By Sanni Onogu, Abuja
There was drama on Monday when the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abudullahi and a panel member at the African Independent Television (AIT) Town Hall Meeting in Abuja, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, disagreed over the time allotted to each panel member to speak.
The town hall meeting was organised by the AIT to, according to them, get perspectives on the Social Media and Hate Speech Bills before the National Assembly and to seek a way forward.
The moderator of the panel discussion, Professor Ladi Sandra Adamu, had announced that each panelist would be given five minutes each to make their presentation.
However, Senator Abdullahi said he had an observation to make and the moderator yielded the floor to him.
Abdullahi said that as a sponsor of one of the Bills, the five minutes allotted would not be enough for him to “do justice” to his presentation.
He requested that Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (sponsor of the Social Media Bill) and himself be given 20 minutes each to speak before other panelists can make their contributions.
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At this point, a former Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, who was one of the panelists, objected to any addition of time for the two senators.
He argued that since the rules had been set before the programme commenced, it was only proper that they be adhered to.
At this point, Senator Abdullahi got up from his seat apparently in protest and said: “I take exception to your comments, I take exception to your comments.”
Some members of the audience supported Odinkalu’s comments.
This interruption led to a brief rowdiness at the forum as some senior management staff of the AIT rushed forward to the arena to calm frayed nerves.
Calm was later restored as the moderator agreed to an added time of 20 minutes each for the two senators to make their presentations.
The exchange between Abdullahi and Prof. Odinkalu goes thus:
Abdullahi said: I am the sponsor of one of the Bills. My observation is that we are here, you are talking of five minutes for each of the panelist. And my understanding as I was invited is for us to come and present our thoughts on this particular Bill. So at the end of the day if I will be speaking for five minutes and I have these very erudite speakers, I feel am going to be overwhelmed in terms of the minutes not in terms of what is going to be said. If I am given more time, then perhaps, I will be able to do justice to my presentation.
Moderator: Can you be brief in your submission please and go straight to the point?
Abdullahi: I will be brief but I think we need to understand one point, for us to be here, it means we have taken this very subject matter very serious and if I will come here only to be given five minutes to speak, honestly the whole idea of my coming is defeated. The subject which we want to discuss is not something that five minutes can do justice to. And if I am presenting a Bill, I have reasons why I am presenting this Bill, I have issues that I want to place before Nigerians and I think it will only be fair the two of us as presenters, we be given 20 minutes. If we are given 20 minutes to present our case, then the panelist can now take turn to make comments on the basis of what we have done.
Prof. Odinkalu: Madam moderator are citizens allowed to respond?
Moderator: Not yet.
Prof Odinkalu: “There is nothing like not yet. Nigeria is a country which people think that rules don’t matter. If there were rules before we came here, those rules should be applied. If people come here and start arguing exceptionalism because they are Senators, that is not right.
(At this point members of the audience began applauding and jeering from the audience.)
Moderator: There is not going to be 20 minutes for anybody and there will be no exception.
Senator Abdullahi (who was at this time on his feet) said: I take exception to these comments Prof.
Odinkalu: You can take exception. This is our country too.
Abudullahi: Please and please, I didn’t make the comments to…
Odinkalu: Feel free to take exception. This is our country too!
Abdullahi: The organisers, you need to get this thing right. I take exception to his comments. Please!
Odinkalu (with raised voice and addressing the Senator): This is our country too. There is no problem sir. I never made any reference to you. This is our country too. There are rules and you cannot change them here, go to the Senate and change it.
Moderator: Excuse me, Prof, I crave your indulgence please. There is amendment. The two senators will talk for 20 minutes and the others will talk for 15 minutes.
Some members of the audience started shouting no, no, no…
It took quite sometime before the moderator was able restore normalcy and to allow the presentations to commence.
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