Lawmakers are seen as enemies – Senator Musa
Giving reason on why the attrition figure was high, Senator Ibrahim Musa, who represents Niger North Senatorial District in the last Assembly attributed the cause to local politics. In an interview, he said: “The moment you become a senator, member of House of Reps or House of Assembly, you will become an enemy of your people. Everybody will be looking at you as if you’ve now become a moneybag, that you get a lot of money. That is the misconception, even within the elite. But I was a legislator, and I know what it entails to be a legislator. I know the problem we encountered.”
Musa added: “If you come home as a legislator, you don’t have peace. Everybody will come and say ‘I want to marry; I want to do naming ceremony; my daughter is marrying; I want to take my child to school; I want to finish my building’ and all that. So, in the course of doing this, you can’t satisfy everyone, then you’ll become an enemy of the people.”
Musa also said what constituents do to counter, is that if the next election comes, they bring in another candidate, whom they think will do better. “In the event that one fails, they also bring in another. That’s what’s happening.”
“Unfortunately, our people don’t even know the value of lawmaking. They always compare you as a legislator with the Executive. You’ll see people saying ‘he has not constructed roads, schools; he has not done boreholes or connected us to the national grid.’ All these things are the cause of what’s happening. I hope our people will allow our legislators to have enough experience.”