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Economic Confidential,
February, 2009
FEATURES
Suswam’s eaten words and the Dishonourables from Leviathan
By
Norris Benedict
I
am no fan of Mr. Gabriel Suswam, a former Member of the House of
Representatives who is currently the Governor of the same Benue
state he represented at the NASS between 1999 and 2007. As long as I
am concerned he is among the clique of individuals who have held the
country down to its current deplorable affliction. His very poor
stint at positively impacting on our Power generation capacity when
he had a rare chance informs my mindset.
Nevertheless, Mr. Suswam won my heart when a couple of weeks back
at the 14th Pre Convocation lecture of the University of
Abuja he made it bold though short lived to capture the lower
chamber and its members in well chosen words that rightfully
confirmed the widely held notions of the House of Representatives as
an august gathering of self centred, materialistic and ill qualified
never do wells.He cut it clearly and I was quite surprised that this
inconvenient truth was coming from a member of the Governors Forum,
another brood of mostly unsure individuals lacking any foresight on
how governance ought to be.
Gabriel was my rare local political hero for that week; after
listening to a very poorly read speech by Speaker Bankole’s
representative at the occasion; he was obviously piqued by the
tissues of lies dished out that continued to blame the military for
our current woes; the same type of belly aching lies they told us
from 1999 to 2007 while they plundered the country in forms worse
than the military did over decades.
While dismissing the claim that the executive and military was
responsible for the woeful performance of the national legislature
so far, Suswam declared and I beg to quote partly:
"It is true that democracy is growing up in Nigeria-it is just about
nine years old now. If the legislature has failed in those nine
years to be able to mature enough or even appreciate its own
responsibilities, I doubt whether it is the problem of the executive
…… For instance, the issue of funding has always been a contentious
one, but anytime funds are allocated to the legislature, you will
see them fighting. As I'm talking to you now, they are fighting over
car contract, and that is a clear indication that they are not
mature enough to handle funding, so funding should be the
responsibility of the executive, who will disburse them without any
form of acrimony." – Gabriel Suswam ref Guardian (7/2/09)
The
governor wonderfully went ahead to call for the review upward of the
entry qualification of a representative candidate to a degree
certificate holder so there can be improved forms of debates and law
making in the ‘hallowed’ chambers.
There was nothing farther from the truth; part of the nation’s woes
is traceable to the dearth of learned leaders at critical points of
the managerial realm. Those dishonourables were never elected by
Nigerians so they had no clue on how to appreciate their crucial
responsibilities; besides that fact, they had no visions on
leadership and its format of delivery. They were never
representatives of the people but that of ‘leviathan’ – John
Milton’s description of the evil one in his epic poem, ‘Paradise
Lost’.
What eventually followed that declaration was a cacophony of
condemnations, subtle threats and glaring intimidation of the man
who dared look 360 of them in the eye and aptly told them what they
were.
They threatened to declare him an enemy; bench warming men and women
who never raised a point or spoke during sittings were forthcoming
in contributing to a motion them league of charlatans illiterately
called “The Governor Suswam Motion”, one that was meant to make his
political life miserable. These same dregs led who opposed his
invitation to testify at the power probe panel now reminded him of
the unfinished Power Project and the harm its resurrection can do to
him.
The
man held on to his views for some days but like the typical Nigerian
politician ever so lacking in bravery and forthrightness and with
much scary skeletons in his cupboard, my ‘hero’ caved in, did a
reversal, ate his words and apologised to the intimidating band of
bullies.
The
question is, what was there to apologise for? What did he say wrong?
Did he dish out lies or malign them unjustly? Where they not
fighting over allocations? Did they not influence the inflating of
car contracts? How many of them can read fluently or write legibly?
How many have Senior Secondary School Certificates? Have they not
being so shameless to unnecessarily delay appropriations bills for
months just because they wanted their dripping egos massaged? How
many of them know what it really means to be a Representative? They
only excel sheepishly in shouting ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’ to processes
they barely understand or have a clue to. Besides Yar’adua and
Maurice Iwu, the House of Representative members come thirdly as
worrisome threats to the countries current democratic practice.
Mr. Suswam, sir, it is very clear bravery is not in your diction no
matter how you pretend to it; you belong to them all. Keep eating
your words just as long as it doesn’t affect you political future!
Norris Benedict contributed this piece to
Economic Confidential from London and can be reached on
fsixteens@gmail.com |
