What does a Nigerian legislator do?

The entire Nigerian state last week was treated to the movie “scaling gates”…a production of the legislative arm of government. The incident saw members of the House of Representatives scaling the gates of the “hallowed” chambers having been locked out.
I will spare us the details we know, and quickly share this take by a friend, Phil: When it was Chibok abducted girls, nobody climbed the gate, when it was mass killings of innocent Nigerians in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, Plateau, Taraba, Bauchi, Madalla and the two Abuja bomb blasts, nobody thought it wise to climb the gate and sign in for impeachment.
Our schools were closed down by long strike action; nobody cared to climb the gate. The bring back our girls protesters have been sleeping on the streets for months in hope to get our government free those girls, nobody still scaled the gate or care to collect impeachment signatures against the president.

Our health care is in shambles, justice system trying hard to breathe, security zero; yet, nobody climbed the fence or gathered signatures for impeachment. There are displaced persons in almost eight LGAs in Adamawa state, you find them sleeping in cold on the streets of Yola, destitute in all things, yet, nobody scaled the fence or signed for impeachment.
Now, ‘them them’ fight, ‘them them’ were locked outside, they fought their way through the fence, survived small tear gas and moved in to protect their seats and “rights”. It is all about them after all…When will it be about the people, when will it be about our missing aged parents and children, when will it be about the ordinary common man killed, displaced and denied justice, when will it be about Nigerians?

In February I wrote an admonition in which I asked what does a Nigerian governor do, so let me in the same vein ask, what does a Nigerian legislator do? Nigeria has 469 of them, split into two chambers, from two major parties, PDP and APC. What do these men and few women contribute to nation-building or even senatorial zone building?
On a personal note, these men are entitled to a four wives if Muslim, and a wife for a Christian, but scores of keep harem of concubines, girlfriends and mistresses, at least not any has been caught ‘gaying’. In other words, as a legislator in Nigeria you cannot/should not be faithful at home, by extension you owe those you represent very little and owe much to your harem/party and godfathers.

It is not so much about what these legislators do, as what they do not do. Legislators have dozens of aides, ranging from 30-45, they are entitled to senior special assistants/special assistants/advisers (both senior and junior)/countless aides and yes consultants on various subject matters; empty constituency project offices that function only when they choose to.
How many days a year do they really legislate when many days are spent on recess? The rest is spent gallivanting, wedding, naming ceremony, birthday, and death-day, they attend meetings, left right and centre, and flex in caucus meetings of how to remove Jonathan, or how to deceive him and make more money.

Of course all these happen when they are not in Kosovo, Kabul or Khazastan on one hindsight or foresight committee work. How many of these honourables and distinguished have in the last four years spent an average of 4 hours daily, 15 days a month and 9 months a year in the office. But trust me, these ‘guys’ and the ‘chicks’ among them are working HARD, indeed very HARD.
Our senators and representatives tell us how difficult the art of making laws are, and you sure would agree, contending with the opposition, with political enemies from different camps, and sure spending all that billions that make them one of the most expensive Parliament must be one hell of a job.

We keep arguing and debating on how much they earn for all the hard work? And very few can say exactly. No wonder every one of them now has to learn the art and act of fence scaling.
I watch people say X, Y, Z governor or minister is doing well, and I ask who grades the legislators, and the yardsticks.
Nigerian senators have many cars, without kids in public schools, and none with less than N10m. Today in assets and cash there is no legislator who is not a billionaire, and that’s 109 senators and 360 representatives, all hardworking billionaires.
Like I used governors as guinea pigs, so are our legislators across the states. However, it is really about our leaders. What do our councilors do, how about the chairmen, how have our ministers impacted our lives?
We need to start asking questions, we need to demand answers to issues of governance. An axiom speaks of not touching a blind man’s hand while eating with him. For how long our leaders will continue to touch our hands while they eat? Only time will tell.