By ALEXANDER IFEANYINCHUKWU
IT says a lot about the disconnect between the House of Representatives and the state of the nation that at a time of tense concern about threats to internal security and territorial integrity, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal can only think of resuming the petty inquisition against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, that has ridiculed the legislators’ sense of purpose.

While delegates to the National Conference have been coming up with ground-breaking proposals on several unresolved issues of national interest, the lower chamber is pre-occupied with probing the rumoured hiring of a jet for the Petroleum Minister for N10bn, cost equivalent to the purchase price of a fleet of executive jets. No wonder, serious minded patriotic Nigerians have since switched off the legislators pedestrian proceedings to focus instead on the mature and meaningful discussions at the National Conference.

From all indications therefore, the circus of legislative victimisation of ministers whose portfolios are of pecuniary interest will be far removed from public attention for glaring reason of irrelevance.

The legislators’ reputation for vindictive vendetta will be highlighted only within their chambers as Nigerians are generally sick and tired of what is obviously a witch-hunt disguised as oversight that has consistently fizzled out in a fiasco of falsified figures and discredited informants.

It is too soon to forget how the legislators surrendered their onerous responsibilities to the ulterior motives of former CBN Governor SanusiLamidoSanusi to fling mud at NNPC’s management, until it back-fired embarrassingly with the “whistle blower” apologising for dishing out misleading figures.

Rather than redeeming their compromised chambers by retrieving their oversight duties from charlatans, the legislators succumbed to renewed partisan manipulation to promote a ridiculous rumour of N10bn bill on hired jet to the order paper for their attention.

What is not a rumour but verifiable fact, however, is that Speaker Tambuwal himself has been hopping around the country with chartered jets for his extra-parliamentary political engagements since he came into office but has managed to block any probe into the murky matter of his refusal to utilize the presidential fleet as he is entitled to and instead blow billions of naira on chartered jets without appropriation.

The National Assembly Staff Association has been gavelled into silence after repeated alerts about the denial of their due entitlements while legislators indulge themselves in an array of frivolous expenditure on their comforts.

In the appalling aftermath of the legislators’ scandalous probe into the issue of fuel subsidy, no right thinking Nigerian will fail to see the probity-pursuing-pranks of the House of Representatives as nothing but diversionary mischief. The real billion-dollar question the legislators should be answering is why has there been no tangible positive outcome of their probes, several of which have no reports to justify the effort?

There can be no argument against instituting a culture of transparency and accountability in all aspects of governance.

The NNPC has always attended to the incessant and often unnecessary summons from the House of Representatives which, regrettably, have rarely been well-intentioned inquiries about addressing numerous formidable challenges facing the nation’s petroleum sector and the NNPC.

The posture of the legislators in relating with the NNPC can only be compared with the prejudiced stance of a predator towards a prey! In this case it is a prey that is already at the mercy of the predator, because the legislature’s oversight functions are constitutionally backed.

However, the tendency to adopt a hostile attitude of fault-finding, public ridicule and presumptuous guilt is contrary to the principle of fairness and due process, particularly involving two institutions of government, not friend and foe!