No happy -new-year wish for southern legislators, By Martins Oloja

In normal times and climes, today shouldn’t be a day to lament. For Christians, it should be a day of celebration of the reason for the season: the birth of the greatest leader of all times, Jesus. For me, I should remember the day in a sober mood as I lost my sweet mother on this day (December 25, 2015). But this isn’t a normal time. And we aren’t marking this remarkable day in a normal clime. In this most populous African country, we are in a democracy without is majesty. This is a place where a moron shows up in a public place and he is decorated as a baron. This is a location where unscrupulous dealers are elected and appointed as leaders of the people. This is a country where ‘execu-thieves’ are sworn in as chief executives of states. We are in a milieu where ‘legislooters’ are heralded as legislators. I think it isn’t a time to celebrate. It is indeed a time to do a contextual reporting and commentary on the people we should hold responsible for the parlous state of the nation. In the next six months, we will say goodbye to the Buhari administration that has led us to where we are – down, down in the valley.

As I remember the birth of the King of kings, as I ponder over the implications of the death of my mother seven years ago, I would not like to wish all the legislators in the southern parts of the country Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I think they don’t deserve any warm greetings in all sincerity. And my reasons are not too far to seek. The legislators from the southern parts of the country think they are very clever. They think they are what Charles Dickens calls the ‘Artful Dodger’ in his classic, titled, ‘Oliver Twist’.

Jack Dawkins, better known as ‘the Artful Dodger’, is a character in that Dickens’s 1838 novel Oliver Twist. The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that occupation. He is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London, trained by the elderly Fagin. The term has become an idiom describing a person with skillful deception.
In the novel, he becomes Oliver’s closest friend (although he betrays Oliver when Oliver is caught) and he tries to make him a pickpocket, but soon realises that Oliver will not succeed, and feels sorry for him, saying “What a pity it is he isn’t a prig!” He also has a close relationship with Charley Bates. The Artful Dodger is characterised as a child who acts like an adult. He is described as wearing adult clothes, which are much too large for him. Like an adult, he seldom gives in to childish urges. The Artful, meantime, who was of a rather saturnine disposition, and seldom gave way to merriment when it interfered with business, rifled Oliver’s pockets with steady assiduity…

Let’s get back to our ‘Artful Dodgers’ and their conscience. The Nigerian legislators at state and federal levels are very self-deluding. They think they know enough to claim that we the people are too gullible. They think we don’t know how democracy works for the development of a nation. They think we don’t know what they unjustly earn. They do what they like in the 36 state capitals and Abuja. They think we don’t know their phantom constituency projects’ universe and costs.
They think we don’t know how the state legislators allow the 36 state governors to tamper with the workings of the state legislatures and how they (governors) manipulate the state assemblies’ presiding officers. The Abuja Legislators feel they are quite clever. They play the ostrich. They too feel that we don’t know what they do with budget details every year. They are very unaccountable and their acts are opaque. They think the political economy of a free press has been so bad that the media in Nigeria have been helpless to the extent that they can’t hold them to account for what they do with the people’s mandate. They think we don’t know that despite the criticism of the extant constitution, the national and state assemblies are supposed to be the most important institutions to defend the sanctity of the constitution and sovereignty that the people represent. They have been very naïve. The Abuja big men in National Assembly who always have enough war chest to run for presidential and governorship elections at the end of every session, hardly think that they will one day be made to account for their recklessness and disservice to the nation that they have helped to under-develop.

But today, as we celebrate Christmas, I would like to speak some truths specifically to all the LEGISLATORS in the southern parts of Nigeria. I want them to listen to what the spirit is telling them today as an oracle from the most important office in the land – the Office of the Citizen: Let them know that I will never join any deceitful and sycophantic bandwagon to wish them Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year. If the iconic educationist and social critic, Tai Solarin (1922-1994) were to be around today, he would have wished all the legislators from the South a rough road to May 29, 2023. He would have written: ‘May Your Road Be Rough’. Whatever that meant then and what it connotes now! I can’t wish southern leaders Merry Christmas today because they have disappointed the people a great deal. And specifically, here is why: President Muhammadu Buhari isn’t the only reason for instance, all the link and federal roads in the South West aren’t passable from one state to another. In the same vein, Buhari isn’t the only critical factor most the federal roads in the South East and South South have been in a terrible state.

Here is the thing, it is an emblem of suffering and shame on all our legislators from Western Nigeria, for instance that on May 29, 2023, we will be celebrating 24 years of unbroken democracy but the roads to the two Ports in Lagos, we shamefully dress as the economic capital of West Africa, are a shambles.

I was in Badagry last Thursday to explore business opportunities with the very strategic Badagry Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BACCIMA). I was excited meeting the very resourceful officials of the Chamber. But at the same time I was disappointed as I regretted the trip because of the parlous state of the road network from Lagos metropolis to Badagry, which is part of Lagos State. Badagry is not just a historical city that could be a veritable tourist centre, it represents a great deal of facts of many firsts to Christianity and Western education. What is more, there are so many vital educational institutions on the expressway to Badagry including the Lagos State University, Lagos State University of Education, Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Topo, Badagry. Despite that poor road network that even Sukuk loan intervention can’t rescue still, the local nongovernmental agencies including BACCIMA confirmed that there could be up to 50 Police, Customs and Immigration check points to Seme Borders of the about 70 kilometre road from Mile 2 to Seme Border and barely 50 Kilometres to Badagry. I confirmed also that the checkpoints could be up to 100 in the night for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with public interest.

These are not new claims or allegations. What is curious is why our federal legislators who represent Lagos State at the National Assembly have not considered the national security asset that the Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border Road has become as a priority project in 24 years that the locusts have eaten. What is more curious, in the last seven and half years a former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola has been Minister of Works. He was said to have begun a reconstruction of the road when he was governor from 2007-20015. Lagos has been in the firm grip of the ruling APC since 2015, yet the Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border Road that links Nigeria to all West African countries has been uncompleted for 24 years by democrats from PDP to APC? How many times have the legislators of the Lagos State House Assembly and the federal legislators collaborated to draw attention to the expediency of completing these strategic roads through yearly appropriation details in the context of managing priorities?

In the same vein, we will celebrate 24 years of democracy in May next year, let the federal legislators who are now delaying passage of 2023 budget because of their dubious constituency projects know that in the old Western region, there is no good road from Lagos to Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state. Besides, there is no passable road from Abeokuta to Ibadan, capital of Oyo State. There is no modern road to ply from Ibadan to Osogbo, capital of Osun State carved out of Oyo State in 1991. What is worse, there is no road from Osogbo to Akure, capital of Ondo State. What is more laughable, there is no tolerable federal road from Akure to Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti state carved out of Ondo in 1996. Hold your breath, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway cannot be completed before May 29, 2023. We can also ask all these questions about federal roads in the old Eastern region comprising the present South East and South South. Where are the completed constituency projects that have been more valuable than the Apapa-Roro Port roads, Lagos-Badagry-Seme Border roads, Lagos Ibadan Expressway, East West roads (in old Eastern region) and all the federal link roads that all the legislators have never fought for 24 years? Let us put it to the feckless legislators that we know that in a representative democracy anywhere in the world, development of critical infrastructure can only happen through well-coordinated appropriation bills in parliament. In global context, legislators lobby the executive arm of government for allocations to projects in their constituencies. They sometimes fight and exchange blows, threaten to remove presidents who fail to pay attention to special projects in their regions or areas. That is the majesty of representative democracy! What have the legislators from the southern parts of Nigeria brought home in 24 years of locusts in Abuja and 36 state capitals? Who and what have they been representing? I hope you can see why I will not wish our legislators ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year?
-The Guardian