Wahala is like what in the Nigeria political system? Any idea? It comes in a hydra-headed form. More like an octopus, fierce as a dragon, slippery as an eel, cunning as a Totoise, proud like an Ostrich.
We are in a country, besieged and conquered by potpourri of political challenges. From the local government to the Executive, to the Legislative even the Judiciary is not immune from it.
The Wahala is like a malfunctioning car, whose engine is bad, the gearbox bad and the tyres flat and punctured. For it to move, the trio must be fixed not in piece meal but in one fell swoop. Fix the engine and the gear system the car still wouldn’t move with a flat and punctured tyres.
The tyres of this car ( Nigeria) aren’t in good shape though, but they can be managed, if only the engine and the gear box would be fixed.
Days gone, weeks passed, months are rolling by, all we keep talking about, shouting and crying for is the repairs of the engine. Nobody talks about the gear box.
No matter how pristine the engine is, sizzling in sound with water and dews coming out from the exhaust pipe the car wouldn’t move an inch if the gear is in bad shape.
Cars run in a system of dynamic synergy. Collaborative but each part unique in function. They are interdependent but not interchangeable.
Neglect any part of the car, even the minutest part would get one stuck and stranded by the middle of nowhere.
It will be sad to assume and very infantile to hold unto it that Nigeria will be fine, good and well once the right guy becomes the president.
It would be very delusionary too and counterproductive to think that Nigeria would be fine without the right guys as legislatures. They are the gear box, they decide the pace at which the engine moves, however top-notch the engine maybe.
2023 project isn’t one that should be one sided, every part must be seen to be headed towards same direction of birthing a new Nigeria. All hands must be on deck no exception. Every Dick, Tom and Harry should be in same alignment, moving in one direction, singing same chorus of kumbaya and dancing the sonorous lyrics of Hakuna Matata.
The National Assembly and who occupies those red and green seats should be of great concern ,same way who becomes the president is. The concern should even be more, the campaign for a better legislatures should be as robust and engaging as that of the presidential election. The two are twins, the two wings of a bird, the broken condition of one affects the function of the other, making any fly either impossible or so clumsy.
Past years, the score cards of the National Assembly have not been great and mind blowing. To some they are mere rubber stamps and appendages to the Excutives, doing its biddings for personal interest and monetary gains. While others see them as worn out tyres, who sleep and snore for lack of better words to describe the very value they bring to the table of check and balance, a statutory responsibility they often sweep under the carpet, while they chase contracts, compromise on their oversight functions and engage in deals so dishonorable one cringe why in the first place they should be called Honorables.
Our National Assembly is gradually becoming an old people’s home, creating comfort and cozy environment for ex governors retirement.
It has become a pot of honey, where people go in, and within a twinkle they “hammer” on a platter for doing what exactly? Nothing!!
The National Assembly has become a place for dishonorable characters, causing scandals and living a larger than life, style of living, while the very purpose of their duties and responsibilities left unattended to.
Our National Assembly as previously and presently constituted gives no hope for a better Nigeria we all clamor for.
It gives nobody in their right sense any hope for a better future. Sadly nobody seems to talk about them in the manner and zeal we talk about the presidency.
Who are those angling to come back to the red and green Chambers? What are their pedigree, their antecedence their vision and plan for a new Nigeria?
It appears to me, sadly too, that the whole movement and mobilisation for a new Nigeria is limited to the presidential election. The bad news is, if by God’s help we get a president due to Nigeria, a president that is visionary, altruistic, selfless, competent, robust in policy making with the right understanding of economic and social enfrastructural development ; If the National Assembly members are neither in speed nor in aggrement with him, like a duckling, wobbling in a snail like pace the government would make any reasonable progress.
Our prospective National Assembly members come 2023 are no less important than the very person that would become the president of this nation.
We need to get the two right, anything less, would make all this zeal, awareness, passion and determination to birth a new Nigeria more like water off the duck’s back.
Our National Assembly is another pot of rubbish that needs cleansing. As the campaign to get the Excutive right rages with fire and furnace never seen before, same should equally be seen in the drive to get the legislature cleaned up.
“Onye gbakere na oria nwa ya anwuo , ogba kebere”( A healed parent whose child later died, is still sick)
The new Nigeria we all dream for wouldn’t be a reality until both the legislatives and the Excutives become one inseparable organ in vision, in love for a better country, shunning all manner of dishonorable and non- Excellency activities; embracing nothing but good governance, seeking first what they should do for their country above what they will gain.
Until we get to this point, it would afterall be like a sound and visionary Eagle whose left or right wing is broken. It knows what to do, where to go, the vision is clear but can’t fly.
What a tragedy!!
Jarlath Opara
