Ben Murray-Bruce
(Published by THISDAY Newspapers on 24 December,2106)
(Published by THE GUARDIAN Newspapers on 25 December,2016)
SENATOR Ben Murray-Bruce representing Bayelsa-East senatorial district in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly recently called on President Muhammadu Buhari to adjust his approaches to the anti-corruption crusade stating that the policy was scaring investors thereby doing more harm than good to the economy. The commonsense proponent made the remarks while contributing to the Senate’s debate on the economic recession in the country prior to its adjournment for the yuletide. In making his motion undoubted, the eloquent lawmaker categorically referenced the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over interrogation of an acquaintance that deposited a legitimate sum of N50million into bank account and was quizzed.
Unfortunately, the senator didn’t substantiate the legitimacy on the source of the fund which attracted the operatives’ forceful invitations. Unequivocally, the anti-graft agency under the EFCC Act is empowered to investigate all suspicious financial activities within its jurisdictions. Besides, investigation doesn’t in any way connote conviction or sentences. In China, Dubai and other nations for instance, operatives go as far as intruding into laptops and flash-drives belonging to persons by mere suspicions. The war against corruption demands unfettered supports particularly from the legislators that make the laws or perhaps, the laws were made for making sake or copied and pasted with no idea of consequences. Whatever be the case, the Act competently empowers the anti-graft agencies to operate as it did.
Seemingly, the senator forgot that any huge deposits which cannot be substantially accounted for will lose its legitimacy. A citizen with a capability to load such a huge amount of money is commonsensically abled to account for its sources. Dough as a chattel doesn’t fall from heaven. Interestingly, Senator Bruce believably has toured so many countries of the world, and knows that such gigantic deposits will certainly attract answerabilities from operatives in most countries. Without a doubt, Nigeria, since its creation operated absolute liberalism where people flaunted money with no clear means of livelihood. This largely contributed to the high rate of various crimes; bank-robbery, treasury-looting, ritualism and kidnapping, among other heinousness since no one is questioned to give accounts. Perhaps, this justifies President Buhari’s “Change-Begins-With-Me” initiative. The statutory duties of the anti-corruption agencies cannot sensibly be alluded as reasons for the present predicaments in the nation, but nonexistence of tangible and realistic economic blueprints by all the previous leaders, instead our frontrunners compacted leadership to merely sale of crude oil and affluence lifestyles.
The crux of the matter as far as the economic recession is concerned and distinct to Senator Bruce’s deduction is that Nigeria’s political class unconsciously, mischievously and negligently invited recession into the country. Idiosyncratically, an economy with only a tangible source of revenue will certainly crash as soon as the commodity loses its high demand or crashes in price as it is presently the case. Sadly, despite such a gross drift, the nation unremittingly lavished almost all its incomes in maintaining its senators and members of the House of Representatives on extraneous allowances. Obviously, a state of emergency is crucial in the legislative arm either to scrap the bicameral legislature in the country for the meantime or do away with all the inexplicable allowances for merely taking positions for ‘…say Yea or …say Nay…’ recitals at the detriments of the suffering masses.
Undeniably, the monthly take-home pays for the legislators in contradistinction of salaries of other Nigerians in both private and public sectors suggests of a divide and rule, a blinded society and height of oppression. By economic indices, with the huge amounts running into billions spent on the federal legislature on monthly basis without likelihood of equivalent revenues, the economic recession may never end in the country. The heterogeneous allowances of the lawmakers should at the moment be judiciously placed on recession. The bell of recession as rang in other countries demands for alterations and adjustments in most of recurrent expenditures at least in the interim. How do we justify pensioners collapsing every now and then and a lot of families subjected to hunger and starvation while lawmakers are dining and wining; living in affluence and allocating sundry public funds for luxuries. This singularly contributed largely to the failure of the economy, and not anti-corruption approaches of the executive. The anti-graft agencies owe the nation a duty to eliminate corruption to the barest minimal; however, our greatest challenge is that corruption is also thriving among these bodies statutorily set up for a crime free society. The onerous task for President Buhari is to sanitize the agencies thoroughly alongside concerted and sophisticated monitoring towards efficient service delivery.
By and large, the anti-graft agencies should be allowed to do its work without encumbrances. The superlative gesture any lawmaker can offer the nation at this critical time on resumption for plenaries in 2017 is to daringly sponsor motions towards cutting down tremendously all extraneous allowances in the legislative arm of government that continues to drain the economy. The excessive expenditures over the years far above revenues is itself a blooper, and will certainly lead to recession. Imperatively, to pitilessly maintain these bazaar-allowances among the ‘distinguished senators and honourable members’ while most of the electorates that relentlessly stood for them during elections cannot afford basic daily feeding is wicked, tyrannical and the height of insensitivity and insensibility. Thus, setting our priorities right albeit belated remains the sine qua nonto getting out of the current quagmire.
Umegboro is a public affairs analyst and publisher.
- To track on THISDAY Newspapers,click here:http://www.pressreader.com/nigeria/thisday/20161224/281565175418965
- To track on THE GUARDIAN Newspapers, click here: http://guardian.ng/opinion/ben-bruce-and-commonsense-on-economic-recession/