Probes to Nowhere: Getting the Dividends

By Professor Sola Adeyeye
Senator, Federal Republic of Nigeria
 
May 24,  2012




It was the inimitable Joseph Sarwuan Tarka who in describing his working life said “I’m a teacher by profession, a politician by choice and a businessman by necessity”. I could be saying the same thing now about myself. However, at the moment, I cannot luxuriate in my working life, because as a politician, I am increasingly feeling like Alice in Wonderland in my conception and attempt to take charge of certain public issues, having been a hands-on teacher and businessman.

As a teacher, I am in charge of everything I do from conception to delivery. I have the syllabus, I prepare my notes (my wife and students say I do no such thing, as it’s all in my small head) and deliver this in class. I know what I need to give the students, what I have to examine them on and who meets the pass mark in whatever grade, because I have appropriate benchmarks to judge them by.

When the school authorities and I get the feedback from the students – from those who say I’m a genius to those who claim they have no clue what I was on about most of the time in class, I score myself as my employers score me and when by the next semester I’m still there teaching the same or another class, I know I’ve done well. When I hear news of progress being made professionally by students who’ve passed through me, be it in academia, business or any other sphere of life, I thank God for blessing my work and saunter on with a broad satisfied grin on my face. Forget the heavenly gratuity; my reward is here on earth!

As a businessman, I count the pennies and half-pennies. I know who to employ and who to let go, when to buy a product and when to sell one. I know how often I’ve got to check the books and when to call in the accountants and the auditors and discuss with my bank manager. I know that people working for me have to be paid and that they and their families depend on what they do with me and my business to get the good things of life. I know that I can always raise the excuse of a bad business environment, the recession or consumer weariness and all that, but I also know that no one will be accepting these excuses happily if at the end of the month, their pay cheques aren’t ready, in line with the terms of their contract of employment as they concern remuneration.

As a political office holder, apart from the period I was Chairman of Ifedayo Local Government in Osun State, I have served entirely as a parliamentarian at the Federal level; but, unlike in my incarnations as a teacher and businessman, here, I’m not entirely in control of decisions or outcomes.  Even personal propriety would seem vastly insufficient to hide one’s helplessness. You want to justify the huge salary you’re peculiarly paid as a Nigerian parliamentarian by applying yourself diligently to the work at hand, but parliamentary rules, procedures and processes and most times huge doses of political chicanery can get your butts glued to your seat, mouth firmly sealed for an incredibly long period of time.

I have sat here reading through the 205-page Report of House of Representatives’ Ad-Hoc Committee on the management of the subsidy. I have gone through a gamut of emotions – from anger to helplessness; but this is nothing new. It’s always how I feel when I read through or sit through these things. I’ve grown sick from a constant feeling of déjà vu, as I imagine another parliamentary tome flying into the executive dustbin! Yet, even though I’m a teacher, a businessman and a politician, I think of myself more crucially as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And that is precisely why I’m sick and worried.

As a citizen, I sit here and wonder how much more emotional battery Nigerians can take when they have to sit through public hearings of this sort and hear in gory detail, day after day, how their patrimony is being stolen and squandered by people they’ve given opportunities to serve and lead them! When I look back to the whole period of civil rule and see the strewn carcasses of unimplemented parliamentary probe reports, my heart bleeds deep red! It not only emphasizes the nature and extent of waste perpetrated in this country, it brings home the fact most strongly that there is a vicious hold on the nation by the cult of corruption.

When I was asked recently at a media chat whether the government was going to implement the report of the subsidy probe, I was quick to say I don’t think so, because we have a situation where the dominant party dictates public action or inaction. I mean, any conscious Nigerian knows that the ruling party has made corruption the instrument of state policy and the most vital ingredient that oils the wheels of governance to the detriment of the ordinary people. Even the ultra-conservative World Bank has cried out on our behalf! The effect on governance cannot be over-emphasized.

If policy-makers and service providers are in cahoots, loading imaginary costs upon imaginary costs, unconscionable greed upon unconscionable greed on a simple service or public product, because of corruption and the very many leeches on the trough, the value of that product or service will not be there for the people, because its cost would be far more than the enjoyment of the service or product. In essence, they would have been better off not getting the product and service at all than paying that much to leeches and termites whose survival depends on sucking the people’s blood and poisoning them at the same time!

On 22 January, this year, the Vanguard newspaper published an interview with my colleague, Senator Babafemi Ojudu. He was fielding questions from the interviewer, Bashir Adefaka on his membership of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the probe of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and what became of their Report. The reporter threw Ojudu’s words back in his face for saying in the course of the hearing that there would be no sacred cows. Indeed, the committee did a thorough job which indicted former President Olusegun Obasanjo and a whole lot of others.

At the time of his interview, they’ve submitted the report, but the journalist was making him squirm in the face of the larger Senate supposedly playing hide and seek with it. He asked Ojudu, if in the face of such a development, whether he himself wouldn’t develop cold feet if called upon to do such a job in the future. Mr Ojudu said he will not decline if called upon. “You do not stop struggling because you failed at one attempt”, he declared. Mr Ojudu, whose background as an activist-journalist is well known, said “we all should continue to ask questions and we must continue to demand answers.

In spite of what happened, I think the document that emerged is strong enough to serve in the process of asking strong questions and calling for actions”. What he said next is instructive: “Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we have a very weak opposition, an opposition that is not attentive enough to latch on to these little gains to demand vigorously for a more transparent Nigeria”.

Mr Ojudu is my partyman and we are both members of this opposition he criticizes. While I won’t be raising any defence here for the opposition, I would like to point out one thing. The publication of the Vanguard was in late January this year as indicated, but actually the Senate had on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 accepted and adopted the whole 45 recommendations by the Committee (I can only assume that the interview was granted before the adoption, but was published well after without the necessary caveat or correction).

The Senate President, David Mark at the session actually frowned at the reports and insinuations in the media regarding what the latter thought was unwillingness on the part of the larger Senate to adopt the Report, because of pressure from the powerful people indicted. He said: “Nobody forced us to undertake this investigation, we did it on our own and nobody should make efforts to stampede us. We have our own timetable and there was no time the report was withdrawn because of any external pressure or because there was conflict in the Senate.” Yet, after this adoption, the Senate President instructively noted: “Having adopted the committee’s report, it is not in our place or duty to execute or implement the recommendations. It is left for the executive to implement them.”

The Committee’s recommendations included a recommendation that the Director-General, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa be removed “for gross incompetence and for the illegal and fraudulent sale of the federal government’s residual shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited.” It indicted former President Obasanjo as well as former heads of the Bureau, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Dr. Julius Bala and Mrs. Irene Nkechi Chigbue, the latter three for seeking approval directly from the president instead of the National Council on Privatisation as stipulated in the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Act, 1999. The Committee recommended that the unlawful and criminal sale of the Abuja International Hotels Limited, the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja and the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria and the Delta Steel Company be rescinded and that they be re-advertised for sale to new investors under lawful procedures.

There were also recommendations that the Federal Government implements the July 2011 Inter-Ministerial Technical Audit Report on Ajaokuta Steel Complex and that the BPE should stop the use of privatisation proceeds to settle staff terminal benefits, consultancy fees, transaction expenses and execution of capital projects. The Committee stated that it should rather approach the National Assembly for appropriation as provided under Section 80 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). It recommended that the BPE close all privatization proceeds account in commercial banks and henceforth put all the proceeds in the Privatisation Proceeds Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria in compliance with Section 19(1) of the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Act 1999.

The Committee further recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) be immediately brought in to investigate the economic crimes being perpetrated against the nation at the premises of VON Automobile Nigeria Limited in Lagos by Barbedos Ventures Limited (BVI), while the taxes and import duties accruable to the Federal Government on all goods smuggled into the warehouse of VON Automobile Nigeria Limited be computed and recovered by the Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Now, without prejudice to the right of persons and institutions indicted to defend themselves in a lawful manner, it is worth noting that not one of these recommendations by the Senate has been implemented by the executive. In fact, not a squeak has been heard from their front five months after taking delivery of the report. Everyone indicted, both in and out of office are going about their lawful and unlawful businesses as though nothing happened.

Mr Ojudu talks about not giving up after one failed attempt; but I wish it were so. There are tens of parliamentary recommendations that have passed through executive shredders. However, it is one thing for them to ignore the recommendations and another thing to smear it all in putrid political palm oil with the aim of killing the spirit of the ordinary Nigerian. For instance, one of the most enervating parliamentary probes since the return of civil rule is the Godwin Ndudi Elumelu-led House of Representatives’ Power and Steel Committee probe of the power sector. I’m highlighting it here, because it epitomizes the perfidy underlying attempts by the National Assembly to call people to account for their actions in public service, especially where these concern policy goals and public money.

The lies, the thefts, the multiple betrayals of public trust are just breathtakingly jaw-dropping that in the end, Nigerians were left in a frazzled heap not knowing what to believe or where to turn. They spent so much money probing the cause of national darkness and in the end it was all wrapped up in stifling obscurantism.  Hollywood could not have scripted a worse tragedy for a nation still grappling with basic electricity supply in the midst of unspeakable wealth and talented human and natural resources.

It began sometime in 2007 with the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, ‘Dimeji Bankole telling the nation that the $16 billion poured into the power sector, pursuant to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s promise to improve electricity supply hasn’t produced the expected result. In January 2008, the House passed a resolution mandating its Power and Steel Committee to probe the power sector with a view to ascertaining, amongst other things, what happened to the money spent so far. In March 2008, the Committee began the public hearing, followed by a long tour of related projects and facilities nationwide with a view to verifying the claims being made by the contractors handling the power projects. The Committee submitted its Report to the leadership of the House in May 2008.

Nigerians watched it all sitting in the public gallery in the House and on live television, thus the Report was not surprising in its findings and recommendations. It just confirmed the suspicion of a lot of knowledgeable people that a cabal of political interests had mindlessly exploited the expectations of Nigerians over power to loot us blind. The names of the indicted include once again, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the three persons who were Minister of Power and Steel after Bola Ige – Olusegun Agagu, Liyel Imoke and Mohammed Goje, all of whom became PDP Governors in their various States thereafter.

They were all indicted for using the vehicle of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) to siphon huge sums of money. The Committee recommended that the law enforcement agencies interrogate the trio, Obasanjo, the then Central Bank Governor, Professor Charles Soludo and the then Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo. The latter’s name has latterly surfaced in the House of Representatives subsidy Report as the fellow who in a display of accounting abracadabra, signed cheques of N999 million 128 times within a 24-hour period. That’s some accounting record for which he’s been rewarded by the ruling party with the governorship of Gombe State, where he presently nestles as the hoopla over his act rents the air.

Chief Obasanjo was said to have been in cahoots with the then Minister of State for Energy, Alhaji Abdulhamid Ahmed with whom he mastered the art of approving waivers to contractors in what the Committee described as “economic sabotage”. The Report stated: “The committee identified the brains behind waivers of due process on NIPP disbursements. The justification at that time was to fast-track the completion of the projects.

But rather than fast-track or facilitate the completion of the projects as envisaged, waivers of due process became the major plank that facilitated payments to contractors and consultants that have failed to perform, at the expense of the nation and the power industry. These officers need to be thoroughly investigated by the appropriate agencies for economic sabotage to the country”. President Goodluck Jonathan, who came into office seizing the Power portfolio for himself with a promise to clear the mess, has since appointed Ahmed as our Ambassador to Turkey!

 

However, once the Committee completed its task in May 2008 and handed its Report to the House amidst great ovation (considering that the public has watched the riveting detail of sleaze right there on live television and the nation was all pumped up), Elumelu and his Committee became the subject of a N100 million bribery allegation by the Tell Magazine. The allegation was referred to the House Ethics Committee.

Ultimately, the Ethics Committee cleared Elumelu and his colleagues, but the poison had seeped in already, the public had begun to have doubts about the whole probe and the indicted were circling their prey. By May 2009, Elumelu was on the run, sought by the EFCC for an alleged N6 billion Rural Electrification Agency (REA) contract scam. For the next three years, up till today, Mr Elumelu has become more familiar with police stations and courtrooms than the chambers of the National Assembly. The EFCC charged him at the Abuja Federal High Court, where Justice Garba Umar struck out the charges of corruption levelled against him. But on 12 April, 2012, the EFCC filed an appeal at the Abuja Court of Appeal against that judgment.

While Elumelu faced his legal travails, the fight to kill the Report in the House of Representatives went on apace. In a typical Nigerian twist, the Report that was originally praised to high heavens began to be pilloried from the same quarters that welcomed it within the House. At a plenary session in April 2009, a couple of weeks before Elumelu was arrested, members took turn to attack Elumelu and the Report.

After an executive session, the leadership of the House emerged with some novel idea. They set up a seven-man committee to be headed by the then Deputy Chief Whip, Aminu Tambuwal (now the Speaker of the House) to review the Elumelu Committee Report. The other members of the review committee, apart from Tambuwal were Hassan Shekarau, Adisa Adeshida, C.I.D Maduabum, Patrick Ikhariale, Mohammed Mungono and Chile Igbawa.

They did the review and concluded that the Elumelu Committee had not established any loss of money nor has it established that any money was corruptly siphoned by President Obasanjo and his lieutenants. That was the end of the power probe and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua who had vowed to get to the bottom of the mess, with an eye on second term and Obasanjo a key player in his party, asked no questions. The only relic of the affair now is the occasional news of Elumelu shuttling between the police stations and the courts. The waste of public funds – from those siphoned to those used for the probe – is mind-bending!

To be honest, we can go on forever talking about the disappointing outcomes of several other parliamentary probes. The latest ones on the pension and subsidy are still on-going or fresh, so I wouldn’t want to conjecture on whether or not they would be implemented once passed to the executive. The subsidy probe is very close to my heart not only because of the social consciousness that engineered it via the January fuel protests by Nigerians, but also because I was principal co-sponsor of the motion in the Senate calling for a probe long before the national protests.

The motion itself was raised by Senator Bukola Saraki as early as October last year. He had pointed out that only N240 billion was appropriated for fuel subsidy in the 2011 budget for the entire year, yet by August of that same year, N931 billion has already been spent! What responsible legislature will overlook such a thing? Though, our own Senate Joint Committee on the investigation into the management of petroleum subsidy, headed by Senator Magnus Abe is yet to issue its Report, I doubt very much it would be radically different from the one of the House of Representatives, considering some of the fundamental facts already established. In the meantime, there are worries that the latest travails of Senator Bukola Saraki with the police over some alleged complicity in a bank loan scandal may not be unconnected with the fact that he is the one who blew the whistle on the subsidy scam. We are watching developments closely on that front, but I can assure Nigerians that the Senate will do a thorough job, because those of us pushing it recognise the historical importance of this mission.


However, having stated all the above, I am at this point looking beyond the probes precisely because of the seeming limit of our powers as parliamentarians. I have chatted with colleagues countless times about this executive rascality of not implementing probe reports and all I get in response is some finger-twiddling and heavy sighs of helplessness. Our role, they keep pointing out, is to present reports, not implement them. But as I stated at the beginning, I am sick and tired of public money being siphoned by unscrupulous public officials and tons of public money spent by parliament on probes upon probes that end up in the executive waste basket! As a citizen sitting through these and watching on TV, I’m worried stiff that the politicians of my generation are missing the opportunity to make a positive change in my nation.

The consequence of such inaction can only be imagined. Of course, some can continue to deceive themselves by claiming Nigerians are inured to the effects of corruption and that it is an acceptable way of life, but I do not believe that. Inasmuch as one can say corruption is endemic in our society, the responsibility for good governance cannot forever be compromised without a deadly effect on us and our children and at the forefront of factors militating against good governance is corruption. I believe it’s time those of us who call ourselves leaders begin to take another look at our actions and the results (or lack of same) with a view to beginning to address some of our core needs as a society.

I’m now strongly of the view that we have to begin to think of how to make these probes productive for the ordinary people. I mean, Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney-General ad Minister of Justice in a pre-emptory strike against implementation of the subsidy Report is already declaring it only as a “fact-finding exercise”, but I wonder whether it is wise to spend such colossal sums as we have on these fact-finding exercises without doing anything about their findings. How long would this continue before the bottom drops off the bucket?

I do not have anything against the Senate President rightly stating at the adoption of the BPE Report that all we can do as parliamentarians is submit our report and leave the executives to implement. I can add that on the face of it, there seems nothing directly in the law at present to indicate that we can compel them.

But a purposive reading of section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) granting us legislative powers to “make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation” and section 88 (2)(b) empowering us to investigate with the aim of exposing “corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution of administration of laws” within our legislative competence “and in the disbursement of administration of funds appropriated by it” would imply without question that it is not the intention of the Constitution to empower us to probe so that the result can lawfully be thrown in dustbins.

The law assumes that the executive will be working in tandem with us to ensure that our recommendations are implemented and where not implemented, to give valid reasons why it is not doing so. But it certainly cannot be the intention of the law to establish a culture of totally ignoring Reports of parliamentary probe. For all it is worth, that is where we are and that is what must now change for the health of our nation. We parliamentarians must rise to the challenge now and force the executive to do the right thing through a robust interpretation of the law and strategic repositioning.

In this regard, I see something in the proposal of my colleague in the House of Representatives, Zakari Mohammed who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs. He is of the view that the House can influence the executive to implement the fuel subsidy report if adopted by the whole House by making its implementation a precondition for approval of any requests from the executive.

In the light of our democratic practice, that may look a little desperate, but desperate times call for desperate measures! The key thing here is that parliament would be within its right to ask the executive to implement its report before granting it any request, based on the provisions of section 4 as it concerns its responsibility for good governance. This may lead to some kind of stalemate or even brinkmanship, but this nation cannot just go on this way!

It’s about time real grown-ups within the leadership begin to show themselves through exemplary patriotic action. We must begin to identify amongst ourselves, irrespective of parties, those who genuinely want to save Nigeria and we must do so without any sentiments whatsover. Gone are the days when you just come into the National Assembly, quietly collect all your entitlements, without saying or doing anything. Our job is to make laws for the good governance of Nigeria. So, not only are we to make the laws, the Constitution empowers us to make sure that these are for the good governance of Nigeria. It follows that any law being manipulated by anyone to create bad governance must be fought by us in every way possible!

[b]Finally, between Ojudu’s criticism of the opposition and my claim of seeming helplessness in the face of a dominant party, I think we can make the legislature more assertive. We can do this through the vehicle of the Public Accounts Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representative, first because of their extremely important tasks and secondly, because these are Committees whose chairmanships are conventionally given to opposition parliamentarians.

We have been witnesses to how, for instance, the Senate Public Accounts Committee led by Senator Ahmed Lawan (ANPP-Yobe) raised alarm over the unconstitutional practice of the NNPC and some other government-owned corporations and commissions employing unaccredited and unqualified auditors. Of recent also, we have seen the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee headed by Hon Solomon Adeola (ACN- Lagos) question Federal Ministry of Agriculture officials over 17 queries relating to diversion of funds and violation of financial regulations, the Federal Ministry of Education and some of its parastatals, the Ministry of Science and Technology and Dr Paul Orhi of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

The core of these Committees’ work deal with public accountability and while their work may not be high profile, it is  at the real base and the right place to nip any corrupt practices in the bud if well structured. Indeed, there may be need for the legislature to look at the legal relationship between the Public Accounts Committee, the Auditor-General and the Accountant –General with a view that all should work in synergy, rather than in opposition as we have seen since the establishment of civil rule.  

For instance, there needs to be clarity about who is responsible for tracking spending and how constantly this must be done with a view to informing the Public Account Committees about questionable developments where necessary. A situation where a state official would have stolen tens and hundreds of billions before the alarm is raised does not show that the process of tracking is working and neither the legislature nor the executive can raise any excuse for that failure.

Frankly, there’s no need waiting for an annual report from the Auditor-General before kicking into action. In fact, we can, just like in the British system, simply co-opt the Auditor-General as a permanent witness at the Public Accounts Committes’ hearings, along with his staff who will provide briefings and assist the Committees in preparing Reports. We can further empower these Committees by giving them the full backing of the House by aiding their work in all areas, giving them high visibility in the press and generally ensuring that the present haughtiness and nonchalant attitude usually exhibited by some of those government officials that appear before them is seriously discouraged.

When people accused of stealing or misusing public resources behave as if we owe them apology or that they would rather be somewhere else, parliament has to summon its powers to call them to order. After all, they know how to act sweet and nice when they defend their annual budget proposals, so why can’t they act the same when questioned about their spending of public money?

I have not spoken here like a politician, but as a citizen, because I know the danger that lurks in our future if we continue blindly as we are going without regard for the Nigerian people. My proposals are aimed to at returning confidence immediately to the probe process. We may have all sorts of excuses, but the public perception of us is not great. The contagion of credibility deficit enveloping those of us who call ourselves leaders in the face of these economic and social injustices should not be ignored. We need to begin to change that by proactively tackling executive lawlessness.

We are paid to check the excesses of the executive, not to condone them or give excuses why we can’t check them. Vast amounts of money that would go a long way in addressing the paucity of social infrastructure and capital investment throughout our nation are being frittered away by callous thieves who appear before us knowing nothing will come out of our costly probes and day in day out we sit there, as is our duty, to waste public money on these probes we know will go nowhere in terms of implementation.

These are probes to nowhere! We’ve got to begin thinking hard now about how to make the probe process productive by proposing through legislative and executive actions measures that will lead to less pilfering of funds because of a strong accounting and auditing process overseen by the legislature and where such funds have been pilfered, a proactive recovery process that will make funds available for investment in capital and social infrastructure. We’ve got to turn the page, boldly. That is the least long-suffering Nigerians deserve. [/b]

Kilode?!:
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20120524072934zg/sections/general-articles/probes-to-nowhere-getting-the-dividends-by-professor-sola-adeyeye/

He's basically asking for a chance to fight the executive using the principles of separation of powers as designed by the creators of the democtratic system we copied.

I agree with him in principle, we cannot continue like this.

We are paid to check the excesses of the executive, not to condone them or give excuses why we can’t check them

I have chatted with colleagues countless times about this executive rascality of not implementing probe reports and all I get in response is some finger-twiddling and heavy sighs of helplessness. Our role, they keep pointing out, is to present reports, not implement them.

But as I stated at the beginning, I am sick and tired of public money being siphoned by unscrupulous public officials and tons of public money spent by parliament on probes upon probes that end up in the executive waste basket! As a citizen sitting through these and watching on TV, I’m worried stiff that the politicians of my generation are missing the opportunity to make a positive change in my nation.

In this regard, I see something in the proposal of my colleague in the House of Representatives, Zakari Mohammed who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs. He is of the view that the House can influence the executive to implement the fuel subsidy report if adopted by the whole House by making its implementation a precondition for approval of any requests from the executive.

Kilode?!:
I suspect changing this from "Nigerian Senator" to "ACN Senator" [size=14pt]will bring more views[/size]. .probably more comments and opinions.

Giving it a try. .

ekt_bear: Damn that was a long read.

ekt_bear: The first half I was able to make it through, yes.

As for the rest, maybe in a few days if I get around to reading it I'll let you know

Dunno why this professor doesn't see brevity as a virtue

CyberG: Well, the USUAL FOOLS are here to stall any atom of progress of this country! Without offering any specific mental argument, yeah right! When the baboon bumbling buffoon, Goof-Fu<k Jonathan drives the country into the ground with his clueless ineptitude! Let's see when someone gets upset enough to put a bullet through that useless president slowing the entire country down with his pack of ass lickers and bottom suckers and YES, they are here on this thread!

Beaf: I can see Gbawe viewing the topic! Lol!
Another O-Pistle coming!
O-Jigbi jigbi!

Kilode?!:
^
LOL

It's all in the spirit of openess

Or as Seun will like it: Traffic Sourcing.

Oya, Jmaine give us your smart thoughts on this, without the gifs

I am sick and tired of public money being siphoned by unscrupulous public officials and tons of public money spent by parliament on probes upon probes that end up in the executive waste basket! As a citizen sitting through these and watching on TV, I’m worried stiff that the politicians of my generation are missing the opportunity to make a positive change in my nation.

The consequence of such inaction can only be imagined. Of course, some can continue to deceive themselves by claiming Nigerians are inured to the effects of corruption and that it is an acceptable way of life, but I do not believe that. Inasmuch as one can say corruption is endemic in our society, the responsibility for good governance cannot forever be compromised without a deadly effect on us and our children and at the forefront of factors militating against good governance is corruption. I believe it’s time those of us who call ourselves leaders begin to take another look at our actions and the results (or lack of same) with a view to beginning to address some of our core needs as a society.

Gbawe:

My brother, I must commend Kilode for having the patience to go back and forth with mischief makers. Only a fool does things the same way yet expects a different outcome. Similar comparison can be made regarding debating those who will always say A , for obvious reasons, if you say B. 'Goodluck' to the Kilode's of Nairaland and their kind.

Kilode?!:


My brother, Wetin I go do nah. Sometimes you have to learn how to play the Nairaland game to get your point across.

There's no reason why sensible progress seeking Nigerians should oppose this kind of active, positive oversight attempt, we've had a legislature that essentially functions as an errand boy and partners in Ghana-must-go-sharing for the executive for far too long. No way we can progress without changing that arrangement.

The Nigerian Legislature is corrupt and untrustworthy, Adeyeye made that point clear, what he's seeking now is an opportunity to do the people's work despite the craziness, greed and corruption sorrounding him. People like him need our support, else this country can never move forward.

Good politics build societies. We will have to fix this politics. No other way around our present predicament.

Gbawe:

My brother, I absolutely agree with your agenda of discussing Politics productively. Indeed, that is what brought many of us here. Nonetheless, and after a while, one has no choice but to ignore identified reprobates and empty barrels who add nothing to productive discourse and only offer clannish idiocy.