A conduct so dishonourable

WHEN the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was defeated by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), there was palpable joy across the land over the new ruling party’s promise of change. But just as the engine appeared ready to roar, a clog has set in, the trouble being the National Assembly where it now seems that self is gaining upper hand over public and party interests. This does not bode well for the government.

In the first instance, the crisis has been compounded by the leadership of the bicameral legislature emerging through a rancorous process. This has exposed the absence of any binding principles within the party and among the new leaders, culminating in brigandage and a free-for-all fight over power and positions. By degenerating into fisticuffs, the lawmakers, of course, have desecrated the hallowed chambers of the legislature and embarrassed a nation they were elected to serve.

While the show of shame was playing itself out at the national level, some states were also taking a cue. The Benue State House of Assembly joined in the wave of fury over house leadership, thereby aggravating the national shame. Viewed along previous incidents such as the jumping of the perimeter walls of the National Assembly by members of the seventh assembly, this is a grievous embarrassment taking on a pattern.

To the extent that the brawl in the National Assembly was over power and leadership positions, this reality has pushed to the foreground the self-seeking motives of the elected lawmakers over and above the interest and wellbeing of their constituents and the country at large. The lamentation of an expectant public is loud: The headache that the crisis in the National Assembly has unleashed on Nigerians must stop.

The fight in the National Assembly was one spectacle that has brought untold shame to the country but more importantly to each member of that assembly. For a start, a National Assembly dominated by the APC which promised change was expected to be different from the PDP government which it upstaged in the last election. It is now apparent that there is no way any change for the better would with the conduct of the personalities in the National Assembly. And the earlier this madness is nipped in the bud, therefore, the better for the nation.

These lawmakers need to be reminded that fighting is not part of their duty. Their job is to enact laws for the good governance of the country, and fighting is inimical to this noble goal. It amounts to sowing impunity and anarchy in the land and, therefore, clearly despicable especially so, when their engagement in pugilism is all about graft and aggrandisement.

Lawmakers are expected to be role models to the younger generation of Nigerians. Ironically, their show of shame, adult delinquency of sorts, was enacted before a sizeable audience of students who had come to witness first-hand, the act of law-making. What would those students now say? What can possibly erode the lasting impression that the affray of public officers must have made on them?

Beyond the embarrassment to the nation is the weighty censure that the country suffers before the international community. A physical combat in the parliament by parliamentarians would be read as barbarism of Nigerians. Indeed, the conduct of the lawmakers has lowered the nation’s prestige in the comity of nations. And the admiration of Nigeria’s democracy which even nudged towards a higher level of respectability by virtue of the last election seen as largely credible, may have been dented.

Most important, the lawmakers’ conduct puts a question mark on their fitness. It raises the question of elite recruitment process which is not only faulty, but denies the very best in the country the opportunity to serve their fatherland while simultaneously entrenching mediocrities in the scheme of things. The consequence of this prevalent political phenomenon is that the country loses all opportunities for greatness.

The lawmakers must be reminded that political representation goes beyond egotism of individuals or primitive accumulation of wealth through collection of wardrobe and other sundry allowances. Representation is about giving voice to the preferences of the electorate. It is about good governance, about transformation of the country for the well-being of all; and above all, it is the approximation of the general will.

It is therefore an honour and privilege to be chosen by the people for that assignment. By their show of shame, the legislators have embarrassed themselves and betrayed the people’s trust.