The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who is representing Cross River Central Senatorial District in this interview defends criticisms against the Nigerian senate and the recent police invasion of the National Assembly.
Some Nigerians believe that the executive has been taking the federal parliament for a ride because of the passive nature of the Senate. They cite last Thursday’s invasion of the National Assembly by the police as a case in point. What is your comment on this?
Let me say that the show of force in the National Assembly by the security agencies last Thursday was quite unfortunate and totally unnecessary because the precincts of any parliament are supposed to be sacrosanct and their action was a violation of that. I will not be able to go into the substantive issues on why it happened or did not happen because I have been told that there are several court matters on those issues and being a lawyer, I will not be making any comment.
But clearly, there is a problem with our democracy today because the franchise is being exercised on behalf of the people. It is as if the people no longer matter in our democracy. That is why the classical definition of democracy is government of the people by the people for the people. That does not appear to be happening right now. Power has been hijacked, processes have been hijacked, so the people count for little or nothing. I think this must begin to be a serious concern to the political class. There is need for the people to reconnect with democracy and exercise their franchise directly, otherwise, we will run into a major crisis.
But is it not shameful that lawmakers now scale fences?
The precincts of every parliament of the world are supposed to be sacred and I am not aware of any law that prevents you from scaling the fence to your own place. So, as long as you are not trespassing, it’s in order.
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