Recent happenings in Kogi state has shown that the members of the state legislature who are supposed to be the voice of the voiceless and the defender of the weak in the state have turned themselves into errand boys, misfits and greedy sets of individuals whose ultimate aim and motive in the state House of assembly is to enrich their pockets at the expense of the masses. The fact that members of the state legislator opted to embark on a meaningless and money-wasting retreat at this time when the all state owned tertiary institutions are under lock and key since the past four months as a result of nonpayment of over several months of salaries and allowances has further exposed their greed, selfishness and the insensitivity to the pitiful plight of Kogites by our elected lawmakers.
One would have expected that being one of the vital arm of government, members of the House of assembly should put heads together at this point in time to brainstorm on how best it can make laws that would enhance good governance and checkmate the excesses of the executive in the state. The function of the legislature in a democracy is to make laws to enhance good governance and serve as a watchdog to the executive, through committee oversight; anything short of these would be tantamount to taking Kogites for a ride.
Kogites have had enough of these legislative irresponsibility, recklessness and misrepresentation that has been openly and shamelessly displayed by the so-called Honorable members of the state legislature who have turned themselves into bodyguards, errand boys and bootlickers of the executive instead of standing with and protecting the interest of the masses at all time. It’s time for the legislature to get its acts together and settle down for the job they were elected to do.
They should be thinking of how to clean up the mess created by the executive as a result of the failed one year long screening exercise, debate how to earnestly open the state’s tertiary institutions and get the striking workers and government to reach a truce, and make laws that will drastically reduce the alarming rate of unemployment, poverty, insecurity to the barest minimum, improve the quality of our collapsing educational system, stamp out corruption from our society, ensure improved health care delivery system and speedy industrialization of the state instead shutting the doors of the state House of assembly and abandoning their legislative duties for a so called retreat in Ghana. The myriad of problems currently militating against the state calls for urgent debate and legislations, not a vacation or an holiday under the guise of a retreat.
– Hussain Obaro wrote from Ilorin, Kwara State
oseniobaro@yahoo.com
