“god” OF THE HOUSE
BY
SANNI KAY. YUSUF
The House was a ground for students to showcase their oratory prowess and of course make laws to be implemented by the executive arm. Only those who could do wonders with English had the nerve to vie for the portfolios therein.
From the Students’ Union Building, all parliamentarians led by the Speaker and attired in overall
black gowns like a church priest would move in procession to the plenary ground with the Sergeant at Arms carrying the “god” of the House right in front of the Speaker. I call it a god because without it, there could be no plenary. Without a mere sculpted stick painted gold, human beings could never hold a meeting? What!
black gowns like a church priest would move in procession to the plenary ground with the Sergeant at Arms carrying the “god” of the House right in front of the Speaker. I call it a god because without it, there could be no plenary. Without a mere sculpted stick painted gold, human beings could never hold a meeting? What!
Once there was a crisis and members of parliament were split into two divides. One splinter group conspired to make away with the stick-god in order to thwart the other faction wherein the Speaker belonged the avenue to hold plenary. When the machinations burst to the know of the other group, it made moves to prevent the reality from rearing its ugly head. Therefore, that degenerated into a skirmish where the stick-god was almost broken into pieces on account of dragging it back and forth. This show of shame was dramatized right in public glare, and onlookers had fun by watching us in mockery as though they were enjoying a Chinese movie. What were we fighting for? It was the “god” of the House – a mere stick the oyinbo man foisted on us as the “Symbol” of the Parliament – the mace.
While the last incumbent in Ogun State – Gbenga Daniel – was winding down his 8-year governorship reign, the one-time most peaceful House of Assembly in Nigeria was seen tear apart amid very serious hullabaloo which resulted in the closure of the chamber by the national assembly. Two splinter groups therefore, emerged with two different “gods” featuring in front of the two factional Speakers. Both laid claim to the originality of their maces, thereby desecrating the holiness of the stick-god. What a phenomenon to laugh out in jest!
When thugs recently entered the Senate House of Bukola Saraki and tried making away with the mace, frantic efforts were made by security agents to intercept them, because, apparently, the House would be nothing without the stick. If those miscreants were successful in their plan, the house of human beings would have been rendered redundant by the absence of a mere stick – a non-living object. Therefore, sessions would not hold and laws would not be made until the return of the revered god. Chai!
To sponsor a bill, the stick must receive a bow. It’s its right and an obligation to be statutorily observed. To scale through screening before lawmakers, the god of the House must be bowed to. Senators, ministers, directors, ambassadors, including the number-one Nigerian – the president, for that matter – and any other person who appear before the house must take a bow in reverence to the stick. So without it, there is no Senate; no House of Representatives; and no Houses of Assembly. For me, this is the height of foolery; the peak of stupidity we inherited from the white man hook, line and sinker. Nigeria and Africa in general need liberation from the captivity of the west, one of which is mace-worship.
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