Social critic and public affairs analyst, Mahdi Shehu, has called on the National Assembly to stop making what he described as nonsensical laws and focus on addressing the real problems facing Nigerians.
Shehu, in a post on X on Thursday, argued that lawmakers have taken advantage of the docility of Nigerians to churn out laws that do not serve the majority of the people.
“The biggest affliction of democracy on people is that a few good, bad, fraudulent, or even dangerous are given or they snatch the monopoly to make laws for the majority,” he wrote.
“Consequently, National Assembly members of Nigeria have taken the advantage, latitude and docility of Nigerians to make laws, some of which are sensible, quite many nonsensical and most of them stupid and dangerous.”
He urged the legislature to instead initiate bills that would tackle what he termed visible crimes affecting governance and development in the country.
Among his proposals were laws that would classify narcotics trade, frequent foreign travels by public officials, budget padding, and frequent loan collections as forms of terrorism.
According to him, “We need a Narcotic Terrorism Act to declare all those selling, peddling and funding narcotic activities as terrorists because of its multidimensional implications.”
He also suggested a Budget Padding Terrorism Act to criminalize officials who inflate budgets, as well as a Frequent Travels Terrorism Act to sanction public officers who travel abroad at public expense while their states or the country face crises.
Shehu further called for strict laws against public officials who seek medical treatment abroad after contributing to the collapse of local health institutions.
“This country urgently needs laws to save Nigerians from deliberate terrorism acts by public office holders,” he added.
He listed areas like constituency projects, national grid collapse, and absenteeism by lawmakers as issues that should also be criminalized.
