Olu Alebiosu
Recent happenings at the hallowed chambers of the red chamber has only given real meaning to that book by foremost playwright, Ola Rotimi titled ‘our husband has gone mad again!’ published in 1977.
The award-winning playwright in the book takes a comic swipe at the ideological misfits and opportunists who strut the ever-accommodating political landscape of contemporary Africa. the book could not have been better apt to a time and season than what is unfolding in the Nigerian senate.
This was not the first mental desertification in our national assembly, we all know. We thought by now it should be getting less but it seems that adage of Yoruba, ‘kaka ko san lara iya aje nselo nfi omo re bi obirin jo, eye wa nyi lu eye’ ( Rather than things getting better for a witch, she continues to bear female children), is becoming the rule of the day in our polity.
In 1999, when this Democratic dispensation began, a lot of things were amissed but the excuse we gave ourselves was that we are new and things will soon hook up.
First it was Evan(s) Ewerem, the first senate President of the current republic his case of certificate forgery. It took cries of many months, inks of many journalists and that iconic visit of the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo to his official resident to drag us out of that madness.
Then came Salisu buhari and yet another case of certificate forgery in our green roof dome. The excuse we gave for that madness was ‘we are still learning democracy.’
Then fast forward to the third term agenda and that inglorious visit of “Ghana-must-go” bags stuffed with hard currencies in our chambers. The excuse we gave to move on was, ‘we are still learning democracy.’
Remember the saga surrounding Olubunmi Etteh, the first and only female speaker in the National Assembly and the consequent imbroglio that brought Dimeji Bankole in as speaker and later the suspension of Dino melaye, yes our own Jonah Daniel melaye from the house of Representatives in dress toreinto rags. The excuse we gave was to move on ‘we are still learning democracy.’
Thereafter the madness of Farouk Lawan, then chairman, fuel subsidy probe panel of the house of Representatives who was suspended over allegations that he and the secretary, Boniface Emanelo, demanded and collected $620,000 bribe from the Chief Executive of Zenon Oil, Femi Otedola, to shield his companies from indictment. We still await the prosecution of that case till tomorrow.
To all these, we had always said, ‘we are still in the learning process of democracy.’
Now the 8th assembly is giving us enough of madness to last a lifetime, are we still learning?
The Saraki-Dino ‘collabo’ in the senate has caused the national Assembly and indeed the country a great deal of shame. But it seems the opium of shame has just begun to drip down our throat as a people and a nation.
We voted them in, and they have turned themselves to our husbands. When they talk we must be quiet. When they pass by our streets, we must bow and say rankadede. When they speak in the media, the clock must stop ticking and our hearts must stop beating as we honour our husbands who have continued to rape us to emptiness. Which is why they have vowed to derail the government if their earnest yearnings are nor earnestly adhered to.
In saner climes, a lawmaker that is accused of certificate forgery won’t be dancing around in victory because he has been cleared by an in-house committee of whom we know, from the start, will only bend to the bidding of their creator, this time the senate President, Bukola Saraki and his attack dog, Dino Melaye. For Our Dino melaye and his crew this is victory and calls for celebration. And would you have expected a better reaction from him? It is a No for answer.
I saw in full glare of national and international media how the senator representing Kogi West came into the senate chambers adorned in a full regalia of a convocation gown and I laughed at the graduated madness in our high places. The fact that other senators were even rejoicing with him made it worse as it further compounds the madness to have more than one victim sitting in the porch of lawmaking for millions of saner beings outside the green roof dome.
The convocation gown is a sacred gown adorn with pride once in every academic year. As a matter of fact, in some institutions it is even once in many years since many institutions now do combined convocation. For this same gown to be worn as a play costume by Dino Melaye could only be compared with those innocent school students who wore choir robes to school in iwo, osun state at height of the Hijab drama in osun state.
While the madness of our senators unwind in Abuja and we all have our fill of legislative comics, it only shows the level of madness in our society. Nigeria is mad and its people can take hold of no sanity. The socio-economic dislocation in the country has turned the thought patterns of people upside down while, political office holders and scavengers continue to turn our nation to psychopathic turf of tragicomedy.
Let the drama of comical audacity continue from our husbands at the national assembly. let them however remember, that no one would give the excuse of ‘we are still learning democracy’again when the chips are down on them soon, i mean very soon!!
