Democracy at work

Democracy, by whatever name or definition, is a beautiful exercise particularly if you are a spectator watching from the sidelines. The only time it is ugly is when you are a major player and your job (your only job) is on the line. I am of course, assuming in my usual naivety, that the major players allow it to be played according to the rules! We all know how this game is played here in Nigeria – head down and legs up – sometimes hanging from a ceiling fan at speed five!

The first time I listened to a live session of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, was during the screening of Governor Timipre Sylva’s nominees for appointment to the State’s Executive Council. At the end of the session I gave the Assembly (and its leadership) a standing ovation except that I was driving so you can imagine what I did in the circumstance. What happened thereafter is, as they say, history.

Last Friday, I again listened to a recorded version of the Assembly’s proceedings. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the session, I was more cautious this time, and as much as I was tempted to score the Assembly high, I reserved my comments till after “some time”, just to see if their authority is sacrosanct and sticks. What you don’t know, you don’t know! Some fools like me who watch these Honourable gentlemen from the sidelines will never understand why and how an Assembly of some of the best brains in the land cannot rise to the occasion when history comes calling.

How can a Chairman of a Local Government Council not know how many Traditional Rulers she has on her payroll? How can a Local Government Council Chairman not know how many communities are in the Local Government Area? How on earth would a Chairman of a Local Government Council tell the Honourable Members in full session, and by extension the entire Bayelsa State, that the Council receives, on the average about N45 million and pays a wage bill of N51 million monthly. How preposterous! The list of what she does not know is endless and it is easier to count what she knows than what she does not know!

My advice to the Honourable House of Assembly is that for every one Chairman of Brass Local Government Area, there are, at least fifty other political appointees who do not know how much they receive and how much they expend there from in every thirty day cycle. I believe those who know better call it oversight functions or something to that effect. The remaining Local Government Chairmen and all other political appointees should face the House in full session and tell us (them) what they know or do not know. It will be very healthy for our fledgling democracy.

Tata, everybody.

Napoleon