Nigeria is undergoing change, even when some, who started chanting change, may not believe in the true change, the people have accepted change in all its ramifications, and it will run through Nigeria till we change.
This Change, reminds me of the story of the Cockerel and the Fox. The Fox kills and eats the Cockerel, but it was not so in the beginning according to Igbo folklore.
Once upon a time, the Fox was afraid of the Cockerel, because it thought that the red lobe on the head of the Cockerel was raw fire. So it reasoned that the Cockerel could burn any one when offended. One day, animals attended a party, and on their way home, the Fox saw the cockerel and started running, as was usual. But the Cockerel went close to the Fox, and commanded the fox to touch its head.
The Fox mustered courage after much persuasion by the Cockerel to touch the cockerel’s head, and discovered that it was just an ordinary soft tissue we call lobe ! It laughed loud, caught the cockerel by the throat, killed it , and ate it. Today, the cockerel sees the Fox, and picks race!
All the big cars, big houses, and huge monies, our leaders accumulated by stealing, are like mere soft tissues on the head of the Cockerel. Soon, any serious person or group, can grab the thief, and stop him from milking us dry! One day, in this nation, the Big Oga, will see the poor man, and take to his heels, not because of fear of kidnapping, but because Oga’s ugly past will be used by the people to torment him.
The past administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,GEJ opened up the atmosphere of Nigeria to freedom of expression, investigation and affirmative action. It gave us the Freedom of Information Bill, with which any Nigerian can obtain any information on anything from government, following appropriate procedure. The categories of the people information can be obtained about, and the types of information are not closed.
It is awesome for example to know, that any Nigerian can ask for the assets declaration of any prating and lying governor and with time, get it, in spite of the hindrances corruption may throw on his way.
This means in fact, that in addition to the Senators, and members of the National Assembly, and the political office holders, the ICPC , EFCC, and CCB, and other officials can be subject of investigation by those interested, in other words, the hunter can one day be hunted, because GEJ gave us that power. Any leader who now thinks that the Nigeria of today is the same of five years ago, must be in delusion.
128(2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended states;
“ The powers conferred on a House of Assembly under the provisions of this section are exercisable only for the purposes of enabling the House to-
(a)Make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defects in existing laws; and
(b)expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.”
Up till now, Governors simply bought their respective Houses of Assembly, pocketed them, and then ran the States as they liked. Some unconstitutionally run their states as Sole Administrators for months without Commissioners; sack the Local Government Chairmen and appoint their lackeys as administrators; corner all the money, impede development, amass primitive wealth, while the people watched helplessly.
These governors carry the whole pot, eat the food, and rub the remnant oil on the lips of the members of their Houses of Assembly. For example, Governor Okorocha recently appointed the 27 lawmakers as the caretaker chairmen of the 27 council areas of the state.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, and the member representing Owerri North state constituency, were made the chairman and member of a task force on motor parks management, respectively, while other members of the House were made chairmen of phony task forces, in addition to their new jobs as Local Government Administrators.
But Six members of the Assembly, who are of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however honourably declined to accept the offer, saying it is unconstitutional to combine their duties as lawmakers with that of the executive. Some have argued that as law makers with oversight functions, they can as well take over the work of the executive, but that is wrong and most dis-honourable.
It offends the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, and constitutes a betrayal of the confidence the people placed on these Members of House in Imo. It is a breach that could lead to a recall.
If we follow their reasoning, for accepting the appointment as part of their oversight responsibilities, it means that a Senator, or NASS member, can take over the functions of any Government Parastal or MDA, when appointed by the President and still remain on his Senate or National Assembly seat. That is how preposterous the justification for their accepting that appointment by Okorocha can be.
They should honourably reject that game, and ploy to make them look very hungry and helpless or resign.
Section 110 of our constituion as amended states,
“ A member of the House of Assembly may be recalled as such member if-
(a) there is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member; and
(b)the petition is thereafter, in a referendum conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission within 90 days of the petition, approved by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that members constituency.
The people are the power, and what remains is to take that power to the streets because civil disobedience becomes righteous, when used to fight unrighteousness. It is scriptural to stop the excesses of all unjust ruler ship.
This article was originally published on Vanguard.