Godswill Akpabio’s Paddy Paddy Senate
They say as a fellow Akwa Ibom man, I should stop talking, so I have kinda kept quiet for a bit but the rumbling train wreck that is our oga in the Senate keeps hurtling on. From one misstep to the other. From the imbroglio at Herbert’s burial straight to the paddy paddy scandal rocking the Senate, it has been one big wobbly and turbulent era for this oga. More than ever before, Nigerians are beginning to question the relevance of the structure. They are asking if exactly the cost of running the National Assembly, especially at these harsh economic times, duly justifies its existence. Some have even gone as far as to ask for a parliamentary system or even a unicameral structure. When I watch the Senate proceedings, I see the whole thing like a town hall meeting, not very far from a session at the local beer parlour here in Shomolu. Submissions are opaque, and not clearly thought out, hierarchy is not based on merit but seniority, and resolutions are not taken seriously by other arms of the government or even the citizenry. Today, the Senate has lost its respect and rightly so. The Senate President in his submission during the Senator Ningi’s wahala stated as much. He is quoted to have said that Nigerians now query the integrity of the Senate as a result of this “Ningigate.” My brother, it is not today that we have started looking at this your Senate with one kind eye. This particular Senate has gone on with so much insensitivity that one would not be queried if one thought that it was populated by citizens from the Niger Republic. Mr. Akpabio can you please sit up? Can you please just sit up and give us a much more deserving Senate? Kai, this one no be am at all. This is not what we voted for and certainly not what we are paying for, this na “Bolekaja” Senate. Kai! Heaven help us.