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The 275 members of Parliament are smarting under allegations that they have collected a bribe from a foreign contractor to grant Parliamentary approval to its contract worth US$129.9 million. The Ministry of Communications had entered into a contract with a Chinese company, ZTE, during the 5th Parliament, for the supply of a Dedicated Security Information System. About two months ago, the incumbent Minister of Communications submitted documents on the contract to the 6thParliament for approval of the second phase. Parliament, in its wisdom, detected that some defects pointed out the committee level had not been addressed, and, therefore, refused its approval and asked the Minister to go and do his homework and come back. All his pleas for the corrections to be carried out after the approval fell on deaf ears. Now while the Minister of Communications was away working to ensure that the contract met the terms of Parliament, ZTE sent its men to Parliament House to give each MP a phone. They accepted them gleefully. After the Chinese had been, the Minister returned to Parliament House with his papers in order, and the contract was promptly approved. The Chronicle is not all surprised that the �ignorant� general public would term the ZTE phones as a bribe to the MPs. The truth of the matter is that this specific ZTE phone is not the type that any politician would pant for, because he/she cannot to talk to his wife or her husband on it, talk less of mouthing sweet nonsense on it to his girlfriend or her boyfriend, or browsing the internet with it. It is like the walkie-talkie that the police, military and the para-military organisations use. Any word spoken on it is heard by all other persons holding one of it, and who has switched it on. But the MPs should blame themselves for whatever opprobrium attached to them as a result of the ZTE phone gifts for their singular failure in not being sensitive to the atmospherics. How could they? A Minister of State comes to the House pleading for expeditious approval of a contract nearing expiry. The House refuses him. He departs unhappily. The next day the contractor involves appears at Parliament bearing gift phones, and the leadership of the House and other MPs embraced them with open hands. Days later, the Minister comes back, and promptly the contract is approved. And nobody found any incongruence in the scenario? Haba, how na�ve or careless can our MPs be? The protection of their integrity should be their primary concern. If they do not, nobody would do it for them. In any case, if National Security wants to put the MPs on a dedicated security system, is it the company handling the contract that should give out the phones, especially, at a time when the approval had hit a road block on the floor of the House? We purport to read the Bible every day, yet we do not take its injunctions to heart. Is it not written somewhere in Ecclesiastics, �There is a time for everything under the Sun �?