NIGERIANS scorn scandals. They have seen enough that nothing is new. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo said most legislators were “rogues and armed robbers,” no outrage was expected.

Obasanjo should know. The foundation of the legislature was laid in his eight-year presidency, and subsequent leadership of Board of Trustees, BoT of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose members have dominated executives and legislatures in Nigeria since 1999.

What is Obasanjo’s role in the state of the legislature? Did the roguery and robbery start after his daughter left the Senate? His addition of the judiciary to his list of rogues is the only thing new. Yet, Obasanjo elevated most of the judges holding sway today. What measures deepened transparency in his days?

Name-calling, as an anti-corruption measure is also not new. Eight years ago, Senator Nuhu Aliyu from Niger State, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, said there were criminals in the National Assembly. He said a particular criminal he handcuffed, when he was a police officer, was a senator. Aliyu’s  charge withered under colleagues’ pressures.

Maurice Ibekwe, PDP member of the House of Representatives from Imo State, Chairman House committee on Police and Internal Security, died in prison custody in2004. He was accused of advanced fee fraud, 419.

The Senate accepted Obasanjo’s accusation with equanimity. “We actually feel that the former President would help the National Assembly by naming those that he knows as either rogues or criminals,” Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe said. No surprise at all!

It may be simplistic to dismiss the allegations; after all, the National Assembly  derail the third term efforts. Could his accusation have anything to do with the alleged billions of Naira used in trying to get the National Assembly to acquiesce to the failed third term agenda? When will he discuss corruption in the executive?

How about the abuse inherent in expending billions of Naira in ill-conceived electricity projects and central government’s compulsion of states into a primary health care system? Were these not acts of corruption.

Corruption, a la Obasanjo, is about others. Aberrations during his tenure included donations from corporate Nigeria, at public dinners for his presidential ambitions, contrary to Section 212 of the Constitution.

The provision states: “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.” He also unabashedly awarded himself licence to operate a university, the only one to do so.

Obasanjo’s delimitation of corruption compounds fighting it as he strives to position himself above the obvious mess. He is at most divisive, distractive.