Frivolous, flag-waving senators

President Muhammadu Buhari will be presenting the 2016 Appropriation Bill next week at a joint session of the National Assembly. That is not quite as exciting as the news suggests. What is curious is

that the Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (Taraba South), has sponsored a motion to get the Senate to support the federal government’s anti-corruption efforts. This motion in turn fired the fertile imagination of the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, to present a proposal to get all senators to carry and wave the Nigerian flag as a sign of that support. Senator Ndume says he will produce and distribute the flag. Nonsense.

Not only is Senator Bwacha’s original motion nugatory, Senator Ndume’s superfluous proposal is both wasteful and mediocre. The Senate is not in a position to oppose the president’s anti-corruption war, given the foul mood the country is in at the moment. Moreover, even though the anti-corruption war is desultory and not as profound as many Nigerians would have hoped, the Senate does not have the courage to oppose anything other than simple and trivial omissions in budget appropriation. The Senate is itself fighting a war of self-discovery, to know itself and find some focus for its struggles. Until it finds a purpose for its existence and a great and noble future for the legislature, both of which past Senate leaderships were quite unable to decipher, it is hard to see it giving purpose and meaning to the Buhari presidency’s battles.

Senator Bwacha’s motion was innocent and emotional, but doubtless misplaced. Yet, the Taraba senator did not attempt to swaddle his emotional proposal offensively in bales of money. But Senator Ndume, rather than find an inspiring use to put his enormous wealth, has decided to embark on a frivolous and wasteful escapade. Flags? What is the meaning of that when the task is nothing more than the president reading the budget? Flags? Is that the most complex task Senator Ndume’s mind is capable of performing? Could that in fact be a measure of the depth of his understanding of the grave moral, economic and social crises the country is facing?

The Senate is accustomed to trivialising many issues, and will do so with aplomb anytime the country is not vigilant. In the name of God, senators should spare the country this latest tomfoolery of flag-waving. And, please, let the wealthy Senator Ndume find a noble cause to engage his money. If he can’t, let him have the humility to ask. He will be advised.

thenation