Nigerians voted for APC in the last general elections because the party promised to change the way government is run in Nigeria but the only change being experienced in the way government business is conducted has been coming from Ben Murray Bruce, a PDP senator.

Senator Ben Bruce has not only called the Federal Government out on many occasions but has also been using Social Media to get Nigerians involved in economic development.

As human beings we tend to place more emphasis on who is talking than what he is saying. In Nigeria, there are too many people who have more privilege than sense and no shortage of disciples who will echo whatever they say whether it makes sense or not. So whenever someone like Sen. Ben Bruce who has both privilege and sense comes along he gets more attention when he is having a war of words with someone who has equal or more privilege than him but far less sense.


If the governing party had more senators like Ben Bruce Nigerians would have started to feel the ‘change’ that was promised before the elections.

Since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999 until Ben Bruce came along I have never seen a Nigerian legislator trying to get the populace involved in law making in Nigeria the way it is done in a civilized democracy. Having said that though, I stand corrected.

For those who do not realise, members of the National Assembly are there to represent the people who voted for them and not themselves, the clue is in the name: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Same goes for senators.

Constituents are supposed to engage with their elected representatives and senators to pass the right laws and challenge the executive arm of government whenever necessary.

In the UK, everybody has a right to appeal to their MP to intervene on their behalf in the face of executive recklessness and the MP, being a legislator, will take up the fight on behalf of the constituent and challenge whichever branch of the executive arm of government is concerned. Many Nigerian living in the UK, both legally and illegally, are regularly assisted by their MPs in their fight with Immigration authorities to obtain permission to remain in the UK.

With his #BuyNaijaToGrowTheNaira campaign, Senator Ben Murray Bruce is probably doing more than every elected APC politician, put together, to save the Naira and what does he get for it, incessant internet trolling.

Someone was wondering on Twitter why Senator Ben Bruce was more vocal on Twitter than on the Senate floor. Dude, where else can the senator get your attention? People like you don’t sit in front of the TV watching National Assembly proceedings.

If every elected politician in Nigeria who is entitled to an official car (by the way, aren’t they all?) and every government appointee purchased their official car from Innoson Motors like the senator just did imagine the amount of jobs that will be created at the assembly plant. That will probably have a stronger economic impact than feeding 30 million pupils biscuits everyday.

Like a junkie hooked on crack, Nigeria has been addicted to oil for too long and everybody concerned about the nation’s well being has advised us to wean ourselves off the black stuff. Let us hope that now that a senator, who is supposed to be one of the major beneficiaries of the oil wealth, has added his voice to the campaign to stay off the sticky poison his colleagues at the legislative and executive arms of government will begin to re-examine other sources of income.

Urnaija is therefore proud to associate with the senator’s #BuyNaijaToGrowTheNaira campaign.

wake me up when he becomes the president

FTC