31 Oct 2009 |
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In the week of October 19, 2009, I watched a rather vexatious session of the House of Representatives. A member brought in a motion to condemn the People’s Republic of China over the cremation of a Nigerian who died in a Chinese jail. The member described cremation as obnoxious and a violation of human rights. That was the only clear statement that he made. Everything else he said was so mixed up that I could not make sense out of it. But more was to come. Another member in his contribution said that in China, an accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent. Yet another member got up to ask how the Nigerian died in prison. The Speaker to the House nicely asked both members to ‘shut up’ since the motion was calling for the condemnation of that country for cremating a Nigerian and not what lead to the death of the said Nigerian or whether or not Chinese laws violated the rights of the deceased. Fortunately, a member of the House who had lived in China for decades stood up to clear the blatant ignorance of his fellow honourable members about the Chinese culture of cremation and the Chinese law relating to an accused person. Now, here are the questions: did the member that brought the motion to the floor of the house do any research on cremation? Did other members who were so enthusiastic to contribute have their facts about the subject matter and the laws of that country? At some point, it became obvious to the Speaker that some his colleagues lacked the competence to handle such a simple motion professionally. After several attempts to redirect their minds to the real issue raised in the motion, the Speaker, obviously fed up, decided to discontinue the meaningless debate and call for a voice vote. The nays had it and the motion was thrown into the trash bag. You needed to see the embarrassment on the face of the sponsor of the motion, who anyway, looked like somebody who just walked into the House from a night time motor park touting job. Unfortunately, this is the scenario that replays itself both at the House and the Senate. Sometimes, I get very irritated by the quality of debates. As an avid debater and a lover of debates, I must say that I saw much better debates in my primary school days than I am seeing today at the National Assembly. I would not want to have a large number of those honourable and distinguished members in my debate team. Yet, these are the people that determine the direction of this country of plenty, bright and beautiful people. The most annoying part of the experience is that these non performers at the assembly either do not have any shame or simply do not care how they are perceived by Nigerians. In fact, they just take everybody for granted. In a country where things work right, taking constituents for granted is always a dangerous political game. As political scientist,Laurence Whitehead once wrote “Actors may be able to charm, distract, or bamboozle their audiences, but they can never afford simply to disregard them. Nor can governments ever afford to cease anticipating the reactions of their subjects. Thus, performers must always be alert to the fearful possibility of audience disenchantment, knowing how readily it can lead to disbelief, and even to open disapproval. No matter how infrequently our political or theatrical actors are exposed to the sanction of the slow hand-clap, the possibility is always present and every performance must in part be tailored to its avoidance.” No doubt, Whitehead’s words do not resonate with those who claim to represent us at the National Assembly. While giving us a live feed of debates from the House and the Senate may be one of the best things that ever came out of the National Television Authority, those feeds are becoming a source of unbearable torment and trauma. You see many empty seats, signifying absentee legislators who nonetheless regularly show up to collect their monthly pay and allowances (the truants). You see many who just sit there chewing either kola nuts or gums and watching debates without contributing a word (the mute). And you see those who just want to be on record as contributors but often go off key every time they open their mouths (the clowns). It is only a few that really know the business of legislation and these are over worked as they have to carry the burden of their colleagues’ legislative illiteracy. A system that does not have a built-in and fully functioning mechanism for correcting defects, rewarding virtues and hard work will sooner or later become toxic with its own waste. This is the law of nature as implied by the ability of all living organisms to excrete their waste. It is the successful attempt by the Nigerian political class to beat that excretion mechanism and the nonchalant attitude of Nigerians to sit back and watch, as if helpless, that has led the country to where it is today. There is nothing yet to suggest that untrusty politicians and pretenders to representative government will not continue their viral reproductive system and make nonsense of our future. It is therefore unreasonable and fool hardy to expect that those who are diabolically attracted to debased values will self-transmute into agents of reforms as expected by some Nigerians. Perhaps, Sonala Olumhense’s spontaneous forced compliance theorem may be the sure way out of the morass.
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It appears that some of those who have found themselves at the National Assembly by legal and illegal means have no clue as to the grandness of that institution in a democracy. The worst part though is that having found themselves there, they are not by any means interested in learning how to adapt to their new environment. Considering that even animals make strenuous efforts to learn fast when they find themselves in new habitats, it is a tragedy then that some humans could be so dense that they are out performed by simple organisms in the routine task of adaptation.
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