Senator Chimaroke Nnamani represents Enugu East Senatorial District. He is also a former governor of Enugu State. He ex-rayed the newly inaugurated Senate, its presiding officer and what the Ninth Senate stands for in the legislative history of Nigeria. He spoke in Abuja about what he described as his second missionary journey after a spell of political wilderness. Assistant Editor, Onyedi Ojiabor, was there
You are one of those who were in the National Assembly some years ago and are returning after a break. How do you feel about this your second coming?
It is a privilege for me to be involved in a somewhat second missionary journey because I’ve had opportunity as a young man to test the political waters of Nigeria. I have been involved in the leadership of my state (Enugu State) as governor, after which I also had opportunity to do one term in the Senate. Then I went through a period of hiatus which could be described as my wilderness years.
So, this is a second opportunity to play a role in statecraft or leadership of my people. The period of the wilderness years gave me an opportunity to reflect, think and also go through “hunger” for participation in the affairs of my people. You know, as you get older, the compulsion to have a voice; the compulsion to be heard in the caucus of your elders becomes much more intense.
I can say that on this second missionary journey, I am coming into it with greater and more urgent sense of awareness.
My sense of history is also more urgent because I’m now older with a greater sense of the need for Nigeria to join the comity of nations.
I also have a greater sense of the social burden of my country. Being in my twilight years, I am coming with greater sense of urgency to be part of the greater explosion in terms of the economy that we all expect in Nigeria. There is a greater sense of the need for the sleeping giant to wake up because indeed, Nigeria is the giant of Africa. But it is a giant that seems to walk with the feet of clay.
What is your perception of the 9th Senate and its newly elected leadership?
I believe we are expecting a vibrant Senate. I have had opportunity of studying closely the new President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and I have done a review of his background. He has a PhD Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System from a UK university. That shows he is an academic; he is a man of study and an intellectual who has information.
I have also had cause to work with him. I was in the Senate for four years. He was the Chairman, Public Accounts Committee at that time. I have also had opportunity to interact with him and I found him a gentleman.
He comes across as an intellectual and a man in total control of his temperament. So, I’m looking forward to working with him. He certainly has my support. I believe he is going to steer the Senate with listening ears.
In the past, a frosty relationship existed between the executive and legislature. Do you think this conflict can be avoided this time around?
I believe that Senator Ahmad Lawan is going to find a meeting point between the level of independence and the level of frustrating the Executive. It wasn’t envisaged that there will be antagonism between the Executive and the Legislature because it is actually one government.
That is why in America, the Vice President is the President of the Senate.
I don’t want to get into the semantics or allegory of this independence of the legislature but how can you really say you are independent when the number two person in the Executive will cast a deciding vote on what you want to do. Are you really independent when the Vice President will come into the Senate and decide what you are going to do?
When a party gets elected into government, if the party is in control of the Executive and Legislature, it means that both arms would work together.
The leader in the Executive will call the Legislature to brief them of their policies and programmes and find out what are workable. The Legislature may suggest some amendments to what the Executive presents. Thereafter, the policies can be formally presented to the Legislature who will now convince the opposition to pass it.
Sometimes, the Executive can even invite the opposition when they are putting together a bill. When they now agree, they will present it formally to the Legislature. This will decrease acrimony, time wastage and make things easier.
So, if you look at how constitutional democracy was developed, the idea was not that the two arms of government will fight or be antagonistic to each other. The idea was that they are going to be co- dependent and work together.
If the party in the majority is in government and controls the Executive, if they are lucky and they are also in control of the Legislature, they are going to work together. There is no dividing line because it is one government.
Now if they convince the opposition and it buys into the plan, it sails through. But if they can’t convince the opposition, the matter will be out to vote. If they win, you go along with it. So, based on the election of Ahmad Lawan that happened on Tuesday, June 11, I can tell you it was a bipartisan effort. As an academic and an intellectual, he will be able to read the fine lines between an antagonistic legislature and a legislature that is alive to its responsibilities and helps the Executive to have a smooth operation of government.
The 8th Senate could not pass the Southeast Development Commission Bill before its tenure elapsed. What are you going to do about it as a member of the 9th Senate?
My role is to resuscitate it. We are going to look for it and bring it up again. I am surprised that the North East Development Commission Bill was passed without the South East Development Commission Bill being passed. I hope that in the future, in the Senate, what is good for the goose will also be good for the gander. As you pass the North East Bill, you also pass the South East bill; if not you hold it until all of them are ready and pass them together.
Not only will this be my advocacy, it will be my responsibility to go to my colleagues, visit them one by one and appeal to them to ensure equity and fairness in developmental matters of this nature.
If you look at the Senate President’s address, he called for the bipartisan spirit to continue. He said there is no party – no APC and no PDP. So, I will speak to their bipartisan conscience for us to work together.
How can we justify this idea of Nigeria being Giant of Africa given the situation of things in the country?
Nigeria is a great country because when Nigeria sneezes, Africa quakes. We are the most populous black nation and has contributed more than any other nation in the liberation of other African states; mention them- South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and the rest of them. Not only that, Nigeria has contributed a lot in terms of human lives and money to the stabilisation and peace in other African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan. Nigerians are all over the world.
We’ve had democracy for twenty consecutive years now. I want to be part of the process. I want to be there when the giant wakes up because I know he will certainly wake up. So, I’m enthused, I’m ready to participate in this process.
What has really changed between when you went on political sabbatical and now?
I have a keener sense of injustice and the price that people pay when they keep quiet. I am much more aware of it now. There is always a price that people pay when they keep quiet in the face of injustice because it is going to go round. The system is a closed system, so when you see injustice and you keep quiet; it’s going to come to you. It will come to you one way or the other.
I will be interested in issues of human rights, equality, justice and rule of law. When people are arrested and get bail, we should make sure they are released. Once court grants you a bail, it’s not subject to any other legal interpretation of human manipulation.
So basically, I am in the Senate primarily to participate in debates and advocacy of my own viewpoint and the viewpoint of my people on the Nigerian project.
What special interests do you have in the Nigerian project?
The Nigerian project is how these ethnic nationalities have gone through several tribulations such as the slave trade, colonialism, military dictatorship, debt-enslavement, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and so on.
So you have a country in which if you run a line, all the way from the borders in the North to the Atlantic Ocean in the South, there are no commonalities. There are no commonalities in language, history, and religion. The French, Germans and British simply sat down and divided Africa and those of us here ended up in one country.
So, the debate on the project is how do these ethnic nationalities continue to live together? How do they share their resources? How do they police themselves? How do they relate with their foreign neighbours? So, my interest is to join the debate on the Nigerian project.
Most politicians get elected to the National Assembly on the promise to deliver dividends of democracy to their people. Are you not interested in the basic social infrastructure for your constituents?
Of course, I am also interested in the bread and butter politics and making sure that my people get their own share of the national cake. I mean their share in terms of infrastructure, such as roads in the Southeast where apparently the roads are in a state of abandonment. I am also intrigued by the rail system development. How come, nobody is talking about the Southeast in terms of rail development? I believe that if you are talking about rail, the Southeast should actually have priority because you want to move goods from Port-Harcourt into the hinterland; you want to move goods from Onitsha into the hinterland and you want to link Onitsha and Lagos because most of the goods coming into the ports of Lagos are actually bound to end up in the Southeast.
So, it would be interesting to know why we are not talking about rail system in the Southeast or why other areas should have priority over the Southeast in terms of development of the railways?
I am also interested in aviation and what is going on with the Enugu Airport. Instead of upgrading the airport, you are talking about even closing it down.
What would you do about the challenge the country has with its elections?
I will also be interested in electoral reforms. The pertinent question about Certificate of Return has to be addressed. What is Certificate of Return? It is meaningless. It doesn’t mean anything. It is a distraction. What is Certificate of Return? Is it in the Constitution? It’s an invention of those running the electoral system. It’s a new word in our political lexicon. What is Certificate of Return? What are you returning?
When you conduct election, you have a Certificate of Declaration where you are declared the winner and it state your result, signed by the Returning Officer and your agent. That’s the Certificate of Return. You don’t need any other bureaucracy to give you a Certificate of Return. All they are trying to do is to put a third party into the process to manipulate the system.
When it’s going to favour you, you remember there is a Certificate of Return. When it’s not going to favour you, nobody talks about it. So, this is a new invention by the bourgeoisie and the dysfunctional elite that has absolutely no sense of altruism. They are only thinking of how to profit and gain advantage of the system.
When you look at the 2019 elections in terms of the paper work, manpower mobilisation and the expenses were totally unnecessary. There should be no interfacing agent between the voter, the vote and the result. You don’t need any interfacing agent. You don’t need anybody to announce results.
I’ve had cause to give an example with the banking system. You get your ATM card, you go to the ATM, collect your money and go. Nobody is there to give you the money. Nobody is there to announce the amount of money collected because everything is automated.
The same can happen with elections. It is a very simple process. You have your voters’ card which is like an ATM card. You can take that voters card, slot it into the card reader or an appropriate machine; that machine will recognise you as a voter using several parameters. When it recognises you as a voter, you now vote on that machine and we would all see it.
We’ll see it at the RAC, at the INEC offices and we will see it at the Civil Society Situation Room where you have the media. It will simply register on the screen as +1 – one vote cast in Maiduguri; one vote cast in Calabar or one vote cast in Port Harcourt or Benin for PDP or APC or any other party.
It will be cheaper, faster and it will be devoid of human manipulation. If you can do it with your banking sector, you can do it with your electoral system.
As a medical doctor, what would you bring on board in the health sector?
I will be interested in things like maternity leave and making it a law even in the private sector. I also have a member of my staff who has interest in paternity leave where even fathers will also go on leave since we are talking about equal rights. I will be interested in certain cultural practices like female genital mutilation, early child marriages and the problem of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF). I will be interested in areas of health jurisprudence for people going to emergency room and being treated without asking for police report. I will be interested in indigent health care where people go into emergency rooms and obtain treatment as a right as long as it is a government – owned hospital.
I will also be interested in statistics because you can’t do anything without data. If you are going to do a rail system, between Abuja and Kaduna, I would like to know the data you have collected in terms of the trend in terms of human movement and goods. If you are moving from Enugu to Onitsha, I want to know how many people go from Enugu to Onitsha. I want to have the statistics because that will now tell us the type of rail to do. It is statistics that should tell us where to put the rail system. It will also tell us where to site our airports. I will like to have data on births, deaths and disease. I will also be interested in data on commerce and agriculture.