ARE THEY STILL HONOURABLES AND THEIR EXCELLENCIES?
Judging from the various unresolved past and present fraudulent activities of some members of the National Assembly and including those of some State Houses of Assembly, the question that should remain in the lips of the public should be whether the bunches still deserve to be called 'Honourables'. So also it should be asked if some past and present Governors and some Ambassadors that go with the pre-fix “His Excellency” deserve to be in perpetuity, because as their sayings go, “once His Excellency, always His Excellency” and “once an Honourable, always an Honourable”. I believe that it is only God Almighty that should be addressed as “His (Most) Excellency” and “The (Most) Honourable”, while only the likes of the former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere should be addressed as “His Excellency”.
Today we are reading about how Senate Committee Chairman on Power, Senator Nicholas Ugbade and his counterpart in the House of Representative, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu and their accomplices had allegedly and brazenly engaged in defrauding the nation the sum of N6billion at the time they pretended to be doing the assignments they were elected for. Special Adviser to President Yar'Adua on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbodagah, had also accused the National Assembly Oil sector Committee members of bribe-taking and after the Senate did not take kindly to the allegation, have now come to accept that indeed there may be something like that took place in nearby Ghana. We have seen of how most of the past Governors and Presidents of Nigeria have stolen billions of Naira and today they are walking the streets freely and some even making laws for us while some are serving in other capacities and even revered as God fathers in Nigerian polity. We have seen how ex-Ambassadors, represented by the likes of the disgraced Sam Edem of NDDC could go so low to paying N800million to a native doctor for 'prayers' and on top of that Governor Akpabio gave him N7billion road contract without due processes; the same native doctor that mentioned that he is the spiritual guardian of our Vice President. We have seen how most of the present State governors are looting their States' treasuries through bogus contracts and projects, as if they are managing their personal estates. Thereafter they earnestly involve in image laundering and pretending the representatives of the heavenly saints. So also are some of the Ministers and State Commissioners should not be left out of the ugly and shameless dispositions? What sort of politics are those?
If Nigerians continue to live with these situations without challenging these vices, then we should all bury our heads in shame and believe we are doomed.
Kenneth Dagogo, Bukuru Road, Jos, Plateau State