Musician wey carry him band
He play for union of deaf-and-dumb
He miss road, oh yes
He miss road
-Fela Anikulapo Kuti, “He Miss Road”

Nigerians have been battling with fuel scarcity for weeks now and with the declining oil prices across the they could soon face removal of the notorious petroleum subsidy and a sharp increase in the price of petroleum products. However instead of  finding a way to make things easier for Nigerian citizens the Nigerian Senate has decided to spend a whopping total of N4.7 billion on the purchase of cars for Senate committee members.

The Nigerian Senate claims that it is frugal and responsible with the nation’s income, however, in a bid “to serve the nation better”, they have ordered brand new Toyota Land Cruiser jeeps for all 108 members of the senate. Reportedly, an order has been placed for four Toyota Prado jeeps (2016 model), four Toyota Hiluxes, a Toyota Hiace Bus and a 2016 model Mercedes Benz S550 for the current President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki.

This is a clear violation of the monetization policy, which states that no new vehicles should be purchased by any agency of government for use by public officials. Rather, public officers and political office holders are to receive 250 percent of their basic annual salary as “motor vehicle loan”.  This translates to N5.07 million for each senator. So why are Nigerian senators disobeying the law?

According to Aliyu Abdullahi, “the vehicles are not meant for individual senators, they are purchased for the use of the committees” and in a bid to protect themselves from the inevitable backlash from members of public, Abdullahi, on behalf of his colleagues, added that “the media should avoid deliberately portraying the legislature as irresponsible and inciting the people against it. We seek the understanding of the media to explain issues and situations to the people. Both the media and the legislature have different roles to play in sustaining our democracy and none should be seen to be undermining the other.”

However, Abdullahi’s ‘protective addendum’ will not do much to hide the absurdity of the APC led Senate’s latest frivolous purchase. If the senators are each entitled to a N5 million car loan and they still feel the need to purchase N4.7 billion in luxury vehicles, then we’ve moved from good old fashioned under the table corruption (which keeps being flung around amongst public officials) to what can only be called transparent looting.