By Erasmus Ikhide
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] thought I was in a trance of some sort while reading from the internet madrasa that Edo State House of Fraud (Assembly) has legislated against its own autonomy, the Judiciary, as much as against the Edo people!Without any hesitation, I have drawn the conclusion that some human beings are no better than their animal cousins where and when the institutions put in place to secure and safeguard civilization have all but collapsed.
How sad that the human institution put in place — selected to ensure that the beastly nature do not triumph over human evolution suddenly swapped places with their animal cousins.
The collective madness of mindless minds of the hollow chamber — that emptiness of collective decay, driven principally by rapacious greed has sealed the fate of Edo people!
I’m however cautioned by my mentor, Mr. Odia Ofeimu that animals are more conscientious and liberated than some of the dis-honorable charlatans in Edo State Assembly and elsewhere in Nigeria who worship the god of their stomach.
In truth, when political leadership of any nation mortgages its soul to the devil in a country rooted in magic and ritual, you are condemned to be eternally enslaved for the rest of your life and those of the unborn generation.
A State Assembly with a ritualistic and diabolical leadership is nothing but a cancerous part of the whole that must be cut off before it spreads conterminously and consume the entire body.
Those who felt betrayed or downcast over the tragic act of the self-degradation and self-abnegation — of course, outright relocation into the caves and caverns by the pliant and compromised Edo Assembly members must take solace in the sanctity of the electoral ballot.
On a convulsing note, 99% of the scoundrels that populate that ‘house of shame’ never own their mandate. None of them mounted the rostrums to win elections. They’re all foster children of the neo-godfather, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole who purchased their mandates.
You’re wont to ask, does a political godson has a life of his own other than the one the godfather programmed and fixed for him? You’re at liberty to seek explanation from the slaves and the slave master.
The heart-shattering action of Edo State House of Assembly gamble resurrects the residue of the old expiring order and ultimately ignites the crippling and disempowering phenomenon of authoritarian master-voices.
These are despotic voices buoyed over time to enforcing subsisting old order without new perspectives or multiplicity of alternative views in the way a society should be structured or in a manner its democratic reformation should be programmed.
Edo, in its immediate history witnessed monologic dialogue in which a dominant authoritarian master’s voice reverberates across the ocean, without restraint. Whereas, what we needed was a polyphonic debate and dialogic conversation as participatory democracy demands. Grumpy style of governance has no place in new societies.
If Edo House of Assembly members were not crass opportunists and outright illiterates — despite the purchased mandates — they would have known that the legislature and the judiciary as arms of Government are equal to the executive and even stronger, drawing its strength from the principle of separation of power.
That singular act of legislative banditry, as committed by Edo lawmakers constitutes the actual erosion and a major blight on the hallmark of democracy and ethos of checks and balances, as espoused by Montesquieu that distinguishes participatory democracy from other systems of government – a principle conceived to prevent abuse of power, and which has continued to sustain the great democratic countries around the world that allow it to flourish.
The push for autonomy of Houses of Assembly nationwide was meant to secure financial independence, thereby extricating the Houses of Assembly from the shackles of tyrannical executives with the sole ambition to loot and pauperize the masses.
Over time, Edo citizens in Nigeria have been severely plagued by crisis of youths approaching the Mediterranean sea to seek greener pastures in Europe. Recently, the crisis assumed frightening dimension that nearly drove the State to the edge economically, as a result of Libyan returnees’ burden on the State Government.
The House did not consider it a matter of urgent importance. No piece of legislation was promulgated to create safety net or social security for Edo youths, so as to enhance the governor’s effort with the force of law and prevent them from engaging in such reckless voyages in the near future.
The House leadership is completely at sea and bereaved of legislative solution to the Fulani herdsmen’s menace that saw the decapitation; amputation of hands and the murder of tens of hundreds of Edo citizens. As we speak, the raping and killing of Edo citizens are taking place in parts of Akoko-Edo, from where the Speaker of the House originated.
The total effect of legislative democracy has surely escaped the backward-looking Speaker of the House. Alhaji Kabiru Adjoto has no business being the number two citizen in a digital Edo State with his ancient disposition and primitive disheveled appearance in a state where Mr. Godwin Obaseki applauds himself as the 21st century governor.
The question is, why saddle a man with leadership position whose rules or etiquettes of engagement are alien to him? That is Adjoto!
That self-destructive piece of legislation that disempowered Edo House of Assembly, the Judiciary and Edo people with the sole intention to entertain despotic leaders with pre-human style of governance must be abrogated.
This is the time for Edo people to deconstruct the dominant subversive hegemony that replaces the previous empire of the political ruling class that debase Edo people and made them subhuman. It’s godfatherism in different guise and structures.
Edo is not a feudal state. It shouldn’t play the first violin in despotism, as the leadership of the House demands of us. If this legislative rascality stands, it would be to the eternal shame of Edo House of Assembly and the civilized Edo people.
The ‘loose baggy monsters’ of irascible cruelty must not be allowed to trample their dirty foot on Chief Anthony Enahoro House of Assembly. Not when the Assembly Complex is adjacent to the Great Benin Kingdom’s Palace that despises impunity and brigandage.
The trouble is we have come far between. The disoriented authoritarian masters will never allow countervailing visions for a modern Edo on this issue and many more.
At every election, tragically they enlist the help of the poor masses to wreak havoc on the state and buy their votes. The story is the same nationwide. Edo politics needs a jab in the arm so as to throw out the entire bootlicking members of that House of gamblers.
Erasmus, a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Lagos Email: ikhideerasmus@gmail.com
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