IMAGES of the Senate Committee on Aviation prancing around the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to unearth the cause of a power failure that disrupted flights cut a pitiful sight of a nation making a virtue of its lack of direction.

Who does not know the unattended challenges that dot electricity in Nigeria? What makes power failure at the airport embarrassing? Does it qualify for more embarrassment than last year’s power disruption that lasted more than four hours at the Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos?  Or the millions of jobs lost because there is no electricity for manufacturing?

Power failures occur every day and everywhere in Nigeria. Surgeries have been concluded even at our “centre of excellence” teaching hospitals with candles and lanterns. There are regular reports of Nigerians dying from inhaling generator fumes – deaths that were avoidable if electricity worked. No senate committee investigated such grave matters.

The National Assembly, particularly the Senate, distinguishes itself as an institution with parochial concerns. The interest in uninterrupted power supply at Abuja airport is over safety of the facility since it is the one they use most. Is it possible the Senate Committee on Aviation never heard of a bird strike at the Margaret Kepi International Airport, Calabar, which was blamed on non-use of the bird scaring equipment? More than 100 lives would have been lost. Is that not worth the committee’s attention? The committee may also be unaware that many airports in the country do not have scanning equipment. Does that not compromise security?

Many important issues are left unattended because National Assembly members rate their interests above those of ordinary Nigerians. They would not pay adequate attention to electricity since they can buy their own generators. They forget electricity supply at airports depends mainly on public power sources. If everything works out to serve their interests, legislators equate that to working for the good of the greatest number of Nigerians.

It is time Nigerians took more interest in what the National Assembly does. Its play to the gallery contributes little to improving the state of Nigerians. Its silence at critical moments of national despair is unforgivable.

Power failed at the airport because that is the way Nigeria is. What is the surprise in that? Why does it call for any investigation? Senators are obviously unaware of the deteriorating Nigerian condition, yet they are the ones to make laws for the common good. How disappointing can things get?

A nation that treats symptoms instead of the causes of an illness ends up the way we are. We are truly in a miasma if the Senate does not know power failure is endemically Nigerian.