Abuja — A fortnight ago, Committees on State and Local Government of both the Senate and House of Representatives organized a special merit award ceremony where chairmen of local government councils across the country were conferred with various 'merit awards' in recognition of one form of achievement or the other in their respective localities.

This form of recognition is not new to most Nigerians, especially in the years since the return to civil rule 1999. What made the November 6th ceremony particularly interesting was the institution behind it.

It has became the norm that we have become familiar with, seeing one form of organization or the other host ceremonies to honour Nigerians from all walks of life, in parliament, executive arm of government, business moguls and even members of the judiciary. Such ceremonies have in most cases, because of their preponderance and frequency, somewhat lost focus and relevance and respectability in the eyes of the public. More often than not, they are used as channels for securing financial favours from the equally conniving, though sometimes unsuspecting beneficiaries of the pernicious awards. An example is the instant case.

As a result, most Nigerians have not put so much value on the multiplicity of dubious awards, which from all indications, is now receiving some official legislative stamp by the de facto involvement of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on State and Local Government in this apparent swindle. More worrisome are the allegations that followed the recent awards ceremony in which consultants acting on behalf of the two committees were accused of extorting 800, 000 naira from every beneficiary of the award. No less disturbing is the fact that the bribe-for-award levy was only made known to the unsuspecting chairmen after they had arrived Abuja to receive their 'award'.

We note that the National Assembly has taken a depressingly familiar line of undertaking to investigate the scandal, among a string of missteps that are capable of compromising the integrity of the legislature as a branch of government. Members of the two responsible committees have behaved in a most deplorable manner. Their conduct represents a major setback in the war against corruption as well as an erosion of the integrity of the National Assembly. The National Assembly must act swiftly to unravel the brains behind this latest scandal, and publicly punish them. Expulsion is only a one measure; prosecution by the police under the relevant statutes should follow.

Moreover, if as it was claimed the two committees did indeed collect a total sum of N88 million for simple recognition of hard work and excellence, then, such act must be seen and treated as a major fraud which requires the immediate involvement of anti graft agencies so that all the extorted money is returned to government coffers. The local government officials involved cannot be absolved of blame here. Why would they be eager to spend huge amounts of public money to obtain spurious recognition from quarters that are not in a position to so? Recognition and reward should come from their own people. If their people do not appreciate what the officials are doing, no one else, not the National Assembly, can.

No doubt the motive behind the award was more of the fraudulent than recognizing excellence. We applaud the decision of the House of Representatives for immediately directing its committee on Ethics and Privileges to commence investigations and ascertain the truthfulness of the allegations levelled against its Committee on State and Local Government. We expect the senate to follow suit by probing allegations against its own committee.

We believe that the early determination of the issues by the two chambers will help the integrity of the legislature and on the other hand deter similar or other forms of recklessness by any individual members or committees of the National Assembly. We call on the legislature to be up to its responsibility of law-making, representation and oversight and desist from acts that may further erode its integrity, which, as everyone knows, is low.