Indubitably, through the years, the people ofIdahFederal Constituency, where I belong, have been getting it wrong in the selection or, rather,electionof their representatives in the green chambers of the National Assembly.

At present, we have a combo of the good and qualified; the fair and less-qualified, the bad and unqualified, and the category of needless ugly, diffident, mousy and dispensable aspirants with no requisite credentials in the race to represent us in the House of Representatives.

This time, we refuse to be confused, no matter the number of those in the race. The case in 2019 will be different. We shall and must employ the use of all political missiles at our disposal to politically torpedo and wipe all unqualified characters off the road to the House of Representatives. Among the aspirants, we know those who have the combination of the required credentials, intelligence, excellent written and verbal communication skills, requisite exposure, intimidating audacity, and the political will to make it happen and make us proud of having a representative in the lower chambers of NASS.

Equally, we, as well, know those who will go up there to speak English - but will be interested in taking the back seat in the House where contracts are being cut for rapacious legislators - and leave our people with nothing to benefit. Your intelligence andrapacitywill do us no good.Nobe intelligence we go chop.

Worst of it all is the category of aspirants who will go up not only to murder the English language with recklessabandon,but also lack the education, manner of conversation and are emptily arrogant and utterly bereft of ideas to transform legislative representation into tangible benefits for the constituents. In the legislative chambers, you must be profoundly bold and coherently vocal to move a motion, sponsor a bill, and bring back home the goods for your people.

The aspirant who lacks the foregoing qualities belongs to the category of legislators who beat a hasty retreat in the National Assembly.House of Reps no be House of Assembly,abiLocal Government Councillor.If you go House of Rep,nanational and international TV get you and usweygo dey watch!Semi-educated, intellectually poor, psychologically imbalanced, emptily arrogant and extremely mannerless aspirant will be a disaster of epic magnitude in the House of Representatives.“Òjò kikp’ona.”

Come 2019, we shall select and push an audaciously vocal aspirant who is politically prudent with the right credentials for legislative functions; the one who is not just intellectually proficient but also endowed with profound intellectual sagacity. For the good of our land, which we want to be proud of, we shall throw off men with political insincerity and political desperados who do not possess the requisite desiderata for legislative business and whose academic qualifications were obtained on borrowed intelligence off the track to the House of Representatives.

The Legislature is a house built for good sense, a citadel of service and the engine of democracy. It is meant for great men of learning and unimpeachable character, not for men who are lucid social vandals withhistoryof utter political imprudence, political bewilderment, and lack of direction.

A roll of honour for great men of learning and character that have graced the glorious halls of various parliaments across the world would see men like Demosthenes ofGreece,and Cicero of Rome. These two ancient greats may be centuries away in our memories, but other more contemporary examples like Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke and Benjamin Disraeli, equally recommend themselves to our admiration. Inasmuch as we can’t get men who possess the exact qualities of these classical parliamentarians of history,IdahFederal Constituency, this time, will bring on a representative close to these.

Never again will our Federal Constituency be represented by goose-bumpy political buffoons, semi-literate jesters, unmanly and panicky legislative ignoramuses who will go up into the House of Representatives to bark up the wrong tree.

Come 2019,IdahFederal Constituency will not vote for a representative who will stand in the green chambers with unattractive comportment, break every rule in the book, and make cacophonous presentations that will stampede the entire constituency and its intellectually vibrant constituents into an abysmal pit of ignominy, a bottomless pit of shame.

Allahkiyayemusibah!

•Odaudu Joel, Senior Special Assistant to Kogi State Governor on New Media, writes from Lokoja.