It beggars belief that our elected representatives at the National Assembly who were elected for the purpose of representing and making laws that will be beneficial to their various constituencies have abandoned the sole purpose of representation of their constituencies and to a large extent, have reduced themselves to political jobbers scavenging for political crumbs.
The 8th National Assembly, since its inception is yet to find its bearing in the act of promulgating laws but rather has been embroiled in one form of scandal to another. The dust the emergence of Senator Saraki as Senate president against the wishes of his party (APC) is yet to be cleared. The Senate president, since his emergence has had more appearances at the witness box of code of conduct tribunal and the courts of law than that of the plenary over alleged false declaration of assets, financial misappropriation/laundering and forgery of the senate rules among other issues.
The members of the House of Representatives have been at daggers drawn as a result of the alleged padding of the 2016 budget by Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, former Committee Chairman on Appropriation.
Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin who was removed by the Speaker of the House after investigations had indicted him of complicity in the budget padding/mutilation has never stopped talking since his removal as the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, he has vowed not to sink alone and like water gushing out from a broken tap, Hon. Jibrin has on every of his appearance continued to tell Nigerians the padded budget was for the interest of the House members and was never done in isolation as speculated but, rather had the full backing of the leadership of the House and had insisted the Speaker of the House benefitted from the padded budget which favoured his over bloated constituency projects before the bubble busted. The Speaker is still battling to dissociate himself from the budget padding scandal, but the more the revelations; the more he is being indicted of complicity.
Barely a year and few months into the 8th Assembly, they have really proven beyond comprehension they are not in same boat with the anti-corruption posturing of president Buhari but, rather, a similitude of what was obtained in the past regime of asphyxiating corruption.
While we await the anti-graft agencies to do their investigations, Nigerians are seriously watching the body language of the presidency; this is the time to prove to the world he is really here to fight corruption especially now the progressive majority of the ruling party at the legislative arm have immuned themselves in legislative impunity.
