kingsiju

I have a love-hate relationship with the rouse of representatives in Nigeria. These are days where they stand up and really speak with the voice of the common man, and then there are days when its all about their greed and how much they can wrestle from the coffers of government. Their independence is refreshing, I remember their public stand during the first days of the fuel subsidy saga while the senate predictably hid behind their walls of money. And then there are also days like last week. Although I didn’t even know about the House of Representatives collated results from the people’s public session, I was impressed with the results that they voted for. Below is a breakdown on the good, the bad and the I am not so sure.

The Good:

• Should ambiguities be removed in the process of creating more states? Yes
• Should more states be created…

During the course of an interactive session with members of the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS) ad-hoc Constitution Review committee, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the NASS delegation alluded severally to the power of Facebook and Twitter in engagement on national issues. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, RT Hon. Emeka Ihedioha encouraged Nigerians to continue using Facebook and Twitter to deliberate on national issues rather than “abusing each other”, at least with reference to the Constitution review. And this got me thinking: so they can hear the voices on social media, they can hear the “children of anger“.

Apparently, the tweeting, Facebook posts and groups, blogs, online news and other social media tools through which many of us are able to articulate our views and general feelings towards national issues, policies, corruption, national disasters and so on is not in futility as some would…

“Mr Shekau said his group had done no wrong and so an amnesty would not be applicable to them.

It was the Nigerian government that was committing atrocities against Muslims, he said.

“Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you [a] pardon,” AFP news agency quotes him as saying in the Hausa language audio recording.” 

Read the full report on the BBC News website

Of course, this was to be expected and sadly, many of us “observers” were just waiting for this. Boko Haram NEVER requested or plead for amnesty, it has no use for it whatsoever. You don’t need a sophisticated anti-terrorism profiler from Mossad to tell you that Boko Haram thrives on and draws its strength from the fear it inflicts on those commanding the machinery of government and the people…