Has It Not Happened Before?
By UbongAbasi Ise
“Our lives begin to end the day
we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King Jr
The present Akwa Ibom
generation is a very funny one. A very thoughtful person may wonder if the
founding fathers of the state were given to docility and gullibility, yet
succeeded in bequeathing a state called Akwa Ibom for all of us. It should be a
big worry as to whether this generation would leave a worthy bequest for the
posterity if the state continues with the current trend where people’s political
consciousness is constantly warped by inordinate, hypocrite partisanship. Today,
the issue of local government autonomy has shown how divided Akwa Ibom stands
as a state. While bad roads, lack of water, lack of electricity and poor
educational and healthcare systems have no recognition for either PDP or APC supporters
in the rural areas, we see debates condemning or supporting the local
government financial autonomy being conditioned along PDP-APC fault-line. Whether
with sincerity or hypocrisy, most PDP supporters are with the 31 local
government chairmen, who are playing the script of the state governor in
questioning the role of National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in
safeguarding the financial autonomy of the local government councils. On the
other hand, the APC supporters are very vocal to show that the power that be is
running anti-people government by seeking to block autonomy of the most basic
tier of government, hence the need for Akwa Ibom to embrace the needed change.
At the end of it all, a very sensitive issue becomes politicized, and left to
die a natural death, with supposed culprits escaping scot-free. But will
history forgive all of us?
Afro pop artist, Folarin Falana a.k.a. Falz, has
really captured the political situation in Akwa Ibom through a song track
called, Hypocrite. Part of the lyrics
in verse two of the song goes: “…What
about the really greedy politician; Acting like he really care for the layman;
And what about even you voters, wey dey act like say you only see two jokers;
Recycle the same corrupt men, later you complain you say you hate the
government.” This is the situation that is going on repeatedly with no
recourse to history. The people of Akwa Ibom have allowed the politicians to
use means of partisanship to get the hook in their noses and drag them about,
just for the sake of their selfishness. Has the state forgotten so soon how 10
state lawmakers were kicking against their own financial autonomy? But in the just concluded elections, it
becomes implicature that their constituents had allowed some of them to come
back. Some of them were contesting the speakership of the State House of
Assembly, and one of them emerged.
Let’s rewind to last year. During the plenary at the
Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on Wednesday 14th February, 2018, many Akwa
Ibom citizens were astounded by queer decision of 10 lawmakers who opted to
vote against the financial autonomy of the state legislature. This came after
the Senate, for the second time, approved financial autonomy for State Houses
of Assembly to get their funding directly from the federation accounts rather
than rely on the state government to be funded. It was a rare opportunity in
the life of the state to win a degree of financial independence for the House
of Assembly because with financial autonomy, the legislative arm of government
is expected to perform its statutory functions effectively, especially, as it
would be free from depending on the executive arm for finances and other
necessities. During the February 14th plenary, the Akwa Ibom lawmakers were
required to cast their votes in respect to alteration No. 4 seeking to alter
the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, in
order to provide for the funding of the Houses of Assembly of States directly
from the Consolidated Revenue fund of the State. Surprisingly, ten out of 26
members voted to remain in the slave chains and to keep the management of the
State House of Assembly tied to the apron string of the State’s Executive.
To the shock
of their constituents and Akwa Ibomites, the lawmakers who voted against the
autonomy for the legislature include: Aniekan
Bassey (Uruan), Aniekan Uko (Ibesikpo Asutan), Mark Esset (Nsit Atai), David
Lawrence (Eket), Asuquo Archibong (Urue Offong), Aniefiok Dennis (Etinan), Effiong
Bassey (Oron/Udung Uko), Monday Eyo Okon (Uyo), Uduak Odudoh (Ikot
Abasi/Eastern Obolo), and Nse Essien (Onna) while Mfon Ekong (Nsit Ibom)
abstained from voting.
By voting to remain under the servitude of the
executive, it means that these lawmakers would, at all times, support the
interests of the executive even when they conflict with the interests of their
constituencies. If actually they were bribed, as alleged in many quarters, with
N1,000,000 each by Governor Udom Emmanuel to scuttle the chances of gaining
financial freedom from the executive, then they had sold their political rights
and opportunities for a pot of porridge.
Three of the
anti-autonomy state lawmakers that were much touted for speakership were Aniekan
Bassey (Uruan), Aniekan Uko (Ibesikpo
Asutan), and Mark Esset (Nsit Atai). At the end, Aniekan Bassey emerged the
speaker of the 7th Assembly. We have habitually paid no heed to our
history. The people have forgotten that Mr. Bassey endorsed anti-people stance
just last year. If he have forgotten, then this is height of historical amnesia.
Are we blindly repeating the mistake by allowing yet another iron-stamp of the
executive in the assembly who would seal our doom? Let’s hope he will turn a new leaf. And I would
also leave the answer for the future.
Yes! I
am UbongAbasi Ise. For Comment Send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment