The 469 Problems Of Nigeria- Etcetera Writes

An average Nigerian is just a political
bystander. Many of them don’t know who their local government chairmen
and councillors are and what they are elected to do. But let’s forget
about the local government chairmen and councillors; they have never
been useful to us, anyway. Let’s talk about the ‘bigger fishes’ — the
guys in the National Assembly.

The ordinary Nigerian does not have the
constitutional authority to vote on appropriations, but the guys in the
National Assembly do. An average Nigerian does not set fiscal policy;
our representatives in the National Assembly do. The ordinary Nigerian,
even though most of their daily activities revolve around money, does
not control monetary policy; the guys in the National Assembly do. The
National Assembly consists of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, made up of 109 senators and 360 members respectively.
When both are added up, it gives 469. These 469 people are the 469
problems the country has been plagued with since 1999.

Let’s take a look at the fraud played on the
masses by these 469 men and women. Since 1999, these men and women have
spent so much money and energy convincing you and I that the deplorable
state of the nation has got nothing to do with them. The disagreement
they’ve often had on almost every issue raised on the floor of the House
has been blamed on party differences, but in defrauding Nigerians, they
have always cooperated and differences in their political parties have
never been an issue. They are quick to exonerate themselves and make it
seem like the President is the cause of all the country’s problems. They
wrote the constitution in a way that the President is shackled only to
the powers to propose bills. And they have made it certain that he
cannot force them to accept the bills. They fashioned the constitution
in a way that it awards them the sole responsibility of originating
appropriations. For instance, the Senate President and his fellow
senators can approve any budget they want. Even if the President vetos
it, they can go ahead and pass it over his veto. They are the people
responsible for all the problems we are facing as a nation.

Since 1999, these 469 men and women have
effortlessly dangled over 160 million Nigerians like puppets. Of course,
they didn’t forget to tweak the law to shield themselves from
prosecutions. Have you heard that no matter the level of crime
committed, they cannot be arrested on the grounds of the National
Assembly? Mehn, what a job to have! This is by far the easiest job in
the country with the fattest remuneration. You get so relaxed that all
you do is sleep and snore during deliberations and get paid for it. For
Christ’s sake, who gets paid for sleeping and snoring? It has become
very inconceivable to me that a country of over 160 million people
cannot replace these 469 men and women who stand convicted by the
present facts of incompetence and irresponsibility. It will do us a
whole lot of good if everyone of these men and women is voted out and
replaced with fresh thinkers in the coming general elections.

You can’t think of a single problem we are
facing as a nation — from bad roads to the decay in our education and
health sector and non-implementation of budgets — that is not traceable
to these 469 guys. When you really understand the truth that these guys
exercise so much power than any other arm of government, then you will
understand that what exists is what they want to exist. If the state
allocations are unfair, it is because they want it unfair. If the
national treasury is empty, it is because they want it empty. If our
soldiers are deployed anywhere, it is because they want them there.
There are no insoluble government problems. These 469 men and women are
damn lazy, even lazier than our court judges and their white lazy wigs.
Let’s stop allowing these 469 men and women in the ancient trade of
laziness transfer the blames of their incompetence to other arms of
government, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish whenever they
want.