Richard Tayo: Stellar Hypocrisy On Show: Letter To Senator Ben Murray Bruce

I am particularly compelled to write you this letter sir knowing that the Senate is currently riddled with plethora of controversies that your ‘Common Sense’ campaign is yet to address. Your ‘Common Sense’ crusade have addressed almost every prevailing situations in this country save that of the Senate. Reason I can’t just help but remind you of the stellar height you have taken hypocrisy to.

Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you’re moral and saying you’re moral is not the same as acting morally. Pardon me sir but I have never believed your ‘Common Sense’ campaign abinitio. To me leaders with ‘Uncommon Sense’ is what we need in this country at this critical time.
My major grouse with your ‘common sense’ campaign is how selective the application is and the fact that you lack it prior to this time. I am particularly not buying your ‘common sense’ catch phrase for obvious reasons;

Issues that makes you take to Twitter and Facebook to croak all day long are issues that have plagued our country long before the advent of the current administration, so why do you just started croaking about them now and making it sound like we just found ourselves here?
There is such thing as sounding like a broken record sir. And unfortunately that’s how you sound each time you come up with your ‘My name is Ben Murray Bruce and I Just Want To Make Common Sense’.

Infact, it is profoundly insulting, degrading, scornful and contemptuous that the legislative arm of government you belong to is the most controversial and the most riddled with corruption charges yet no commonsensical talk has emanated from your podium to address this anomalies plaguing it.

What is keeping you sir from taking your common sense crusade to the floor of the Senate? The President sent two bills to the Senate since January. They are; The money laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016 and The mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal matters Bill. These bills are still pending in the Senate yet you and your colleagues in the Senate insist on making Laws that will help your colleague evade justice and decriminalise Code of Conduct laws. This bill passed 2nd reading within 48hours and that isn’t ‘common sense’ Oga senator.

Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy and that is why you only make sense in the minds of those gullible and misinformed enough to think that you are sincere with this little catch phrase of yours. For us who are  far thickskinned and enlightened we can’t be fooled by your hypocrisy on social media. The bigwig Senators are reported to have appropriated N1.6 billion each to themselves in “constituency projects” inserted in the budget. Another N200 million was set for ordinary members. Sir what have you said to condemn this? Yet you vilify the President because of fuel queues and not for lack of fuel.

Sir, I know that every politician is a hypocrite, and every hypocrite, a politician but you took hypocrisy to another level when in June last year in a series of tweets you made a caricature of the governor of Osun state because of his inability to pay his state workers. You promised to donate your share of the controversial N8.64b NASS wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers of Osun State. In the 3rd series of the tweets you said “We are starting with Osun, but we will not end there. I will do as much to help workers who’ve not been paid in other states” when over 75% of the workforce in Bayelsa your home state have not been paid salaries for for over 5months and reports have it that some are owed as much as 10months.

In your write up ‘Wailing on the Economy’ Mr Ben you said in the article: “I buy majority of the books I read online. So you could imagine my shock when I tried to purchase some leadership and management books from a foreign bookshop (emphasis mine) online only to find that my account, which is well funded, would not work! Then I got an email from my bank explaining to me that due to the realities of our economy, my ATM card is being restricted. I was shocked!” Senator sir, what happened to our bookshops or we don’t have good enough leadership and management books in our bookshops in Nigeria? You can’t be crying for your candy when you just said candy is bad for the tooth.

The Senate has started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 billion. Personally I am waiting for your big announcement since you love any display intended to excite admiration or applause that your own Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility will be donated to the unpaid workers of your state.

Sir, I must say that your messages will only make sense if you no longer insult our intelligence with your “my name is Ben Murray Bruce and I just want to make common sense”
My name is Richard Tayo and I just want to make an Uncommon Sense.
@richardtayo