Oshiomhole
By Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja
When Edo North senator had to ‘off the mic’
Nigerians are very much familiar with the “off the mic” scenario in the National Assembly. Just that the persona in the original episode is substituted to reflect the shift in scene and plot in the recast of what has now become a comedy drama. In the original script, a cabinet Minister is asked to “off the mic” to stop him from spilling too much of the rot that has come to characterise the execution of policies in the public sector.
So, “off the mic” Season One was a move aimed at concealing the indiscretions of some people in the green chamber at the time. The script in that drama was to prevent then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio from spilling the beans. Timeline was July 21, 2020 and the scene was a committee meeting room in the House of Representatives. But in “off the mic” Season Two, we have Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who inadvertently, directed his missile at the wrong targets.
Oshiomhole, a first time senator, in an interview last penultimate week on a national television programme, complained of the “looting and vandalising” furniture and other items in the National Assembly’s lawmakers offices. He expressed regret that he had to use is personal fund to equip his office.
He drew a lot of flak from his colleagues at the next plenary session.
Senator Oshiomhole (Edo North) got his baptisms of fire as a lawmaker. He ate the humble pie, withdrew the comment and apologised under a threat of sanctions.
In a swift riposte, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi) representing Ogun West district, gave Oshiomhole some subtle backhand strokes.
Some other senators followed suit in a barrage of attacks on the former governor and one time party chairman.
Yayi, as he is fondly called by his constituents, is not known for taking prisoners neither is he given to euphemism when provoked.
But the Yewa homeboy had to keep the gloves on, in apparent code of civility and respect for Senator Oshiomhole. He must have been guided by his background as a typical cultured man that he is. He exhibited commendable restraint the way a trained young man would register his displeasure with a much older person. Yayi will turn 54 on August 10. Oshiomhole is 71. But the Ogun West senator was visibly upset by the comment of his much older Edo North colleague as he tabled his complaint during plenary last Tuesday.
Senator Adeola and a few other returnee lawmakers must have been justly scandalised by Oshiomhole’s allegation. Interestingly, Senator Akpabio was the one who was asked to “off the mic” in that episode in the House of Reps.
Three years after, he is back to witness a similar episode, but this time, of an error innocently committed by one of his distinguished colleagues.
The unnamed lawmakers that Oshiomhole referred to, acquired virtually all the items they took away with their personal resources. The practice is that lawmakers that get re-elected usually retain the items and may change some of them if they so wished. The ones that lost re-election usually take the items away or give them out as parting gifts.
These items are mainly furniture, computers, television sets, safe cabinets, rugs and other accessories. There are checklists of the items indicating that they are personal property of the individual lawmakers. The checklists are scrutinised at the point of bringing them in as well as when they are being taken out of the complex, on the instructions of their owners. So there are officially documented record of them. Obviously, these facts were unknown to Senator Oshiomhole prior to his comment. So the distinguished comrade-senator couldn’t have set out to deliberately disparage his fellow parliamentarians. Of course he stands to gain nothing from that. Not a few legislators, including Senator Yayi are accomplished Nigerians in the bicameral legislature.
Yayi is a ranking three-term senator, a one time member of the House of Representatives and a former member of the Lagos State Assembly. His legislative experience has spanned 20 years, dating back to 2003. But that is not to say that Senator Oshiomhole is any less accomplished.
His presence in the political space with a string of personal achievements is not a fluke. The former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), a two-term governor of Edo State and a former National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is no spring chicken on the stage. What more, Yayi and Oshiomhole are bonded by a common totem in the Tinubu political family. So it’s a clash between two of President Tinubu’s loyalists; a family affair, as some will say. That Adeola showed restraint in his protestation and Oshiomhole offered his dignified apologies should be enough to rest the case for now.
Do federal lawmakers go away with office equipment? Yes. But why?
However, it’s high time the leadership of the two chambers addressed the entrenched dysfunction in the running of the National Assembly bureaucracy. At the end of each legislative session, departing federal lawmakers do cart away their office furniture and equipment. This is because they acquired those items with their personal resources. This has been the trend over the years because those running the bureaucracy have turned themselves into shylocks and racketeers. Where they supply the items, the costs are deducted from the lawmakers’ monthly earnings right from day one until the end of their four-year tenure. Some lawmakers even end up having some spurious financial indebtedness deducted from their severance package. In most cases, they are made to pay as much as twice the actual costs of the items, or even much more. The racket is likewise, extended to official vehicles and loans that the bureaucracy provides for the legislators. Every loan advance from the management comes with some opaque compound interests. Like ravenous sharks, the National Assembly management operates by stealth and guile. Legislative aides are not spared the rapacious greed of these predatory bureaucrats. Some of the aides who served in the Ninth Assembly and who this writer interacted with randomly, could hardly contain their grief. Some of them narrated how spurious deductions were made in their monthly salaries on account of strange taxes and unsolicited loans for the entire four years of their engagements. “It was as if we were paying a lifetime mortgage on a mansion we were never given in the first place”, a former aide of a past principal officer said. This writer watched an interview granted to a national television a few days ago by the Senate spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu on some of the anomalies in the management style of the National Assembly bureaucracy. From that interview, it was glaring that Adaramodu, who represents Ekiti South in the upper chamber, was once a victim of the bureaucracy’s manipulative style. He was a member of the Ninth House of Representatives so he understands the game better. On his resumption at the Senate last June, Adaramodu assembled some of the items he used in the last Assembly and moved them to his new office at the Senate wing. He acquired those items with his personal funds during the last dispensation. The Ekiti born lawmaker also ensured that he acquired additional office items he needed in the Senate with his own money and got them properly documented. Experience has taught him to be wary of accepting Greek offers from the bureaucracy. Once bitten, twice shy. Perhaps first time members in the 10th Senate may take a cue from Adaramodu on how he was able to beat the bureaucracy’s many traps this time around. As an insider, he can tell the story better. It is now left for the leadership of the two legislative houses to take up the challenge of fixing the rot. That is if they are so inclined.
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