State Legislators are Rubber Stamp in the Face Of COVID-19
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
The legislative arm of government at the federal/state/local government levels has the mandate of making laws for governance and oversight functions for checks and balances to the Executive Branch and the Judiciary. In simple terms, it is within scope to say that both the executive and the judiciary are answerable to the legislators in the real sense of the word. It therefore means that the legislator should be a person with rationality in his decision; one with integrity and decorum in handling the legislative agenda.
Sadly, for Nigeria’s uninterrupted democracy since 1999, the legislators at the state levels have perfom below expectation. To borrow a cliché, legislators are “rubber stamp; they mount the gallery to say “yea or nay,” nothing more. While it is a separate arm of government with independent structures, the legislators at the state level work according to the dictates of their executive governors. One might score them high on bills, motions and budgetary approval, but this is not completed in their oversight role. In reality, the interpretation is that the legislators are paid by the same arm of government that they are supposed to ask questions bothering on accountability. The state legislators are contended with the idea of “who pays the piper dictates the tone.” Thus, every legislator tries to keep their names in the good books of the state executive to avoid “victimization.”
Overtime, we have seen different House(s) of Assembly members cross-carpeting political parties to pitch tents with their governors. Cases in point are Imo, Bayelsa and Benue States. With these development, the essence for the legislative agenda has been defeated, more so that the fear of the Governor is the beginning of a good career for the legislator.
The legislative arm of government at the state level is in a near collapse state. Therefore, with a reproach through checks and balances via oversight function, the governors have continued to run states administratively like their personal estates. Legislators who cannot compromise due process are frustrated by colleagues and the executives.
A famous Nigerian Professor and critic of national politics, Emeka Nwabueze satirizes the Nigerian Legislature as a “Parliament of Vultures.” This is a scenario where nothing good comes out of the “assemblage” except feeding on the “carcasses” of indigent Nigerians who are denied health, education, and electricity and road facilities. There is this thing about “constituency allowances” that never come to light.
It is regrettable that a house meant to be a confluence of distinguished personalities has been desecrated by desperate politicians who have traded integrity with shame. A school of thought has it that states in Nigeria are in “deplorable state, because of a comatose legislature.”
Covid-19 is here, and no one hears from the State legislators in states like Benue per what they are doing to help their “good people.” Rather, most of them are in pain, because the borders are no-longer accessible for interstate and international trips; flirting with wives and concubines on social tourism. No one cares to take awareness home to the villagers who still think Covid-19 is an elites’ curse. A friend of mine says he wishes the pandemic had broken in 2019 or wait for 2022, when all wolves are adorned in sheep skin. No state legislator is thinking of motions that will encourage research for immediate and long term solutions to this pandemic. They are “lockdown!”
From the foregone, it is high time state legislators wake from their sleep and put the state executives up and running to do the needful. In a society plagued by denigration, deprivation, desperation and denial, posterity looks up to those who chose the right paths among many. Stand up and be counted in your time as one good legislator. Stay out of a purposeless band wagon. Your people might ask what you did while the Covid-19 pandemic lasted!
