.
The
bill sneaked into the House of Representatives, passed the first and second
reading and was eventually halted on its dirty tracks on the verge of the third
and final reading. The laughable side to this ugly drama was that members
neither received advanced copies of the bill nor were they allowed to go
through the contents. But we reject this anyway; we do not want to agree that
members compromised their conscience either.
And when the Speaker was to respond to critics he said Nigerians
misunderstood the good intention of the bill. The same bill is about now being
ferried through the senate although the last heard was that former Deputy
Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu has temporally induced a halt for the
time being citing its unpopularity. Nevertheless, no amount of financial
inducement should have allowed them to attempt such horrible exercise without
consideration for the lives of millions of Nigerians including theirs that
would have been lost. The argument put
forward that the bill would still go through public hearing does not hold
water. We know our penchant for use of dirty language such as “there is no going back” stuff. What more, we have always said it that no one
is under any obligation to entertain any venture that is against his
conscience, no matter the pecuniary gain; there is always the option of
resignation. This sordid act of selling our conscience just at the whiff of
money should be strongly condemned and whoever is found culpable should be
prosecuted. Imagine the paradox that at a time advanced countries are losing
thousands of souls to this terrible covid-19 pandemic, some elected Nigerian
leaders are playing “kalo-kalo” with
it. People are crying for palliatives
all over the country, going through untold hardship, yet, this wouldn’t interest
our Reps and Senators. Please do not ask me who they are representing; their
attitude and behavior doesn’t convey the type of discipline expected of
leaders of such caliber. The suffering of Nigerians has not moved them one bit.
Why hurry to seal the use of a vaccine that has yet been produced, let alone
certified? Though the rumour about the dangerous nature of the vaccine has been
abroad for long, the shock here is that it actually materialized right here in
our nose-from dream to grim reality. Thank God for the efficiency of the social
media, otherwise, this project would have been smuggled in quietly and everyone
feign ignorance afterwards. Man! How they have turned the business of
legislation into “business-as –usual”! This is not acceptable. Our National
Assembly members have forgotten that they are elected to protect life and property-not
to push Nigerians towards concentration camps such as obtained in Bergen-Belson--
welcome to Sobibor! Isn’t it enough that our so-called “home grown” democracy
is being practiced upside down and has infact stagnated the country? What more, as the reality of the fabled biblical
“666” tale stares us in the face, the big puzzle is the ominous silence by all
the critics of yesteryear's whose voices were strident-driving fears into the
hearts of government operatives. Now it has taken former senator representing
Kogi Central Dino Meleye to address this betrayal. The former senator told the press “I have just
filed a court action against the Speaker and House of Representatives on this
wicked bill initiated by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila at the Federal High Court,
Abuja”. That it took only the boldness of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and former
senator Dino Meleye to challenge this act is more than commendable. But the
reality is that the nation is either cowed or too numb to react. That is the
extent of the pulverization of the country under the All Progressive Congress
government that chides itself in championing the change mantra. By this very
act, they have clearly shown that human lives are worth nothing to them. The
good news however is that, God will expose all secrets-no matter how well kept.
The controversial Infectious disease bill should be dropped. We
rest our case.
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