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  • Reconvening the National Assembly

    Keen observers of events since the National Assembly went on recess would have been drawn to the intriguing controversy trailing calls for its reconvention. Shortly after the recess spanning July 24 to September 25 was announced, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) Ita Enang and Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan cried foul on the prolonged recess. The duo warned that the country faced total shutdown if the National Assembly does not reconvene urgently.

    They predicated their warning on the imperative for both chambers to pass virement and supplementary budget requests by President Buhari. They went at length to simulate scary scenarios and sought to place on the shoulders of the National Assembly the burden of their eventual outcome.

    Hear Lawan: “to do otherwise will be sabotage to this administration; will be sabotage to democracy itself because if we cannot provide the funds for INEC to plan the 2019 elections; what do we call ourselves? Some other sympathizers have argued along the same angle accusing the National Assembly of a hidden agenda to scuttle the coming national elections.

    But the leadership of the National Assembly denied responsibility for the fate of virement and supplementary budget requests arguing that the presidency only sent both requests on July 17, a few days to their recess. Notwithstanding this explanation and apparently to ward off allegations of bad faith, they summoned a leadership meeting of their principal officers to look at the issues raised by Enang and Lawan.

    Ironically, the meeting failed to hold on scheduled date as masked operatives of the DSS barricaded the National Assembly, preventing lawmakers and workers entry. Allegations gained ground that the illegal siege was a contrivance by some senators loyal to the government to impeach the senate president, Bukola Saraki consequent upon his defection to the opposition. Events of that siege are in public domain.

    But the issues traded by Enang and Lawan still remain potent. Both Saraki and Dogara have further adduced reasons why the National Assembly cannot meet now. In a joint statement, they said a new date for the National Assembly to reconvene was yet to be set because the joint Senate and House of Representatives committees on Electoral Matters and officials of INEC ought to hold on or before Monday August 13.

    The joint committees were also expected to meet with the joint Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation, loans and debts on the Eurobond loan request after which the two reports would have been ready for presentation in the two chambers. They said no such meetings have been held and there is no report to consider. It is noteworthy that in all their statements on the controversy, both leaders drew copious attention to the fact that the proposals were only sent in by President Buhari on July 17, a few days to their recess.

    The implication is that the late submission was largely responsible for whatever delay the proposals are suffering. It is also an indirect indictment on those seeking to make political capital of the controversy. Why it took President Buhari that long before forwarding the proposals to the National Assembly given their critical importance and the indecent haste with which regime apologists seek to place the blame elsewhere, are at the center of the suspicion that has enveloped calls for reconvening the National Assembly.

    Both Enang and Lawan are of considerable knowledge and experience in the dynamics of legislative business and should have been so guided before bandying wild claims. The appearance last Tuesday of INEC chairman,  Mohmood Yakubu before separate committees of the Senate and House Of Representatives on INEC to defend the budget gave credence to positions held by Saraki and Dogara and further exposed the duplicity in the alarm by Enang and Lawan. And unless they have other evidence to prove that the legislative processes which the two proposals have to pass through before both chambers meet are untrue, they stand accused of nursing some sinister agenda.

    As plausible as the reasons adduced by the leadership of the National Assembly for not reconvening appear, there is little doubt they may also be playing for time given the defections in both chambers and their fallouts. Of concern was the siege by the DSS and the suspicions it engendered. Though Osinbajo swiftly sacked DSS Director General, Lawal Daura for embarrassing the government, speculations surrounding that event are too dire to peter out soon after.

    And in the absence of any report or an independent enquiry into all circumstances of that invasion coupled with speculations on illegal impeachment, those at the receiving end of the deployment of security apparatus to further partisan political ends are bound to be more circumspect. All this could add to delay even when the relevant committees would have completed their assignments.

    Beyond this also is the rhetoric emanating from the ruling party especially from its national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole on the purported impending impeachment of the senate president.  When the party met with its senators and members of House of Representatives last week, Oshiomhole had declared that the “removal of Saraki is a task that must be done. We will impeach Saraki legally and democratically. The only way he can avoid impeachment is to either resign or return to the majority party. No amount of blackmail and sponsored analysts can stop his removal”, were the actual words of Oshiomhole.

    We are not concerned with the propriety or otherwise of the impeachment of Saraki or any other leader of the senate. Our laws provide sufficiently for such situations and extant procedure for bringing them to fruition. This country witnessed a gale of impeachment of senate presidents during Obasanjo’s regime when that slot was allotted to the southeast. Thereafter, relative stability returned to that office. So it is nothing new. Neither will the impeachment of Saraki be the last.

    If Oshiomhole and his party can meet the legal requirements for impeaching the senate president, they should show Saraki the way out. Saraki himself alluded to this when he said he would leave that office when he no longer enjoys the confidence of the senators. By that, he was understood to mean two-thirds majority of senators which the subsisting constitution stipulated for impeaching the senate president. Why threats, grandstanding and fouling of the political air? Why heat up the political space when all that is required is for those who want Saraki out to call the rules into action?

    You want the senate to reconvene and approve virement and supplementary budget proposals by the president and you are threatening thunder, fire and brimstone. You said the impeachment of Saraki is a task that “must” be done and at the same time, you want to do it legally and democratically. That smacks of contradiction and outright hypocrisy. The word ‘must’ conveys the unmistakable impression of going about the impeachment process by ‘any means available’ and therefore conflicts with the grand norms of democratic conduct. Both cannot co-habit.

    Given that the APC does not have the two-thirds majority to impeach Saraki as bandied figures indicate, the supposition that Oshiomhole is rooting for democratic change of leadership in the senate pales into insignificance. And that is where the danger lies. Even then, the way the leadership of the National Assembly interprets these threats in the face of its past encounters and suspicion of government’s intention will rob off positively or negatively on early reconvention of the National Assembly.

    Enang and Lawan simulated shut down of government operations and sabotage of democracy. We may as well be inching closer to self-fulfilling prophesies. But if and when this happens, the dramatis personae in the threats, war mongering and acrimony should take full responsibility for whatever outcome. It is only instructive that due process can be compromised at grave risk to our democracy.

  • Presidency: National Assembly to blame for late submission of INEC’s budget’

    The blame for the late submission of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) budget should go to the National Assembly, the presidency said yesterday.

    It exonerated President Muhammadu Buhari, who could not send a supplementary budget until after the passage of the 2018 budget, which took the “Saraki-led National Assmbly seven months to release.”

    In a reaction to Senate President Bukola Saraki’s accusation of late submission of the INEC budget to the lawmakers by the presidency, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu, said in a statement yesterday: “The Senate president should look into the mirror and what he will see is his own face. He is solely to be held responsible for deliberately driving the nation to this cliff edge as far as the preparations for next elections are concerned.

    “It is not true that INEC submitted their draft budget to the presidency in February. No, it came much later but even then, this is not the real issue.

    “A supplementary budget cannot be submitted until the main budget is passed, and so the delay in passing the main budget was the reason for the delay. The National Assembly passed the 2018 budget seven months after the document was submitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari.

    “Unless someone has forgotten, the budget was submitted to the National Assembly and it took the Saraki-led National Assembly seven months to release it.

    “There is no way President Buhari could have submitted a supplementary budget, while the main one was still pending. It is never done. Because Saraki did not return the main budget, we could not have submitted the supplementary one.

    “After the long delays, the President was pained to sign the much distorted, butchered and debauched document. In giving his assent, President Buhari said he was compelled to sign the budget so as not to keep the economy continuously on a standstill.”

    The statement added that this is the first time in Nigeria’s history that a government would bring together the cost of an election in one budget, with each agency involved invited to defend its portion of the budget before the National Assembly.

    “It is all part of the transparency that this government is known for. In the past, governments would approve INEC budgets and funding without a breakdown, often using ways and means to fund it.”

  • Senator seeks forensic audit of National Assembly budget

    Senator Abdullahi Adamu yesterday called for a probe into the budgetary allocations to the National Assembly.

    The Nasarawa State senator told reporters in Abuja that an audit had become necessary in view of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s refusal to vacate his seat after defecting from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He said Saraki’s refusal to vacate his seat after defecting to a minority party could be because he had something to hide.

    Adamu said: “I call for a forensic audit of the finances of the Parliament, which has been thoroughly messed up under the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki.

    “We did not know what Saraki’s agenda is. As we go through this tenure of his, the more we see things being unearthed.

    “For him to refuse to move or leave the chair, there must be a reason for it.

    “As the chairman of the National Assembly, there is so much he is doing that we want to take a look at.

    “If he is clean, let him move away and accept that there should be a forensic audit of the National Assembly funds under his watch. Simple. Let him move so that we will see what he is sitting over.

    “We have seen his unbridled ambition. We have seen now that even though the odds are so much against him, he went to a party that is now losing ground and that is now a minority in the National Assembly.”

    On continued call by the leadership of the APC for Saraki to vacate his seat, Adamu said: “It is pretty obvious that Saraki’s influence has diminished completely.

    “Because he has lost the respect and confidence of majority of senators and well-meaning Nigerians, but he’s just latching on to that seat because of the privileges he enjoys.

    “Ordinarily, Saraki needed not wait for any pressure to be mounted on him before he resigns from his position as Senate president.

    “You cannot command any respect or assert your authority as a leader when majority of those you’re supposed to lead have lost confidence in you and are opposed to your leadership.

    “So, if he is a self-respecting person, he does not even need anyone to ask that he should throw in the towel because he and his PDP have lost majority in the Senate.”

    He said Saraki was entitled to aspire for any office, including that of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Adamu, however, he said: “But he should not try to destroy the system just because he wants to realise that ambition at all cost.”

    On who succeeds Saraki, if he exits his seat as President of the Senate, the lawmaker said: “You do not cross a bridge before you get to it.

    “All the speculations about the purported rift is aimed at dividing us and distracting us from our determination to assert the interest of our party which enjoys the majority in the Senate.”

    He added that the lawmakers were united and that the party had the goodwill of Nigerians in view of progresses being made in different sectors of the economy.

    While citing the party’s victory in recent Senatorial by-elections in Katsina, Kogi and  Bauchi states, the lawmaker said it was a sign of victory for the ruling APC in  2019.

    “They were the clearest pointers to the victories that will be recorded by President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC during the 2019 general election.

  • Day NASS opened its doors wide

    Sunday Oguntola reports on the Open Week initiative that enabled important stakeholders to witness the workings and processes of the National Assembly for better understanding and perception

    IT was the first for many of them. Until then, they only read and watched proceedings from afar. But they got a rare privilege to experience firsthand the operations, processes and functionalities of the National Assembly.

    They were stakeholders in civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, traditional and religious leaders and researchers. They recently converged on the premises of the National Assembly for better understanding of its workings.

    It was at the maiden Open Week of the National Assembly that also attracted private sector operators, 469 constituents, researchers, academia, student bodies, pressure groups, trade unions and lobbyists.

    The Open Week was designed to broaden public understanding of legislative functions and processes as well as provide opportunity for interface between the public and legislators.

    It was to create avenue for interaction between legislators and key stakeholders and to bridge the gap and address the perennial negative public perception of legislators.

    Declaring the week open, President Muhammadu Buhari commended the National Assembly and the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies for the initiative to bring governance closer to the people. He emphasised the need to foster better working relationship among the three arms of government.

    Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, Buhari highlighted efforts of his administration to sustain healthy executive-legislative relations.

    He noted that since assumption of office, he has maintained a position that favoured and supported the independence of National Assembly more than any other administration in the past.

    “Since it was not possible to play politics with the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens, on assumption of office in 2015, the President forwarded a supplementary budget to the National Assembly in November and within three weeks, it was passed.

    “This act enabled the administration to tackle fuel scarcity and to commence effective action to tackle insecurity. In 2016, when the country went into recession, he introduced Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) for the 2016 budget and by 2017, he came up with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to serve as the medium term economic plan of the country from 2017-2020,” Mustapha noted.

    On the ERGP, he stated that the ERGP was home-grown, received with inputs from all stakeholders, including the National Assembly, with a clear link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    The SGF stated that Buhari returned the country to a January-December fiscal cycle and committed Nigeria to Open Government Partnership (OGP), an action that officially committed Nigeria to promoting fiscal transparency, access to budget information, anti-corruption and citizen engagement across the entire budget cycle.

    He added that in its commitment to rid the country of corruption, the government took measures to rid the payroll of ghost workers and introduced the whistle blowers policy as well as the recently signed Executive Order No. 6 of 2018 on the preservation of suspicious assets connected with corruption and other relevant offences.

    He assured Nigerians that the issue of security and welfare was paramount to the federal government and efforts were underway at containing the perceived insecurity and promoting welfare.

    Senate President Bukola Saraki said that the Open Week had been organised to foster interaction between the legislature and the public and to showcase the activities of the two chambers to Nigerians at home and abroad.

    Saraki, who is also the Chairman of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, said the open week has a potential for a more heterogeneous audience that would create awareness for legislative agenda and initiatives as well as engender momentum towards legislative openness and significance as symbol of democracy.

    He charged the participants to take advantage of the forum by listening attentively and making meaningful contributions while working together to advance the development of the country.

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, said that the Open Week had been organised in response to the declaration of the World Parliament in 2012 (Parliamentary Openness) which, among others, requested promotion of a culture of opening up government activities to the public, orderly, organised, synchronised form of interaction between of the legislature and the public, ensuring compliance and adherence to the ethics of governance and enabling electronic coverage of legislative activities for wider mileage.

    He noted that the people needed to understand the workings of the legislature in proper perspective as many Nigerians did not understand the responsibility of the parliament in Nigeria’s democratic development

    His words: “Although everyone was aware of the legislative role of oversight, representation and law making, there was need to further enlighten the people on other activities of the legislature.

    “The legislature played a critical role in democratic systems and remained the nucleus of democratic systems across the world. While the legislature’s work was well appreciated, the wide spread effect of poverty, inequality and misery in the country, raised the bar of expectation of the public on the National Assembly.”

    Dogara, who is Alternate Chairman of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, noted that the legislature had been able to fast-track development and build stronger institutions to the extent that some of the laws passed by the National Assembly helped to reform the appropriation process and strengthened institutions like the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 2000, the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2002, Debt Management Office Establishment (etc.) Act 2003, Public Procurement Act (2007), Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007), The FIRS Act of 2007, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act CAP B2 LFN 2011 (Repeal and Re-enactment) 2015 and the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill 2015.

    Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, said the first National Assembly Open Week (NASSOSW) was designed to engender stakeholder engagement with National Assembly (NASS).

    He stated that the open week was a forum for the public to know the workings of the legislature with a view to correcting various misperceptions about the legislature, legislators and their activities.

    “Very few persons still know about the parliament. While the media focused on what happened at plenary, the bulk of the National Assembly activities were done through committees. While American legislators often used town hall meetings in staying connected and Nigeria’s National Assembly often did the same. There had not been any major platform for a one-stop point for public engagement with legislators in Nigeria,” he stated.

    The Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani Omolori, noted that the legislature did not exist in a vacuum but operated within the workings of other arms of government and the confines of the will of the citizens. He noted that while the NASS Open Week was critical to the enhancement of increased engagement with the public on the activities of the legislature, it was important to maintain a harmonious and cordial working relationship with the other arms of government.

    Chudi Izuwa, Acting Director-General of Infrastructure Concessionary Regulatory Commission (ICRC) made a presentation to the effect that for accountability to impact constructively, it was necessary to review the Acts that established agencies like EFCC, ICPC and INEC, among others, because the accounts of majority of the agencies had not been audited for a very long time.

    He submitted that extant laws designed to check the excesses were not arresting the situation because whenever the agencies failed to account for what they spent, the purpose of accountability had been defeated.

    Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central) said the two presentations had been eye openers, particularly to lack of infrastructure for dealing with climatic and environmental changes.

    According to her, the nation’s budget was low in these two areas so she advised that it was important for the Budget Committee to incorporate critical infrastructures in the items laid before the legislators.

    President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Waheed Odusile, pointed out the notable development and progress in Lagos State resulted from the harmonious and cordial working relationship between the executive and legislature. He wondered if it was not possible for the executive and legislature to develop a synergy and attitude for cooperation and collaboration at the centre.

    Hon. Desmond Elliot led a cast to present a drama, titled, ‘Imbroglio’ targeted at ensuring cohesion between the executive and the legislature. It was built around a marriage proposal between the son of a senator and the daughter of another high- ranking politician. The main message of the drama was the need for cooperation between the executive and the legislature in fast-tracking the passage of the budget.

  • PDP to APC: Your resort to blackmail can’t sway Nigerians

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) that its resort to blackmail, twisting of facts and fabrications cannot sway Nigerians from the truth of their culpability in the current impasse at the National Assembly.

    The PDP said Nigerians are already aware of how the APC has been frustrating the National Assembly by creating hitches, illegal impeachment processes, physical blockade of access to the parliament and besieging of the official residence of Senate President and his deputy.

    A statement on Friday by the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan said Nigerians know those who set security agents after federal legislators, set parliamentarians against one another and those who have been chasing lawmakers around the country with tons of money as bribe, just to illegally change the leadership.

    The statement said, “We are not amazed that the APC, in its characteristic shambolic denials, will turn around to point accusing fingers at our repositioned party and members for the situation in the National Assembly, when the echoes of their open threats, tantrums, verbosity and loquaciousness against our legislators are yet to evaporate from the public space.

    Read Also: PDP having sleepless nights over Buhari’s achievements – APC

    “The APC is pretending not to remember that the Buhari Presidency deliberately kept the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) budget submitted to it since February till July when it presented it to the National Assembly and curiously demanded that the fund be vired from the constituency project fund of lawmakers.

    “Nigerians will recall that as a patriotic and responsible party, the PDP raised the flag and pointed out that bringing the budget in July, at the time the National Assembly was already going on annual vacation, was rather late and asking that the fund be vired from constituency project fund was sinking

    The INEC budget and the entire 2019 electoral process in a needless controversy. The APC and the Buhari Presidency ignored this wise counseling.

    “Furthermore, the APC in it deception fails to note that Nigerians are aware that it is President Buhari that is holding the nation to ransom by refusing to sign the Electoral Act Amendment bill, already passed by the National Assembly, just because the amendment checked the machination which APC intend to deploy to rig the 2019 general elections.

    “Moreover, relevant National Assembly committees have been having interface with INEC over the budget presented by the President. Except for the sinister intent of the APC to shut down our National Assembly and bring forth a totalitarian system of government, there is nothing deserving of the wailing of the APC to reopen the chambers of the National Assembly at its instance. The rules for reconvening the chambers of the National Assembly are extant.

    “Also, since the PDP told its members to rise in defense of democracy and stop the rigging and vote buying of the APC, the ruling party has gone hysterical and making all manners of spurious and diversionary allegations, but it will be instructive for the APC to accept that it has failed Nigerians and the people have resolved to vote them out, come February, 2019”.

  • Furore over INEC’s N198bn election budget proposal

    …As N/A joint committee puts off consideration

    There seems to be no respite yet for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) regarding its N 189.2 billion budget proposal for the 2019 general elections.

    The joint committee of the National Assembly on Friday put on hold further consideration on the proposal as the legislators failed to resolve some grey areas in the proposal.

    At issue was the differences in modalities between the estimates sent to the legislature by President Muhammadu Buhari and the version submitted to the lawmakers by INEC, even though the figures were the same.

    In his letter to the National Assembly, the President had requested that N143 billion be processed for now, while the remaining N45 billion should processed with the 2019 annual budget.

    But in its own proposal, the INEC requested that the N189.2 billion be processed in one fell swoop, a request that raised dissenting voices among the lawmakers.

    Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma who made a presentation to the committee, aligned with the position of INEC.

    Apparently mindful of the delay in the passage of the yearly national budget, Udoma argued that shifting the processing of the N45 billion to the 2019 budget might put INEC in a tight corner.

    For instance, the 2018 budget was passed in May, just as it was in the two preceding years. On the other hand, INEC would have concluded all elections by March 2019.

    The Minister clarified that the N189 billion request, as presented by the President, was to be vired from funds already appropriated for some projects in the 2018 budget.

    He was however, quick to clarify that the such virement would not affect the N100 billion already allocated to constituency projects of National Assembly members.

    But the lawmakers were divided on whether to isolate the N143 billion meant for INEC from the N45 billion meant for the various security agencies for election duties.

    Read Als0: Sowore’s party gets INEC nod

    The affected security agencies include the office of the National Security Adviser, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Immigration Service.

    Some of the legislators argued that the processing of the budget proposal for the security agencies was outside the committee’s mandate, opting to refer that aspect to the Security Committee of the two chambers of the legislature.

    But some others canvassed that it should be accommodated in the ongoing process because the N45 billion budget for security was part of election expenses.

    Another area of disagreement was the source of funding for the N189.2 billion with the lawmakers sharply divided over where over the matter.

    In the course of deliberations, some of the committee members said the source of funding should be left to the Appropriation Committee of the National Assembly to decide.

    In his letter to the National Assembly, President Buhari had raised issues about source of funding for the entire election budget, reason why he requested that only N143 billion be processed for now.

    Relying on the President’s position, the lawmakers pointed out that processing the N189 billion at this point would overshoot the 2018 national budget, as passed by the legislature and assented to by the President.

    At every point the chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu was given the opportunity to make his contribution; he kept reeling out the deadline for the first round of elections in the commission’s timetable by counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds.

    At a point, some of the committee members jocularly said they were being intimidated by the INEC chairman’s time count.

    Eventually, the meeting concluded that the committee would limit its consideration to the N143 billion the President tabled before the legislature for immediate action.

    They resolved to commence deliberation on the N45 billion for the security agencies as promptly as the President presents that request to them, even before the end of the year.

    On this note, the chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif adjourned the session indefinitely.

  • Anger over Saraki’s refusal to recall National Assembly

    ‘No plan to recall lawmakers’

    Senate, House leaders warn against constitutional crisis

    MOVES to reconvene the National Assembly remained unsuccessful yesterday, even as the row sparked by the long recess grew.

    Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara said there was no agreement that the National Assembly should reopen. Saraki is the chairman of the Assembly.

    But All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in the National Assembly insisted that there was an agreement to reopen the Assembly.

    House Deputy Speaker Yussuf Lasun, Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan and House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila said presiding officers must reconvene the Assembly immediately to avoid any form of sabotage, which will not augur well for the APC.

    Saraki and Dogara said that no date was fixed to reconvene the two chambers of the National Assembly to consider the budget for the 2019 elections.

    Saraki and Dogara, in a joint statement issued yesterday, said no date had been set for the reconvening of the Senate and the House of Representatives to consider the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 2019 elections budget request forwarded by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 17, 2018.

    The statement by the media aides of Saraki and Dogara, Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan, said that “the leadership of the two chambers had met and agreed to reconvene to consider the proposal this week before which a meeting between the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Electoral Matters and officials of the INEC must have held on or before Monday August 13, 2018.”

    The joint committees, it said, were also expected to meet with the joint Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, Loans and Debts on the Eurobond loan request after which two reports would have been ready for presentation in the two chambers.

    “However, no such meeting had taken place yet as a result of which both Senate and House of Representatives cannot reconvene as there is no report to consider.

    “Until the Committees have a ready report for the consideration of the two chambers, it will be most irresponsible to recall members from recess, especially those that may have travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj,” the statement said.

    It did not say, however, if the committees were already meeting.

    The failure to reconvene the National Assembly, to the APC Assembly chiefs, could spark a constitutional crisis that will pose a potential threat to the current democratic dispensation as it will affect the preparation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for next year’s elections.

    Speaking at a meeting with the members of the National Working Committee of the party in Abuja, Lasun, Lawan and Gbajabiamila said presiding officers must reconvene the Assembly immediately.

    House Speaker Dogara did not attend the meeting.

    The Deputy Speaker said it was unfortunate that the National Assembly could not reconvene on Tuesday as earlier agreed by the presiding officers.

    He said: “I am not particularly happy that we are not able to reconvene the Assembly today because we decided few days back that we are going to sit and consider those items that are very important and may likely hamper the function of INEC and other programmes without which the implementation of the capital component of the 2018 budget would have been slightly difficult.”

    Lasun asked the leadership of the party to make good on their promise not to abandon the legislators, saying: “We are party members and I must say that I like the assurance of the chairman that members are not going to be abandoned because it is always very hot outside there.

    “I have always told people that if you want to become part of the endangered species, come to the National Assembly. That is why whatever efforts we make while conducting our businesses while in the hallowed chamber must be adequately compensated for by the party.”

    Lawan said the APC Senate Caucus and the House caucus would ensure that the constitutional crisis hanging in the air is averted by ensuring that the Assembly reconvenes to pass the budget of INEC.

    Lawan said “We have been talking and yearning for the National Assembly to reconvene, but it appears to be a dream. The deputy speaker had informed us a few days ago that we may reconvene either today or tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is yet to come.

    “We are insisting that the National Assembly reconvene and reconvene quickly so that we pass the budget request of Mr President for INEC to start its preparation for 2019 in earnest. We also need to pass the request by the Federal Government for loans from foreign countries which will be the only basis for now for the funding of our capital budget.

    “To do otherwise would amount to sabotage because we are in a very unusual time; we have the leadership of the National Assembly divided between the opposition PDP and the APC. We have to work hard to ensure that our government is not sabotaged.

    “If we don’t pass the budget request, it serves the PDP very well, but it doesn’t serve us at all because it will negate what we stand for and all the promises we made to Nigerians. In fact, it could spark a constitutional crisis because if INEC is not able to conduct the election in 2019, that will be a serious constitutional crisis.

    “So, we insist the National Assembly reconvene immediately. We are working on this in the Senate Caucus and we will continue to liase with the House caucus to ensure that we are on the same page on this so that we could get the National Assembly reconvened.”

    Gbajabiamila said: “We have to find a find a way of reconvening the Assembly because as it is, we are heading for a constitutional crisis and an inevitable government shutdown because the two things that need to be done if the budget for the election and the funding of the capital project and without the approval, that will be difficult.

    “I was with the Minister of Finance a couple of weeks ago and she told me in no uncertain terms that if she does not get the necessary approval from the National Assembly by end of August, we should forget funding for the capital budget. That is why I said it is a task that must be done.

    “A lot of our members are supposed to be in Saudi Arabia right now.

    “We had to go to the Hajj Commission to have their flight delayed because today was supposed to be the last day. They agreed to delay the last flight till Thursday, with the hope that we will reconvene today and tomorrow and do what is necessary.

    “I know that these members will be rewarded for their unalloyed loyalty to the party. We have 196 members in the House and that is about 40 members more than the PDP. With that number, we can do the party agenda in the House. Even within the PDP, we also have some members who will join us.”

    APC Chairman Adams Oshiomhole assured the legislators that the party will ensure that the high turnover of legislators is curtailed.

     

  • National Assembly of crisis

    The National Assembly has been engulfed in crises, following the defection of some legislators from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI and MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE examine the bone of contention and the implication of the logjam for governance.

    WHEN it comes electing Senate Presidents, the norm in most federations around the world is to elect a senator from the majority party to lead the upper legislative chamber. This usually happens at the start of each new term or whenever the position is vacant.

    For instance, in the United States of America (USA), which also practices the presidential system of government like Nigeria, the constitution provides for two officers to preside over the Senate. In theory, the Vice President is constitutionally designated as the presiding officer of the Senate. But, in his absence, the president pro tempore (or, “president for a time”) takes charge of deliberations of the upper legislative chamber. By custom, the most senior member of the party that has majority seats is elected to preside over the chamber.

    The system in Argentina is similar to that of the USA; the titular President of the Senate is the Vice President. However, the day-to-day leadership of the Senate is exercised by the Provisional President.

    In Canada, which practices the parliamentary system of government, the constitution also provides for two officers to preside over the Senate. By convention, the Speaker of the Senate is appointed by the Governor General of Canada, on behalf of the Canadian Monarch, and on the Constitutional advice of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. The Speaker of the Canadian Senate is usually from the party with majority seats in parliament.

    In the absence of the Speaker, his duties are carried by the Speaker pro tempore, a Senator appointed at the beginning of each session by the Senate. Should both chair officers be absent, any Senator can be called upon to take the chair. Irrespective of who is in the chair, their decisions hold the same force as that of the Speaker of the Senate of Canada.

    In Nigeria, the general expectation is that the Senate President would come from the ruling party. This convention has prevailed since the return to civil rule in 1999. It is easy for the ruling party to achieve this, because the election requires a simple majority. But, to undertake his or her removal, according to the constitution, requires two-thirds majority of the chamber. The drafters of the 1999 Constitution did not provide for a situation where the Senate President defects from the ruling party to join another and the consequences of such a move.

    Thus, following the defection of the Senate President Bukola Saraki from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last Tuesday, the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiohmole, said after a meeting with some senators elected on the platform of the ruling party that he should relinquish his position as Senate President, since he is no longer a member of the party. Oshiomhole said it was a matter of honour for Saraki to leave “the crown in the family it belongs to”.

    While many APC chieftains are in synch with Oshiomhole’s position, other observers argue that the election of principal officers of the Senate is an internal affair of the upper legislative chamber and that it not an APC affair.

    Former Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc and founder of the Sam Ohuabunwa Foundation for Economic Empowerment, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, does not see any reason why Saraki should be asked to resign. He said: “Why should he, when he has not been voted out by his colleagues? Members of the Senate that voted for him to become Senate President are the only ones that can either ask him to resign or remove him.

    “We have had people jump parties in the past and they were not asked to resign, so why should he be asked to resign. The last time when former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, switched parties, he was still Speaker; nobody asked him to resign. They are asking him to tow the path of honour and resign, which honour? After they tried to demonise him, by saying he is corrupt and calling him all sorts of name, does he still have any hounour?

    “The APC is only reaping what it sowed. Haven’t you heard that whatsoever a man sows he shall reap? During the run-up to the last general elections, the APC played dirty politics; that is what it is getting back in return. The APC supported insurrection and breakup of the PDP, to build its own house. The same thing is happening to the party today, so why are its members complaining?”

    Ohunbunwa condemned what he described as the combative approach of Oshiomhole in resolution of party affairs, saying the former Edo State governor “is probably the liquidator or the undertaker that will undertake or liquidate the party, the way he going”. He added: “When the President was trying to make peace with them the other time, he was trying to scatter. He was even provoking a minister to decamp as well. He is not tactical at all; he needs to realize that he is no longer in the trade union; politics requires a different approach. He needs to calm down and employ wisdom, to manage the party.”

    The National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, agrees that there is no justification for the Senate President to resign. His words: “I listened to Adams Oshiomhole saying that he should tow the path of honour and resign. But he is forgetting that it was not at the goodwill of the APC that he became President of the Senate. It was through the support and conspiracy of PDP members of the upper chamber that he became Senate President.

    “One would say that it was his emergence as Senate President that led to his fall out with the APC. He fell out with the party in trying to patch up with that option. If he should resign now, he would be disappointing those who rallied behind him to become Senate President, most of whom are from the PDP. They would regard him as an ungrateful fellow. If he should do so, his new party, the PDP, would lose the leadership of the chamber which it gained by virtue of the defection. That is the angle I’m looking at it.

    “But, on the other hand, there is a lot of lack of discipline among our politicians, particularly those that have been privileged to be elected into offices. Once they get to those offices, they begin to jettison the party that brought them into power. It is only in Nigeria that one can be elected into an office only through a political party. A political party is a vehicle that stands for something and what it stands for is contained in its manifesto with INEC. Ordinarily, you have to believe in what the party stands for before you become a member. It is not the type of vehicle that you board in a motor park; you just go there and board any vehicle that is loading, whether it is Ekene Dili Chukwu or the Young Shall Grow.

    “So, after riding on the vehicle of a political party to power, you cannot just disembark anywhere you like. That is the reason why the National Assembly that Saraki is heading came up with an a constitutional amendment that would make it intolerable for a politician to defect after being elected into an office on the platform of another party. It is just that the amendment has not been passed into law, but it has been passed by the two houses. They agreed that it is not the right thing to do. Owing to the fact that it has not been passed into law, they are now taking advantage of the fluidity of our electoral laws on defection, to do what they know is not morally right.

    “Nevertheless, in the case of Saraki, there is a moral burden for the APC in asserting that the Senate Presidency is their crown; it is not their crown, because he is not the one they wanted to wear that crown. In the position of the law, it is the members of the Senate that has the responsibility to elect their principal officers. But, if you are a loyal party member and your party has taken a position on the matter, it is expected that you will abide by the party’s position.”

    Afenifere Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, is equally not in agreement that Saraki should resign. He said: “Why should Saraki resign? On what grounds are they insisting on his resignation? Did Tambuwal resign in 2014 as the Speaker? So, what goes around comes around. I was just reflecting on what transpired then and I remember when the President was praising Tambuwal for resigning and contesting in the 2015 governorship election in Sokoto State. It is a case of a man who is used to cutting peoples head, but is now afraid of seeing someone with cutlass coming near his head.

    “They should tell us why he should resign; politicians always believe that when others defect to their own party, such persons are patriot, but when they move to the other parties, they are traitors. Let me say that the only way they can remove him is for them to follow the constitution. I will like to say what is going on now is healthy for democracy. How can you celebrate the same act in 2014 and now you are carrying cutlass and guns in 2018.”

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ahmed Raji, said Saraki has not violated any known law by defecting from the ruling APC to the main opposition party, the PDP. He advised the ruling party to muster the majority of senators, if it desires to remove Saraki. The legal practitioner, however, pointed out that the ruling party must muster two-third majority of senators to constitutionally undertake the removal of Saraki as the Senate President.

    Raji said Oshiomhole’s position that Saraki should resign was founded more in morality and does not have any basis in law. He pointed out that Saraki was not elected as APC Senate President.

    He said: “In this case, we are talking of the Senate President that is elected by all of them; it is not APC affair, but that of the whole house. This is not a parliamentary system of government, but a presidential system of government. So, the question of party discipline, party structure and party hierarchy is more pronounced in parliamentary system of government, because both the legislature and the executive are fused.”

    But other observers are of the view that Saraki must resign, because he is no longer a member of the ruling party. Southwest APC leader, Chief Ayo Afolabi, is one of such persons. His words: “The leadership of the party has said he should resign. It means we all have said the same thing. I am a party man and will support whatever they said. If you get a position that belongs to a particular association and you decide to quit that association, when you are leaving, you have to leave whatever you have benefited with the association.”

    Another APC chieftain, Chief Niyi Akintola, said while Saraki has the right to leave and join any political party of his choice, he should resign as Senate president. The legal luminary said: “The honour and dignity demand that he should step down as Senate president. But, unfortunately, honour and dignity are in short supply among Nigerian politicians.

    “The legal implication of his defection can only be decided by the court. But, speaking as a concerned citizen, I think Saraki should not wait for anybody to tell him that he should leave the office of Senate President honourably.”

     

  • 2018 Electoral Act amendment bill still alive, says Presidency

    The Presidency on Tuesday said that the 2018 Electoral Bill amendment passed by the National Assembly on the 24th of July, 2018 and transmitted to the President Muhammadu Buhari for assent on 3rd of this month has not been killed.

    This is contrary to the impression created in a report that President Muhammadu Buhari has vetoed the Electoral Act amendment Bill 2018.

    After expunging some controversial provisions of the amendment Bill, including a new sequence of elections, the National Assembly forwarded the Bill to President Buhari for assent on the 3rd of this month.

    Speaking on the status of the Bill, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, noted that the vetoed Bill was the one sent to the President on 27th June, 2018.

    Enang said that the Electoral amendment Bill passed on July 24th 2018, the day the two chambers embarked on recess was still very much alive.

    He further explained that the vetoed Bill was the one with contentious “provisions and infractions” on provisions of the 1999 constitution.

    Enang said, “The reported vetoed bill was the one passed by the National Assembly and transmitted to the President for assent on the 27th of June 2018 duration of which in line with constitutional provisions expired on the 26th of July, 2018, warranting the said veto.

    Read Also: Prosecute Fayose for electoral offences, lawyer tells INEC

    ” Yes, an electoral Bill was vetoed or refused assent by the President but not the last version of the 2018 Electoral Bill transmitted to the President for assent on the 3rd of this month that has just spent 11 days on his table and still having 19 days more for possible consideration and assent.”

    Apart from the vetoed version of the 2018 electoral bill forwarded to the President on the 27th of June 2018 and vetoed on the 26th of July 2018 by President Buhari, the President had earlier rejected the 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment ) Bill 2018 forwarded to him in February this year.

    President Buhari had cited three reasons for vetoing the Bill including the insertion of a new sequence of elections as section 25(1) of the Bill.

    The President noted that the inserted section violates the provisions of section 72 of the 1999 Constitution, which empowers INEC to fix dates of elections and see to its conduct in all ramifications.

    The National Assembly in the new Bill forwarded for president’s assent on the 3rd of this month, deleted the controversial provisions kicked against by the President Buhari.

    It is not clear why the National Assembly would transmit two bills on the same subjects for the President’s assent.

  • No date for National Assembly resumption, says Saraki, Dogara

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Tuesday said that no date has been fixed to reconvene the two chambers of the National Assembly to consider the budget for the 2019 elections.

    Saraki and Dogara in a joint statement informed Senators, House members and Nigerians that no date has been set for the reconvening of the Senate and the House of Representatives to consider the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 2019 elections budget request forwarded by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 17, 2018.

    Read Also:INEC Budget: NASS cannot reconvene now -Saraki, Dogara

    The statement by the media aides of Saraki and Dogara, Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan respectively, said that “the leadership of the two chambers had met and agreed to reconvene to consider the proposal this week before which a meeting between the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Electoral Matters and officials of the INEC must have held on or before Monday August 13, 2018.”

    The joint committees, it said, were also expected to meet with the joint Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, Loans and Debts on the Eurobond loan request after which two reports would have been ready for presentation in the two chambers.”

    “However, no such meeting had taken place yet as a result of which both Senate and House of Representatives cannot reconvene as there is no report to consider.

    “Until the Committees have a ready report for the consideration of the two chambers, it will be most irresponsible to recall members from recess especially those that may have travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj,” the statement said.