of the National Assembly, as there are a few of them that embody integrity and decency at their very highest, the fact remains that Nigerians see a vast majority of our legislators as representing only themselves, with their attitude that emphasizes appropriating billions all for themselves and their girlfriends. It largely informs why, during each election cycle, the National Assembly suffers the highest turnover of defeats, with nothing less than 60 percent of the members rejected by the electorate, who very easily see through their emptiness.
For me, some of the best ways the National Assembly can regain its respect and have the trust of Nigerians, and also to help defeat the terrorists and bandits operating in Nigeria, is as follows. This, therefore, forms a major part of my advisory to all members of the National Assembly, including those of them that are playing by the rules and are, therefore, innocent.
Firstly, since we all know that terrorism and banditry and indeed most crimes stem from a feeling of hopelessness, occasioned by such factors as joblessness and idleness, members of the National Assembly can meet separately or jointly and pass a strong resolution telling Nigerians that, in view of the reality of the time, and the unprecedented disparity in earnings between them and the people they represent, they are reducing the humongous amounts they receive as salaries and allowances, said to be tens of millions for each member monthly, to something in the region of 10 percent of the total amount.
Sadly, our legislators, or at least many of them, are not even satisfied that they receive the highest salary in the whole world, in a country rated as one of the poorest globally. They always insist, during such occasions as Christmas and Sallah, for them to be paid some more millions, purportedly to give their constituents, even when most members of the National Assembly do not even visit their constituencies in years.
On January 13 this outgoing year, the respected Premium Times published a report with the headline: NIGERIAN SENATORS EXPRESS ANGER OVER N2 MILLION CHRISTMAS ALLOWANCE. Part of that report goes thus:
“Some senators describe the amount (two million naira) – which is only a fraction of a regular stream of benefits accrued to them – as a mere drop in the vast ocean of Yuletide expenses. Others threatened to cause the Senate leadership ‘some headache’ upon resumption from their Christmas-New Year recess later this month.”
A report by Oxfam once cited that only 1 percent of our huge population controls 82 percent of the national wealth or income. What that means is that 99 percent of Nigerians will never see or own one million naira, not to talk of two million naira, throughout their lives. Yet, for our “caring” senators, that amount is not enough for them to spend for only a few days of festivities, which only a few of them would care to do with their constituents.
If our legislators agree to reduce their humongous allowances by 90 percent, the respect they are going to gain among Nigerians will be unprecedented. Now, the question may be asked: what would happen to the reduced allowances? My take is that the legislators could set up a trust fund, to be managed by some of their trusted former colleagues or other eminent Nigerians that they trust, to be disbursing the funds directly to our troops fighting the war against terror. Alternatively, the money could be applied in creating millions of jobs, thereby making it difficult, if not impossible, for terrorists and bandits to be recruiting our youths as soldiers.
Another way our legislators could contribute in defeating terrorism is by reducing their ostentatious lifestyle. Take a walk to the National Assembly any day, you might think it is a place where old men are competing for who dresses in the most expensive attire. Some of them even adorn their necks and hands with gold and diamonds.
On February 18 this year, under the headline: NIGERIANS ARE ENRAGED AS LAWMAKERS REJECT INNOSON CARS FOR LATEST TOYOTA CAMRY, Nairametrics, a respected e-newspaper, alongside virtually all print editions of our national newspapers, published a report chiding members of our Federal House of Representatives for their blatant refusal to show patriotism by patronizing Innoson Motors, in their purchase of 400 vehicles for their members. The members insisted on the latest 2020 models of Toyota Camry, with each costing more than ten million naira. Imagine the thousands, probably millions of jobs that would have been created if the members had toned down on their over-bloated ego to patronize a Nigerian company. Already, the report said, “14 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Jeeps have been shared among the presiding and principal officers, including the chairmen of some House committees.” Can you imagine!
Mahathir Mohamed developed Malaysia to the great country it is today by rallying Malaysians to patronize only products made in Malaysia. But instead of holidaying in such beautiful places as Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State, or the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State, for example, our legislators would typically go to Dubai, London, and such other places, and mostly doing so with their girlfriends and mistresses.
Writing on March 4, 2020, under the headline: NIGERIANS ENRAGED AS SPEAKER GBAJABIAMILA’S MOTHER HOLDS BIRTHDAY PARTY IN DUBAI, the same newspaper recalled that “in 2018, he (the speaker) got a similar public bashing when he, as part from a one-day lavish party, gifted his wife, Salamatu Gbajabiamila, a Mercedes G-Wagon, reportedly priced at US$300,000 with a number plate customized with the fond word ASSURANCE for her 50th birthday.”
The report quoted Olanrewaju Suraj, Chairman, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, as describing the speaker’s Dubai “expedition as another show of shame of how lucrative public offices are, with Nigerians being at the receiving end.” He added, for emphasis, that “you have insurgents killing citizens every day, you have IDPs, then you have this sort of display of opulence? Nigerians questioned why the speaker could not lead by example by pumping money into an already booming economy like Dubai’s, at the expense of Nigeria’s.” Though the speaker denied spending public funds in celebrating his mother’s 90th birthday, the fact remains he did so in Dubai, and he will have created many jobs with the hundreds of millions said to have been spent on the occasion.
If anyone is talking about wastage and unprecedented cost of governance, the National Assembly in Abuja is the place to be. If you doubt this, just take a walk to the Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Though America is the number one democracy in the world and also the richest of all nations, members of that country’s parliament live a simple life, with their earnings only a fraction of what our legislators in Nigeria receive. Immediate past Speaker of the American House of Representatives Paul Ryan was sleeping in his office because he could not afford to rent a house in Washington. At least 50 members of American parliamentarians sleep in their offices up to today. Of course, some of them could afford to own or rent houses to stay, but they would rather apply the funds to the benefit of their constituents.
Let’s not even talk of America. Even in neighboring Niger Republic, no member of the country’s parliament benefits from a dime in any contract, not to talk of padding the budgets of ministries, departments and agencies and infusing it with projects of personal interest to the legislators.
Though he later reportedly denied it, after being severely threatened, Godswill Akpabio, a former senator now serving as Minister of Niger Delta, in July this year, claimed that 60 percent of contracts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), an agency under his ministry, was being illegitimately appropriated by our legislators. Just imagine what that means.
On May 8 this year, the Pulse.ng published a report quoting the NDDC management as saying 250 contracts were awarded to NASS members in one day. Just one day!! When threatened by the legislators, the NDDC management insisted it stood by the list of contract beneficiaries it sent to the National Assembly. We await our federal legislators to publish the list, even if, for once, to show some example in honesty and transparency.
Another way our National Assembly members can redeem their image and help in the war against terror is not by making pronouncements just to impress the people and make a show of sharing in their pain. If, for example, the National Assembly can spend ten percent of the thirty seven billion naira earmarked for the renovation of their offices, and use 90 percent of the money in purchase of Main Battle Tanks, or even more importantly the acquisition of the famed MQ-9 Reaper Drone that America used in the assassination of Qasim Suleimani, an Iranian Army general last January, the war against banditry and terror would be over in a matter of days. Each unit costs fifty million dollars. Meaning that the money could get for the Nigerian Armed Forces some of these lethal war equipment that kills hundreds of its targets at the same time, with the highest precision.
On October 20 last year, Independent.ng published a report entitled: SENATE IN THE CENTRE OF JOB RACKETEERING. Earlier on October 16 of the same last year, the Pulse.ng published another report entitled: SENATORS ARE QUARRELING AMONG THEMSEVELS FOR JOB SLOTS AND ACCUSING THE SENATE LEADERSHIP OF CORNERING EVERYTHING.
In July this year, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour, had a shouting match with some federal legislators who reportedly wanted him to allow them corner a large chunk of the 774,000 job slots earmarked by the Buhari Administration for ordinary Nigerians. The Minister was threatened by the legislators, saying he disrespected them. But he stood his ground, preferring to lose his job than allow a few opportunists to corner what is meant for ordinary Nigerians who do not know even one member of the National Assembly. Luckily, President Buhari sided with the Minjster, who is still keeping his job and doing it very well.
The fact is the insistence in many members of our federal legislators to corner most job offers only for themselves is putting this country in serious danger. It is what is breeding deep frustration and helping in the spread of insecurity. Those bandits arrested kidnapping people have been saying that the actual money that goes to them after huge sums has been paid by families of victims is a paltry sum. Which means if these people are productively engaged or provided a job, they will not allow any politician to be sponsoring them to be kidnapping and killing people all over the place. A time-tested maxim has it that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Sadly, largely owing to the antics of our legislators to corner most job offers, as reported by the newspapers quoted, many non-privileged Nigerians, who are in the vast majority, have been left in the lurch, making them ready to be deployed against the Nigerian State by unscrupulous politicians who are opposed to the government of the day, or who want to deploy high crime as a bargain chip.
Another way our legislators can help ensure a peaceful Nigeria and defeat terrorists, criminals and criminality is by utilizing their legislative aides optimally. My heart bleeds when, on national television, I watch some of our legislators speaking in a manner even an illiterate would not do. Most of the issues some of them raise lack any depth.
For example, has any legislator sat down to calculate the percentage to our Growth Domestic Product (GDP) our spending on the fight against terror is? Have they ever done any comparative analysis of the spending on war, vis-a-vis what other countries are spending in prosecuting wars of less dangerous dimension than Boko Haram? Can our legislators help the Buhari Administration by freeing the massive resources they waste, and channel such to the war against terror? Nigeria cannot be spending half percent of its GDP in the war against terror and expect an overnight magic.
Throughout history, no country that won any war had ever earmarked less than 10 percent of its GDP to it. Japan spent 50 percent of its GDP in executing the Second World War, which it still lost. And America has so far spent over four trillion dollars (how much is that in naira) in the fight against the Taliban, which it has still not won, more than twenty years since the war started. Do our legislators know that even by the rating of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, Boko Haram is placed above the Taliban, in depth of terror? And yet, we are looking down on our armed forces, after giving them a pittance to execute the war?
To be sure, one of the greatest wishes of President Muhammadu Buhari is to have terrorism and banditry uprooted totally from the shores of Nigeria. But he does not have the necessary resources to do so. Also by making reckless pronouncements during plenary, our legislators do not even know (maybe some of them are doing so deliberately) that these foreign powers refusing to sell weapons to enable us defeat the terrorists use some of that as an excuse.
Have we forgotten that only six years ago, the last administration shared billions of dollars to some politicians just to ensure the then president was returned to office by book or by crook. Now, have we cared to find out whether there are members of the current assembly that have benefitted from that sleaze? What has the National Assembly done to make sure all such monies stolen in the past are fully returned to the national treasury?
Lawyers say when you come to equity, you should do so with clean hands. Our legislators should tell us how many investigative hearings they have so far conducted, and publish in details all the outcome of such. We need to know, as Nigerians and constituents to these legislators, how many investigative hearings have been abandoned midway, and the reason for such. The truth is Nigeria will definitely have been a better place if all those investigations carried out by the National Assembly were handled in an honest and transparent manner and fair and honest conclusion reached and published for all to see. But Nigeria’s National Assembly operates in many or most cases like a cult group, with only a few favored members knowing the inside workings.
Have we also taken time to see that almost all the troubles, for which we are today condemning the armed forces, were started by some of our reckless politicians? We all know how Boko Haram started, and we all know that the same politicians making noice today are shielding those who started Boko Haram perhaps because they served in their governments or are friendly with them. When Senator Shettima was making a point during plenary earlier in the week, I was surprised he did not mention the fact that nowhere in the world did any military win any war against terror without the locals providing the necessary intelligence to the fighting forces. The armed forces consist of human beings. They are not magicians, Shettima was a governor of Borno State, and he knows more than all of us that till today, there are people in Maiduguri who will rather shield Boko Haram members, who they call their brothers or sons. The same members of the society also report troop movements to the terrorists, informing the many ambushes our troops have suffered over the years on their ways back to base. And yet, when an attack is carried out, the armed forces get attacked and condemned without anyone caring to find out all the facts.
The parliaments of many democracies play key roles in helping their armed forces defeat terrorism or even ordinary crimes through extensive research, honest-approach and fair-mindedness. But because only a few legislators here have full comprehension of why they are there in the first place, some of our legislators are busy patronizing shops selling sex-toys and even brutalizing attendants of those shops. Only in Nigeria. And we have the audacity to play to the gallery. Sad.
Attacks against innocent Nigerians: Another view
I copied the following article from the wall of Anthony Agbojo, and because I find its contents very germane in helping us understand our role in the fight against terror, I reproduce it hereunder:
A man goes into a school with an assault rifle in the USA and kills scores of people. The people blame the perpetrator. They might also blame the government (usually congress) for not moving gun control forward. A man or group of men walk into a farm in Nigeria, kill scores of people and everyone blames the president! The truth is that the president CANNOT protect you from an insane person or a handful of insane persons in your community who are determined to do you harm! Even as you read this, imagine your neighbour has successfully hidden an assault weapon and chooses to use it against you today. The president or security agents cannot help you!
It seems we still do not understand that conventional and asymmetric warfare are very different. A terrorist or group of terrorists determined to do harm can simply lie in wait for months and years and, when you are not looking, strike! While Boko Haram is a known group, there are probably sleeper cells of Boko Haram people going about their daily business, buying, selling, going to school, laughing with you etc. just waiting to be triggered! So blaming defence chiefs who are conventional fighters does not make sense to me.
This is a problem for counterintelligence and counter-terrorism units. It is about intelligence gathering, listening to chatter on phones, social media and having human intelligence embedded in communities and even in known groups of militants. It is about processing hundreds of millions of data and moving quickly to head off attacks based on credible intelligence. But even after all that, there are sleeper cells that could be completely cut off from communication to avoid being detected so you also need a lot of luck. That is why former US Secretary of State Condi Rice said, in fighting terrorism, you have to be right all of the time while they only need to get it “right” once!
The only real way to permanently eradicate these threats is to wipe out the ideology that drives that kind of behaviour, deplete the ranks of existing militants, starve the groups of additional recruits and, perhaps target group leaders.
While we hold the FGN accountable for solving this problem, it is noteworthy that its recent attempt to deplete the ranks of these guys by offering amnesty to those who leave the group has already been met by a lot of resistance. In the view of these people, the FGN should not reward killers and should wipe them out. We all would like that very much but if you agree the strategy above, you will deal even if reluctantly. As much as the USA declares publicly that they do not transact with terrorists, the truth is that they do so every time. It all depends on a cold-eyed assessment of the impact of dealing or not dealing with them.
So, while the FGN puts some of these things in motion if they have not already done so, I repeat the FGN cannot protect us from crazed, unpredictable individuals or groups in our communities and cities who, out of the evil in their hearts, choose to murder defenceless citizens. The only real thing the government can do apart from broad policies like getting guns off the streets etc., is respond after the fact.