Crying and laughter are normal part of healthy life. Although at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, they are emotions which certify that we are human beings.
We laugh when we are happy or want to ridicule something, and we cry when we are sad and feel we have been hard done by. Laughter has the power to treat the soul and the body, and is the cheapest and most pleasant form of therapy.
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To be able to truly laugh, people must be able to take their pain and play with it. No matter what your heartache may be, laughing helps you to forget it even if for just a moment.
Crying on the other hand is the shedding of tears in response to an emotional state; pain, physical irritation or helplessness. Under normal circumstances, these two acts don’t happen at the same time.
When they do occur simultaneously, it’s supposedly a sign of a medical condition known as Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA).
The recent on-goings at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) hearings at the National Assembly (NASS) are capable of infecting Nigerians with PBA because the revelations and procedures elicit both tears and laughter simultaneously.
Tears, because despite all the hullabaloo and grandstanding about integrity and the anti-corruption war, it’s evident that massive treasury looting is continuing at an ever-heightened level.
Laughter, because of the farcical manner in which probes by the House always lead to the accused becoming the accuser and threatening to reveal hidden secrets of high level “official” corruption.
Nigerians are beginning to treat NASS probes as mere light entertainment by politicians and their appointees who appear stuck in their malodorous ways.
The social media is awash with hilarious “it’s OK” comedy skits relating to Minister Akpabio’s appearance at the NDDC hearings which have been compared unfavourably to the on-going Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) TV show.
Both of them are unscripted reality entertainment in which no benefit other than entertainment accrues to the viewer.
However, there are differences. In BBN, someone ends up as winner and benefits financially.
In the NDDC probe, however, there will be no winners and, as is usual in such matters, the whole exercise will likely end up as another waste of time with a report which will gather dust somewhere while the situation continues with a different set of actors.
In BBN, contestants aren’t paid to be in the House; it’s their voluntary decision to give up their time free of charge.
One of the most galling aspects of the ongoing NDDC show is that participants are actually being paid to expose to the nation the manner in which they have contributed to maladministration and misappropriation of funds.
In BBN, the contestants eventually end up revealing their physical nakedness.
In the NDDC probe, politicians end up revealing their moral nakedness! While Nigerian youths entertain themselves watching BBN which features partying, spitefulness between participants and sexual trysts, elders entertain themselves watching the NDDC probe whose standard fare is shamelessness, hubris, lack of decorum and lack of integrity.
The real tragedy is that most of the revelations being made public were never hidden in the first place. They were contained in reports that were submitted.
The NASS indicted itself for not carrying out its oversight functions on the activities of the NDDC Interim Management Committee (IMC) which led to the high level of rot and corruption in the agency. However, the buck stops somewhere.
It begs the question as to whether anybody at the top actually reads reports.
There can be little doubt that if anyone in authority had personally read only just the executive summaries of numerus reports by the Auditor-General of the Federation, they would have put a stop to this wholesale treasury looting long before things got to this stage.
In a serious public relations gaffe, the president’s handlers released a picture of him sitting down barefooted reading nothing, and talking to no one, but rather picking his teeth seemingly without a care in the world.
It was the modern-day equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burnt. The NDDC is typical of so many Nigerian agencies which require constant oversight at the highest level.
The management spent billions to construct office edifices, purchase luxury vehicles for themselves, pay house rents in highbrow areas, sponsor overseas visits and pay themselves outrageous salaries, allowances, and COVID-19 palliative funds.
All this while, the economically disadvantaged Niger Delta people experienced no tangible benefits.
It’s somewhat similar to the case of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who, rather than use recovered funds to build schools, hospitals, and roads, preferred to construct an edifice to itself.
Questions have quite naturally been asked as to why, if not for self-glorification, did they need such an edifice if they had managed to recover so much money without one?
There should have been an EFCC desk in every police station, just as there should have been an NDDC representative on every local government council in the Niger Delta.
The view of most Niger Delta citizens is that they have felt no commensurate impact of the commission because all matters are settled in Abuja!
There is little reason to disbelieve Minister Akpabio’s assertion that NDDC contracts are awarded to legislators. No one should expect the evidence to be in plain view.
Legislators would not be so naive as to use their own companies or their own names.
Now the Speaker of the House wants to fritter away more public funds by prosecuting Akpabio, without bothering to state what will happen to any legislator found guilty of executing or influencing contracts.
The speaker’s grandstanding is unimpressive and he would serve the nation better foreclosing on a prosecution which most likely will unearth more unpalatable scandals and ultimately lead to nowhere.
In the BBN matter, it’s good that the Minister of Information has denied asking the NBC to close it down because of COVID-19.
Politicians who are not registered voters in Edo State are flooding the area in the midst of a pandemic due to elections in the mistaken belief that Edo people are incapable of electing their own leaders without outside interference.
The antics of political leaders and proceedings in the NDDC probe will do more to spread immorality and COVID-19 than the activities of a few youths confined to a house.
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