By Prisca Sam-Duru
Nigerians have not stopped lashing out at the Senate for ushering President Ahmed Bola Tinubu into the hallowed chambers on Wednesday, with his campaign song of allegiance.
President Tinubu who was at the National Assembly for the presentation of the 2024 budget, was ushered in with the song of allegiance, ‘On your mandate we shall stand, ’, sparking off heavy criticisms from the public. Singing that song during a joint session of the National Assembly instead of the National Anthem to many, speaks eloquently of the sad fact that Nigerians may have allowed sycophants to occupy such a critical position in the country.
Bigwig Austin’s tweet which was read out during Arise TV’s What’s Trending with Ojy Okpe, says, “National Assembly singing for Tinubu. We have witnessed a rubber stamp Senate under Ahmed Lawan but this Godswill Akpabio’s Senate is a collection of hype men. He has moved from wearing Tinubu’s insignia cap to ‘on your mandate’ hype lord right on the floor of the Senate. Every well-meaning Nigerian must condemn this rendition of Tinubu’s campaign tune in the National Assembly Chamber. God forbid an evidence of outright totalitarianism.”
Obviously miffed by that allegiance song rendition by the Senate, Dr Reuben Abati said, “I agree with Austin, what he is saying makes sense. This is how it starts; hero worship. This is how parliaments in Africa turn their presidents into dictators. The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, if we check both chambers, is a collection of members from different political parties. It’s a place for law-making, good governance and oversight assembly. This kind of open sycophancy is primitive. ‘On your mandate we shall stand’ is a slogan, song for the APC. So the APC cannot hijack a bipartisan National Assembly where there are other political parties representing the interest of Nigerians. And if you look at the result of the election, it’s not everybody that is standing on the mandate of president Tinubu.”
According to him, “When the president arrives at an occasion, the appropriate thing to play is the National anthem. I hope that these lawmakers are not going to pursue the idiocy of playing APC song at public events. The recognised song is the National anthem. The presentation of the budget before the National Assembly is a national occasion, not an APC occasion. That’s something to be really condemned.”
“Shame on all our National Assembly members for that song of allegiance,” Rufai Oseni began saying. “If we truly had a republic, by now those in their constituency should be sending them letters to show how disgruntled they are, if possible recall them. It is that bad! We are losing our country with sycophancy but it is not only Tinubu, it happened during the Buhari administration. Remember how people were wearing Buhari insignia on their body. What level of madness have we got into in this country? It’s a whole new level of madness, in the hallow chamber. By playing that partisan song and desecrating the hallowed chambers, they must account for it,” he declared.
Referencing the cause of the first English civil war whereby the king tried to overreach himself in the parliament leading to parliamentarians revolting against him, Rufai pointed out that the parliament is for the people and the word parliament means “to speak for the people and not for political sentiment and hypocrisy or listen to song of allegiance to a certain political party.
He expressed shock that some other lawmakers were there but couldn’t talk, describing the entire Senate as worse than copy and paste. He calls them hype men as Bigwig Austin described them. “How would they be able to talk? We told them when Labour Party lawmakers were part of those that collected 160 million for cars…will they have the nerve to speak?”
“We forget that there are three coequal arms of government in this country, the judiciary, legislature and the Executive. We have legislators that don’t even know themselves. They are worse than copy and paste now, they are worse than rubber stamp, they are hype men as Bigwig called them. So, shame on all of them for not understanding that they are coequal arm of government in this country; and they are singing an allegiance song to the executive,” he said.
ON WIKE’S PLAN TO BUILD 15 BILLION RESIDENCE FOR VP SHETIMA
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike is receiving his own portion of lashes following his announcement that plans were on the way to spend 15 billion naira for the construction of a new residence for the Vice president, Kashim Shetima.
Wike disclosed this on Thursday when he appeared before a House of Representatives committee to defend the FCT’s 61.5 Billion naira 2023 supplementary budget. He noted that the need for the 15 billion is just to give the VP, a befitting residence.
With of course a sad face, Dr Abati said, “many of our leaders in positions are not sensitive to the feelings of Nigerians” adding that many Nigerians will feel scandalised because the Nigerian government is always telling us to make sacrifices but we don’t see our leaders making sacrifice. Look at the National Assembly members considering the appropriation bill brought by the president, they are more interested in constituency projects- how palliatives can be handed over to them to execute. This is part of the problem.”
Continuing he said, “Wike said it was the military that built Aguda House- the official residence of the Vice president. We have been told that 2.5 billion was earmarked for the renovation of that Aguda House in the 2023 supplementary budget and that has been passed by the National Assembly. Many Nigerians say this is not the time for that. Moreover, the contractor has increased the cost of this new edifice from 7 billion to 15 billion.
“Wike also said something that was surprising; that 60 million had been earmarked for publicity in the supplementary budget, now he says he has increased it to 2.8 billion for publicity. When he was asked, he said, you have to use money to make money. How will publicity be used to make more money? These are the kind of expenditure that people are worried about”
Rufai reasoned that “If our leaders are sensible, they better cancel that 15 billion and cancel that money to be spent on renovation. The British economy is way bigger than ours yet Number 10 Downing Street is 339 years old house. That’s where every world leader goes to visit the Prime Minister”, noting that there has not been any talk about tearing it down. He regretted that “These guys (Nigerian leaders) don’t care…it’s just eat, eat, and eat. May God not allow them to eat this country.”
Culled from Vanguard
