Two months of frenetic efforts to prod the House of Representatives leadership to come clean on the charge of budget padding leveled against it, lronically ended up recently with a member, Abdulmumin Jubrin, the accuser, being suspended from legislative duties.
He will be in the cold for 180 days, following a report submitted to the House by its committe on Ethnics and priviledges, asked to investigate Jubrin's purported breach of members' priviledges.
The embattled Lawmaker had shunned the committee's summons, claiming that it was acting a pre-determined script. Chaired by Nicholas Ossai, the committee in its report, described Jubrin's actions as injurious, scandalous and denigrating of the parliament.
The same house which has been one of chronic scandals since 1999. Nothing could have been more disparaging or self-destructive than the chamber's bare faced, bizarre bid to bury Jubrin's allegation.
It chased shadows when it failed to investigate the weighty allegations he leveled against the speaker, Yakubu Dogora, and three other principal officers of the House in preference for his suspension.
Ths is sheer subterfuge, a surreal drama that hits at the heart of anti-corruption crusade, transparency and good governance.
Having served as the chair of Appropriation in the Seventh House and in the current dispensation until his removal, nobody can dismiss Jubrin as an ordinary lawmaker, or someone not in a vantage position to know the "dirty deals" that have become inexorable with budget consideration in the parliament.
This is why he pushed to the public space no fewer than 25 allegations of graft from seemingly "Corruption Observatory".
RPI..................Mission Rekindled.
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