By Tonye Clinton Jaja
The sub-title of this write-up is “Going, going, gone”!!!
“Going, going, gone” is a phrase commonly used in auction chants to signal the final call for bids, indicating that the item is about to be sold to the highest bidder.”
The events of 28th February 2025 and 20th March 2025 respectively are concrete and empirical evidence that the era of either the courts or the legislature as the last hope of the common man is completely gone!!!
The two institutions (the courts of law and the legislatures) in Nigeria no longer exist to serve as the last hope of the common man but for the interests of the highest bidder. As expressed by the sub-title: “Going, going, gone!!!*
Reputable online newspapers such as Premium Times have published details of how legislators of the National Assembly received payment in us dollar denominated currency as inducement to vote in support of the Proclamation of the State of Emergency declared upon Rivers State on 18th March 2025 by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In other words, if the constituents, or any other party, had offered a higher amount of money to the legislators of the National Assembly to vote against the imposition of the said State of Emergency in Rivers State, they would have done so!!!
The issue of legislators collecting money from the highest bidder as a pre-requisite for voting in favour of the highest bidder is a well established tradition since the year 1999.
At least one former legislator of the House of Representatives, National Assembly named Farouk Lawan has been convicted and sentenced to prison for this practice!!!
Another legislator, a former Senator of the National Assembly has openly confessed that he himself (and other Senators) was offered a ₦50,000,000 (fifty million naira) bribe to vote in favour of tenure elongation for former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo!!!
In February 2025, Premium Times newspaper carried out an investigative journalism and reported how members of both Chambers of the National Assembly collected bribes as pre-requisite requirement before passing the budget for Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Excerpts from the said report is reproduced below:
“Amid the National Assembly’s denial of extorting universities and other tertiary institutions to pass their 2025 budgets, some senators have confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES how the last largesse was shared.
Some senators from the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND told this newspaper that they received $1,000 as “appreciation money” but were unaware of its source until a PREMIUM TIMES report exposed the ongoing corruption.
Earlier, this newspaper reported how the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, along with the House Committee on University Education, demanded ₦8 million from each federal university in the country. The investigation revealed that lawmakers collected ₦480 million from university heads and threatened to “deal” with vice-chancellors who refused to cooperate.”
Based upon this incontrovertible evidence, it is now abundantly evident that the National Assembly is now longer the voice of the majority of the Nigerian citizens whom they allegedly represent.
For example, based upon several online pills conducted before 20th March 2025, majority of Nigerians, 90% stated they are not in support of the suspension of Governor Fubara by the President through the concocted State of Emergency in Rivers State.
However, on 20th March 2025, it was alleged that majority of the legislators voted in favour of the President in support of the same State of Emergency which their constituents have previously condemned!!!
From a purely statistical point of view, considering that according to the results of the 2023 general elections as published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over 400,000 persons voted to elect into office Governor Fubara.
It is illogical and unjust that only 469 voters are now required to remove/suspend the same Governor Fubara from his elective office.
At the very least, a referendum ought to be conducted wherein the signatures of at least 50% of registered voters of Rivers State as a pre-requisite to suspend or remove an elected governor!!!
This should be included in the ongoing alteration of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which is an ongoing exercise by the National Assembly!!!
