In The Legislature, Silence Is Not Golden – Hon. Bede And His Immanent Encumberances.

MAZI EJIMOFOR OPARA

My usual classroom allegory whenever I want to underscore the structuring of the legislature, is derived from the fact that most of what plays out in the law making chamber is synonymous with classroom activities. In a typical classroom, there is a tripartite arrangement of students – all standing on an imaginary equal footing, bearing equal learning opportunities, but sadly producing dissimilar results. On one leg are the “high fliers”, students who exude super intelligence and brilliance in both curricular and extra-curricular activities. The second prong comprises the average or middle-range individuals, students with striving cognition, left with a strong resolve never to give up or dip into mediocrity. The last and extreme pole houses the “back benchers”, students who merely make up the class attendance list. In this category, you find two distinct temperance – the lousy noise makers or the empty silentness.

For the lousy noise makers, they are the jesters in the class, and can often be useful in defusing classroom tension. In the legislature, particularly the 5th Assembly, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon played this role effectively. Little wonder his constituents showed him the exit door. Currently, the 8th Assembly has another jester in the person of Hon Kazaure; what will be his fate in 2019 is entirely the decision of his constituents. The last category of back benchers are those who keep an “empty silence”. Such people assume that their silence confers a unique status of intelligence which sometimes earns them the respect of their peers. But, the very day the goddess of luck turns her back against them and a defiant teacher asks to hear their opinion on a given topic, every one comes to the sad realization that their silence has been borne out of a horrid emptiness that turns one off instantly – this is where Hon. Bede Eke and others of his ilk belong in the green chamber.

I took the pain to follow up on important national discussions in the house plenary. This cursory survey forced me to get both the DAARSat and StarTimes decoder boxes, so as to view the Parliamentary stations and observe lawmakers’ individual contributions. In the heat of the DAPCHI debate, the Ajaokuta steel brouhaha and other pertinent national issues, the threefold delineation of lawmakers, as in the classroom allegory, played out itself. Those who contributed were the usual high fliers, the jesters gave the usual comic reliefs and the empty silences remained same.

In a constituency of too many “high fliers”, both from Aboh Mbaise and Ngor Okpala, it is an absurdity to leave our political representation in the hands of persons with questionable antecedents in both academics and economic subsistence. The forced taciturnity of Hon Bede is a function of his lack of depth in key issues. He neither understands the issues nor has the capacity to make meaningful clarifications, hence his empty silence. The only smart action by our “guy man” legislator was the out-sourcing of his social media account handling to my brother from Umuohie, Ngor (names withheld). This is a spite on a constituency with so many eggheads and positively opinionated persons who can provide credible directions to national discussions.

This “siddon look” attitude is not a virtue in the legislative business. The growing moroseness of Hon Bede Eke in the house is an encumbrance arising from a baggage of negative antecedence and paucity of intellection and grasp of national issues. Anybody can build a classroom block, market stall or dole out money to political acolytes. But, only a thoroughbred individual can be articulate enough to carry-on the legislative business, which, of course, is beyond the usurpation of executive roles. Hon. Bede Eke is a mistake we must correct come 2019.

#NgorOkpalaDeservesBetter