NASS ELECTIONS

HISTORY BECKONS ON 9TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

IT is incontrovertible that the fate and destiny of the country lie in the National Assembly which is the congregation of the people of Nigeria. It is in those chambers that the people of Nigeria meet to discuss and decide their affairs through their elected representatives convened to give voice to their feelings, hopes, wishes and aspirations and collectively aggregate them through laws and orders passed on to the executive for implementation in the pursuit of the well-being of all. Thus, it is the vehicle or channel for the expression and fulfillment of the will of the larger mass.

THE mandate to represent and lead is a sacred trust. Those who have the rare privilege of having this trust thrust on them should not betray it. Of course, the relationship between the elected representatives and the electorate is fiduciary. The later is the principal while the former is the agent or servant who must render clear account to the principal but not to pose as lord and master who bestride us like a colossus and like the damning beast thread on the rest of all as hopeless nonentities.

OUR legislators must of necessity embark on a deep excursion into the history of this country for those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. We expect our legislators to be proactive, to put their integrity to bear in service delivery but not to remain silent when the storm rages. Posterity may forgive one’s mistaken position at critical times but will never forgive one’s inaction. Inertia and lethargy are incongruent to the homo sapiens whom alone of all creatures shares the moral attributes of God being created in the image and likeness of God.

WE plead with the members of the 9th National Assembly and State legislators to fully comprehend their power and roles. It is not in vain that the Constitution bestows on the legislature the power to pass laws, establish government budgets, confirm executive appointments, oversight government departments and agencies, investigate the executive, impeach and remove members of the executive and judiciary, redress constitutional wrongs. It is instructive that the legislature can remove members of the executive but the executive cannot remove members of the legislature. It is only the people who can do so through a recall. This is so because the legislature is the persona of the people. Little wonder the quest to control the legislature. This underscores the schemes and heat in the build up to the election of the principal officers of the 9th National Assembly.

NOW that the 9th National Assembly has settled down for business, they should be conscious and cautious of their individual and collective integrity. Inasmuch as there should be mutual understanding, cooperation and coordination among the branches of government, their distinctiveness ought to be sacred and maintained as such with none emasculating the other. The march to civility should not be allowed to regress into primitive era when monarchs dictated the laws. Our legislators should not allow themselves to be teleguided by forces outside parliament. A gagged legislature is the people’s obituary.

OUR legislators are enjoined to remember that at all times that Nigerians – young and old, low and lofty, enfranchised and disenfranchised, even motherless babies, Street children, almajiris, individuals languishing in police cells, prisons and hospitals, people sleeping under our bridges and flyovers and feeding from waste bins, all – are the real reason for their sitting in the red and green chambers. Please do not let them die.

WHILE congratulating our Distinguished Senators and Honourable Representatives on the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly, The ECHO urges them to rise to their responsibilities to give this country and its citizens hope, life, meaning, and destination, thus engrave their names on history’s marble of fame knowing that history proclaims the final judgement.