Legislators in battle for supremacy

Wonders shall never end! It is only in Nigeria that petty issues are allowed to take pre eminence over the well being of the populace. Very soon, these lawmakers will be complaining of non implementation of the budget

they are quarreling over sharing of loot formula...

They can never quarrel over the welfare of Nigerians; they are united against us. They can never quarrel over Yar'Adua's performance because they cant perform simple duties too. They can never bicker over press freedom because they are united against people's rights. They wont fight over economic progress in Nigeria because the poorer we are, the more loot they get. Our image in the comity of nations doesn't bother them because there is so much at stake in terms of selfish aggrandizement for them to care. They wont bother about the crippling effects of Nigeria's version of fuel deregulation becuase the looters would alway line their pocket with blood money. They wont have scruples that a major oil producer imports petrol daily because they need to protect the interest of a few individuals who hold the country down to its tethers. Finally, they will only quarrel if such will help to position them for more loot and undeserved accoutrements of office they never won. When will we have lawmakers who want to make laws for the good of the land?

Unserious men....they are being paid a lot for doing nothing.

A2=b2+c2 better formular!

such only happen to further tell us how well they are thinking or no nothing about the plight Nigerians espcially the less average!

They are not interested in the project Nigeria neither are they interrested in the Nigerian populace. They are only interested in themselves, thus their definition of 'Democracy' is government of the selected for the selected and for the selected. Hence, if you are not there, you should forget it.

A bunch of entertainer Law-makers.

Cant some much for tghe article but the illustrations great!! Giv us more ART AND ILLUSTRATION!! it captures ones imagination

this is very much embarrassing & uncalled for. don't they know that the budget presentation is already late

A lawmaker once told me that the reason why most of them can not leave politics is that it is a veritable avenue to get rich quick. If we get to the root of this shameful mud fight, I won't be surprised to hear the it is loot sharing formular that prompted the disagreement. Was it not reported in newspapers yesterday that the Speaker spent over =N=50billion on International junketing in his 2 years in office? We can be sure that in the remaining one and a half years, he would likely set our treasury back by another =N=50billion.

...and what is the implication of the bugdet in our life? presentation or implementation i doubt has anything to do with us b/c non exists.Let them roll out drums of war may be the revolution will start there.Nigerians hardly survive,still the 2009 bugdet is not yet implemented while the is in the bank.

“Democratizing Without The People: The Story Of Nigeria”….Tekena Amiofori AIT/Ray power. What a way to capture the shenanigans being dished out to Nigerians by the Maurice Iwu “elected” National Assembly members. Dimeji Bankoles’s Arrogance is TERRIBLE; David Marks’s Immaturity, LEGENDARY. How else would one describe the National Assembly’s descent into a hugely avoidable National Embarrassment, International Odium and Opprobrium in the 21st century, witnessed yesterday. These Maurice Iwu-elected un-distinguished Senators and dis-honourable members of the House of Reps engaged themselves in a macabre dance in the theatre of the absurd; in the full glare of the whole world and without any form of shame whilst the masses watched haplessly. What for? Did someone say ‘Superiority Battle’? What I saw was a struggle of who gets the biggest loot and not who makes the greatest positive impact on Nigerians. Is there no honour among thieves? Superiority battle indeed! We have continued to witness a disjointed National Assembly; very uncoordinated bunch of ‘no-goods’, with both chambers deliberately working at cross-purposes on all very important National issues for very selfish reasons. A little highlight would suffice. 2009 Budget: Senate version was ‘bow and go’. House of Reps response was something like ‘we must do a thorough job’ RESULT: Delayed passage, delayed implementation and the outcome today is 28% budget performance. Constitutional Amendments: Senators argue for the Chair of JCCR “in keeping with tradition and convention “. House of Reps insists on Co-Chair. RESULT: All motion, no movement. Electoral Reform Bills: Senate rejects several of the executive bills (not that the bills are good enough). What did the Reps do? The bills all passed the 2nd reading. RESULT: All motion, no movement with a certain outcome of no electoral reform (unless a miracle happens). Deregulation: Senate Opposes, Reps supports: RESULT: Confusion everywhere, artificial fuel scarcity. The suffering of the masses continues. Etc, etc. My Verdict: There ought to be honour among thieves. Sadly this is not the case in the Nigerian National Assembly. Clearly, a failed democracy that is! Dimeji Bankole is a colossal failure. He should quit. David Mark? A massive disgrace, where art thou honour? You should quit immediately. These two men have shown Gross Incompetence, Purposeless Leadership, Crass Irresponsibility, dereliction of Duty and Ridiculously Poor Performance in Office. Let them go immediately, so we could see if anything can be salvaged out of the remaining bunch. But this is Nigeria, it will never happen in a million years.

Let me recommend that the lawmakers add to their reading list (i'm assuming they read) the following books: 1. AGAINST POLITICS: On government, anarchy, and order by Anthony de Jasay 2. Coruption, Capitalism and Democracy by John Girling 3. Seperation of Powers in Practice by Tom Campbell Meanwhile can the people put to test the "recall clause" of some of the legislators as stipulated in the Constitution? Human Rights Bodies may be you can guide us through the process.

I have always known that these crop of law makers are not serious. This can be traced to Obasanjo who gave senators $5000 for them to vote Evan or is it Evans Enwerem to become the first senate president of this current republic. Also the same methodology was applied to foist certificate forgery master, Salisu Buhari as the speaker of the house. Both houses are populated with known fraudsters, 419 kingpins and sundry criminals. Nothing seems to be happening in the house particularly in this current dispensation where a known crook like David Mark is the senate president. What is there to accept the one hour ritual of budget presentation to take place in either of the chambers? If the senate cannot accomodate all, what stops them from having it in the green chambers? And who told the reps that because it has always been in their chamber, that it cannot be changed. The substance of the matter is for it to be carried out and supposed benefits extended to millions of Nigerians. Any way am not bothered at all. After all the budgets over this years have not impacted on the generality of Nigerians. Our roads are still very bad, no electricity, no pipe borne water, et.c., so what is the essence of budget if it cannot address all these primary needs of the citizens. That is also how they trivialized a whole essential issue of constitution amendment exercise by unnecessary flexing of muscles of who to be co-chairman or deputy chairman, something one of them can concede and move ahead with the all important assignment. Let them not worry their various constituents are waiting for them as am sure they are not immune from kidnapping and mobbing whenever they show their face for another vote canvassing exercise.

Why is Yaradua using this quarrell to delay his budget hearing? Since it has always been done in the House of reps chamber due to its size, then it should be done there. Yaradua should not care about squabling legislators, instead he should care about Nigerians first. If he presents his budget at the House of Reps and the Senators choose to walk out....then it is there business. It does not mean that what he says in his budget would not hold....it does not mean that the budget would change. IF the Senators walk out, then it is their loss. They would still have to hear the budget report albeit from a third party/source.

This time around, the grass will not suffer.Let the battle for supremacy continue.When we are fed up of their selfish goals, Nigerian will rise at once at fight. This will only accelerate the revolution we cry for.They contribute nothing to this country.Their interest to share million of Naira in travelling and panel of enquiry

They are fighting to know which hall will ensure successful implementation of the budget after presentation. The budget was presented in the house of reps last year and the implementation failed. They dont want a repeat this year

We need a divine REVOLUTION.These people are simply robbers on civility.

This is what happens when you shut down strip bars. These Men need to reduce their testerone, Fashola come to their aid and reopen these bars. Do it you for your fellow country man or their ego would draw the nation back again.

This shows how shallow the reps. are. Can't they read between the lines?

We need a general consensus/ mobilization to ensure that none of the current members of the House of assembly and the Senate returns in the NEXT political dispensation. If Nigeria must move forward, these cults must be exterminated and replaced with brand new breeds. They are the reasons why the executive and other sector aren't functioning..... Mindless and empty headed beings....

Thank God I never believed in these poeple becouse most of them were not elected into the government,so they believe they owe nobody any apology for what they are doing,if not tell me why so mature men with families will be worried over such issues as where to sit and have a meeting.To be honest it is becouse they lack ideas of important issues so they feel they must do something for people to discuss and that is why we cannot move forward in this country.I really feel for Nigeria.It is a pity.God is watching them.

These are the worst legislators ever produced. I wonder if these guys really know what law making is all about. All they seem to be interested is sharing of our collective resources which will hang on their neck someday. Are these the set of people the corrupt senate president wants automatic ticket for? God forbid. Thought those people in the senate are fathers ok they are area-fathers. How could they disgrace themselves before the entire Nigerians and the international community in such an unthinkable manner. Even if the area boys in the House of Rep. had insulted them in their selfish coinage of co-chairmanship, could they not for the sake of posterity and their honour (if they have any at all) shown maturity and gain public opium by allowing the joint meeting in the suitable venue - House of Rep. chambers. The acts of these unserious set of people in the national assembly will certainly haunt them for the rest of their life. They have ridiculed this nation.

my people make una shine your eyes, na arrangee fight, the budget wasnt ready to be delivered, we are being fooled.

In defence of the House of Representatives this time around. Firstly, let’s do some arithmetic here please. The Senate chamber has a capacity to accommodate only 250 persons, while the House of Rep chamber has 400. The combined house in a joint session would need a sitting space for at least 469 persons (senate = 109, House of rep = 360) including the president’s journey men / women. It’s quite obvious that because the lower house has been at the forefront of lampooning the executive for this year’s 28% national budget implementation it has been cast as a pariah by the Yar ‘Adua cronies in the senate and the FEC. Therefore we can only assume that the strategy to take this year’s budget presentation to the Seanate is to “fence off” unfriendly half of the House of rep who would otherwise find no accommodation in the new venue. And with that done, Yar adua would, as usual, do his ritualistic “bow and go” to the senator- populated sitting and go home. It would be on record that the lower house, for obvious reasons, gave a more rigorous, scientifc criritique of the 2009 draft budget than the senate. And yet the said budget achieved 28% success. Secondly, as a corrolary to the above agument on the sitting capacity of the senate chamber, why have all similar sittings in the past 10 years been done at the lower house? It’s been because of the need to give every member a fair chance of sitting capacity. On this note, we cannot blame the House for rejecting this back-door strategy of "bow and go" for yar adua. Thirdly, there’s nothing in the federal constitution that says the president cannot present the budget to the two houses separately. But we all know the president and his “yes men” would find the session with the lower house a mountain to climb and hence would rather prefer to shut them out strategically by going cap in hand to a tumultous and deafening applause by the senate, as usual. Finally, this annual ritual of budget presentation and debates are just meaningless to the lives of Nigerians if at the end of the year there’s nothing on the ground to show for the exercise. If Yar ‘Adua achieves 28 % in WASCE or JAMB exam, that’s outright failure. In a tertiary course sysytem, that is repeat, and having achieved such poor performance in successful years, he’d have been asked to withdraw from the university. In short, budget drafting, debate, implementation and outcomes have become a gargantuan farce in this country to the extent that the budget has added no value to the life of average Nigerian. It’s been a mechanism for allocating money into individual pockets through fictitious headings crafted as "budgeting by objective". It’s nothing but stealing by budgeting.Therefore, nothing gained, nothing lost by the poor masses if Yar adua’s 2010 buget is refused hearing.He deserves it going by his budget performance records..

.. they are never serious, and they will never be. They do not have anything to offer to us. Mr President should go to any public school and read the budget , what is the big deal about budget reading. The important thing is implementation and how the budget will help the common man.

Halleluyah! NigeriaIts not a battle of the great.'ogun omode ole sere fun ogun odun'.Divisions like these are much awaited-they wil soon begin 2 murder one another for the loot and guess what?A mass killing of thieves by thieves.

Frank(london), summary please

I have said it before that they are bunch of food is ready politicians and ostrich mentality vagabond. The liar Bankole said the other day that police in Canada were giving bribes to effect election voting but may I remind him that here in Canada you can never find a police ooficer in a pooling station. Not here where i lived for 16yrs. now. Mr. ahole

What the military guys waiting......can we disolve this government please??? Afterall they only being stealing and looting for the past 10years

For the sake of equality, the President should do the presentation in his own office, while the both watch the presentation on the screen in their defferent chambers. I think AIT can do that job effectively since they don't know the right thing to do.WAHALA DEY.

@TMM, are you too busy or illiterate to read what Frank wrote? Skip it if you will, why the hell are you asking for a summary?

The problem is the nigerian’s interpretative understanding of the english language…the Reps says the senate hall is “too small” to accommodate a joint meeting. For a nigerian big man …that word small is a killer. If the Reps had said the senate chamber was “not spacious enough” there would have been no problem. How can you tell a whole general, dr, multi billionaire, honorable guvnor, his excellency, the right honourable, senate president, number 3 citizen david mark…that HIS senate is TOO SMALL to accommodate the boys…yaradua…just publish your budget leave these nincompoops alone…