Dear Rivers State Legislators,
This letter should have started by addressing you as
‘Honourables’, but there is a real struggle to be able to call you that after
your show of ignominy last week. Would we be justified use the word
‘honourable’ in a sentence with you?
First, five out of 32 of your members, not even
enough to form a quorum (11 members) to have a sitting, turned logic on its
head and impeached the speaker while clearly lacking the two-thirds majority to
do that.
Then, your House Leader in one move turned the mace
which is a symbol of legislative authority into a weapon of warfare by smacking
it on the head of one of his colleagues, landing him in hospital with a broken
jaw and cracked skull.
It didn’t stop there.
Your new, illegal speaker came to the house with his
army of thugs, and was caught on camera mobilizing them by chanting known
confraternity songs.
It is disgraceful how you have rubbished the
institution of law-making in Nigeria with your flagrant disregard to laid-down
laws and procedures, and total lack of morality and character.
You have failed to understand that the offices you
hold, and the people you represent are far more important than any allegiances
you hold, either to President Goodluck Jonathan or to Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
You have ignorantly behaved in a manner befitting of
wild animals, forgetting that your actions either strengthen or weaken the
legislative arm of the Rivers State government, and it is on the strengths and
weaknesses of such institutions that our democracies stand or fall.
The Rivers State House of Assembly cannot be reduced
to the status or importance of one man, no matter how highly placed that man
is.
As the voice and representatives of the people of
Rivers State, you have cast the state and its people in the most negative of
lights, dare we say, even darkness. What then is to be expected of the common
man on the streets, the ruffians in the bus parks?
You have made Nigerians embarrassed by your actions
and utterances.
Lastly, you have become the new classic examples of
everything that is possible when people bereft of integrity, morality and
intellectual capacities are put in offices as important as the legislature is.
May you find ways to redeem yourselves, if there is
any redemption.
Yours’ Sincerely,
Your constituents.
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