The National Assembly and its Brains

According to keen observers, the National Assembly needs a shot in the arm or 'Braintashi' which is a play on the word describing some inane local aphrodisiac. The writer assumed, with some cogent reasons that the national assembly members have been exhibiting some rather bizarre behaviours that were unbecoming of their responsibilities to the Nigerian people. But contrary to the national assembly members being brain-challenged, they are one of the smartest people in Nigeria. The only problem is that their smartness has not been used in constructive ways. If a set of guys, can keep pulling wool, over the eyes of over a hundred million people for this long, without meaningful challenge, there must be something they are doing right - for themselves.

In reality, Nigeria's national assembly has little to do with the ideals of nationhood or transparency in governance - they only go through the motions. In a country where selections supersedes elections, where cunning supersedes honesty and where money and power are the chief aims for seeking political office, brains do not matter, only right alignment with entrenched power brokers. Governance becomes a theatrical absurdity where the detestable becomes the norm. Corrupt politicians strut the corridors of power in Nigeria because they represent some of our inherent weaknesses as a nation; while the occasional statesman is lost in the picture. It takes brains to outmanoeuvre your party and colleagues to become Senate President while forcing the President to come to terms with the equation.

After each 'election' cycle, the national assembly members hardly think of immediate legislative steps to save a drowning nation. The first order of things involves haggling over leadership, allowances and who gets into the most lucrative committee. They behave, as a pride of lions, fighting over a large kill where hierarchy, order and rules are jettisoned resulting in grown men and women slugging it out physically with torn dresses and bloody noses. At the ugly feast, politicians try at all cost to get positions that guarantee the best return on their political investment. They work the most delicate balance between reality and facts, political correctness and lies while trying to placate benefactors behind the scenes.

In the halls of the national assembly, the brain is a weapon of self-aggrandizement instead of statesmanship. Assembly members, investigating fraud, develop strategies to obscure the truth by being more fraudulent than the accused. The public school system lies moribund, thereby destroying the chance of millions of children ever becoming relevant in the world. But assembly members earn the equivalent of five years [if not more] schoolteachers' salaries as sitting allowance. Well, what do they care? Their children are citizens of other countries so they have no incentive to improve the nation's schools. They can fly out of the country to treat common colds, so why bother about the healthcare delivery system in the country. Their itinerary shields them from the sun's heat, dust and rains as they move from air-conditioned homes in air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned offices with minimal traffic. They only come out of their comfort zones when looking for votes that do not count. Yet, Nigerians celebrate them. They hide under high-sounding borrowed ideals from the western world when it comes to their privileges but deny any responsibilities for solving the country's woes.

National assembly members are brainy in what they do but deliberately brainless in what they ought to do. And unfortunately, Nigerians are complicit in this travesty.

By Joseph Rotimi

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