MPs should account for micro grants to avoid blows
By Asong
Ndifor
SDF parliamentarian from Menchum North, Hon. Ndong Larry Hills, alias Wum Boy,
was hospitalised recently allegedly from a display of “power” by a fellow party
district chairman, Ngong Rex. It did not surprise me for a party that
frequently punches the air with clinched fingers as a graphic expression of
“Power to the people” which is its slogan.
I
remember Eric Motomu, Publisher of Chronicle newspaper was once carried
unconscious from an SDF rally when he had a taste of a party he so much used
The Socialist Chronicle to promote. I suspect it was because of the powerful
blows he got from the SDF vanguards that he scraped off “socialist” from the
name of his newspaper. The word also features in the name of Chairman Fru Ndi’s
party and Eric effected the change, I imagine, to underline his divorce with
the Social Democratic Front.
Reporters will also vividly recall how an SDF delegation from Bamenda, led by
parliamentarians flaunting their immunity, stormed Yaounde to prevent a
convention of Souleman’s party and that of Ben Muna at another occasion. The
show of “power” to stop Muna’s convention was so deadly that a former SDF
official of the Centre region was murdered.
Following
the murder, Chairman Fru Ndi and co. unlimited were interrogated while one of
their militants, retired Colonel Chi Ngafor was held in Kondengui prison for
months. Hilary Fokum Kebila, publisher of The Messenger also had a dislocated
jaw from the SDF powerful punches at a time the front had 43 MPs who today have
nose-dived to 17; not to say the power is fading out!
So what’s the fuss if Wum Boy had a taste of the revolutionary stuff his party
is made of, for not explaining how the money to finance a micro project or
projects in Menchum North had been managed?
The scorching truth in this Wum boxing bout just reminds me of the
sensibilities many parliamentarians wear on their frowning contour when you ask
how they spend the eight million francs, the people’s money, entrusted to them
to execute minor projects in their constituencies.
Isn’t
that the question posed to the Menchum parliamentarian which perhaps in failing
to have a satisfactory answer became the root of the show of shame? You perforate
the bitter bile of many MPs, I hope their upper house colleagues won’t behave
the same, when you ask them what they do with the grants.
As
“honourables”, they will now give you a blow. They may be polite to ward off
the question, be they in the “righteous opposition” or in the “unholy party in
power”. Their constituents will not all be people of dignity, they will
naturally be a mixture of brain and brawl like in the Wum episode.
The legislators find common grounds only when it comes to micro grants, there
are no dissenting votes or walkouts. They are in unity without any need to blow
“change” out of the way when it comes to the use of parliamentary grants. When
one musters the courage to ask, many will say: “That’s no issue, our work is to
pass laws and control government action”.
Some will
add that they are “hunting dogs” for government projects to be allocated to
their constituencies. But their impact is more significant if they use
the people’s money, no matter how small it is, in their constituencies to
support community water projects, dilapidating school buildings, provide drugs
to heath centres, build culverts, repair secondary roads etc.
Transparency, accountability and above all honour demand that constituents be
told how the grants are used. Senators and parliamentarians owe their
constituents that duty, unless they have misappropriated the grants. That will
avoid frequent accusations that many of the legislators pocket most of the
money if not all.
I hear one of the duties of questors is to have the MPs and senators account
for how the money is used. But for a questor to do that is like being a judge
in his own case.
It’s not that all parliamentarians are not accountable. An example
in transparent usage of the grants is Hon. Bernard Foju of Lebialem
constituency. He gives his grants in cash and publicly, so that at the end of
the day it adds up to 8MFCFA. I have seen some publications by Hon. Rose
Abunaw of Manyu explaining the projects carried out in her constituency.
Ayah Paul bought a giant generator for his
constituency. Some of their colleagues buy planting seeds, a handful of
corrugated iron sheets which do not add up to a tenth of the grants and blow
their trumpets to the point of intimidating the constituents.
Why will parliamentarians and senators, honourable as they want to be seen,
have the moral authority to grill corrupt members of the executive when they
are all in the same sour soup of executing projects, micro or macro?
I do not even see why parliamentarians should be competing with the executive
branch to rub sludge with micro projects peanuts. In the good old days of
President Ahmadou Ahidjo, parliamentarians never touched the money. They merely
identified small projects in their constituencies which were carried out by
contractors and paid from the public treasury.
Can’t
that system safe the decorum, honour and conscience of our honourable men and
women sashed with the national colours from the embarrassment of the Wum film?
That will free their conscience and enhance the authority of legislators to
fully concentrate in parliamentary debates and control the action of a
government sinking in stinking corruption.
Postscript:
Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it." - Sheikh
Uthman Dan Fodio.
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