by Michael Orodare

I must commend our honourable lawmakers at the House of Representatives led by the rebel Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal for taking their grounds last week to ‘defend’ our nascent democracy. The gate scaling, and assault on the Senate President, David Mark as revealed in the video clip and all other events at the House last week are surely good for our democracy. They must be commended.

For a very long time ago I have left the association of those who claim to weep for this nation. Nothing absolutely comes to me as a surprise again in this country. I only weep for those who weep for this nation because they should weep for themselves, just like Jesus Christ told the women of Israel on his way to Golgotha, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children”, I will rather advise them to weep for themselves, focus on how to make the difference they crave for in their own little way. ‎

Anyone who has no expectation will never be disappointed. Disappointment does not exist in the dictionary of those without expectations.

The events at the House of Representatives last week came to some as a rude shock, especially those are the aliens in this land, while to some, it was another testament to the many anomalies most of the hooligan lawmakers are known for. As usual, the media
was awash with different versions of the story, mostly in favour of the gate jumpers with little or no mention to how the Senate President was manhandled, and trust the gullible readers, they came out in their scores in support of the absurdity and the gross
lawlessness staged by those elected to make law and be a reference point on how to get things done rightly in the country.

Yes, a gate was locked, but in a civilized nation, does that call for a gate jumping by the lawmakers? Why was it locked, nobody gives a damn to ask. Somewhere in a more civilized society, the lawmakers would have staged a peaceful protest and call for the
penalization of whoever had ordered the closure if they think it was out of place. But trust our lawmakers, they didn’t disappoint, they went berserk, took turns to climb the gate of the national assembly in a show fit only for the shenanigans.

What if there were some school children on excursion at the National Assembly complex that day? What kind of impression would they have gone home with after seeing men who make laws for their country jumping the gate of the NASS complex? They would have gone
home with the impression that to be a lawmaker in Nigeria, you must hold a degree or its equivalent in fence and gate jumping.

The media too didn’t help matter, trust them to always give you the best of reportage when the opposition parties are on the wrong side of the news. The gate scaling lawmakers didn’t stop at that without assaulting the Senate President, and at the end they
were deified, celebrated, heroes were made out of their villains and David were made out of their Goliaths. Why? They are members of the opposition party in a country where the opposition is always right and never does any wrong. And I kept wondering, for
how long shall we continue to put up with these?

You can always trust the gullible followers, they were everywhere celebrating the ‘heroes of democracy’, afterall the lawmakers ‘fought a good course to sustain and protect our democratic system’ as some have claimed, isn’t it? They swiftly zoomed into Ekiti
in their hypocritical jet to condemn another show of lawlessness happening in the state. Blame them not, our minds have been so bastardized, we can no longer juxtapose between right and wrong even when it is so glaring that evil is prevailing over goodwill.
Honesty seems to be on a sabbatical in our society.

These further calls for thorough questioning, the caliber of people being elected into the House of Representatives all seem to have a history of thuggery and hooliganism. Need we say that the bar of age required to be elected into the House of Representatives
be raised above the present level? It seems the energetic men at the lower chamber have enough strength to exert on causing mayhem rather than making law.

It has now become a trend or call it a curse in our nation, towards the end of their term, members of the House of Reps always display their vigour for tomfoolery. As it was in the days of Dimeji Bankole so it is in the days of Aminu Tambuwal.

It will interest many Nigerians to know that many of the lawmakers exerting vigour on fighting at the chamber have little or nothing to justify their many years of stay at the National Assembly. After denying their constituents what is due to them, expending
millions of naira received as constituency allowance on personal enrichment, they come out ‘strong’ and become activists, and we begin to celebrate them. Afterall they are our heroes of democracy, shouldn’t we rather celebrate them?

This absurdity too shall surely end one day and history will surely remember the villain turned hero and hero turned villain!

———————-

Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.