As the Abubakar Bukola Saraki-led Eight Senate prepares the wind down ahead of May 29, 2019 handover date, Assistant Editor, Onyedi Ojiabor, assesses the highpoints of the upper legislative Chamber
How time flies. At the inauguration of the Eighth Senate on June 9th, 2015, it appeared the four year tenure of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Senate Presidency was for perpetuity. The Eighth Senate is gradually drawing to a close. Four years is indeed not eternity.
Controversy may be dubbed the second name of the Eighth Senate. Beginning with its inauguration and the controversial emergence of its presiding officers, it may be safe to conclude that the Eighth Senate began with disagreement and ended with disagreement.
The Eighth Senate may have had its fair share of divergence views on national issues which adversely affected its relationship with the executive arm of government, some areas of unanimity of purpose abound. That may be the nature of politics; the politics of management of controversies. The no love lost relationship between the Senate and the Presidency arising from the emergence of the Senate leadership, did not help matters. Attempts to stitch the crack between the two arms only scratched the surface. If it is cracked, it can never be the same again, observers say. To say that the Presidency was perpetually suspicious of the Senate may be to say the least.
The frosty relationship between the two arms of government created room for deep distrust. Distrust became the harbinger of intrigues, scheming, plots, machinations and conspiracies. Two arms of the same government scarcely agreed on any issue of national importance. Governance became a ding-dong affair.
The Eighth Senate was not only about controversy though. Something good, Senate watchers say, came out of “Nazareth.”
The Saraki Senate Presidency tried to connect with Nigerians through bills, motions, interventions and engagements on nagging national issues.
The engagements may be the high points of the Eight Senate.
The #OpenNASS campaign championed by some civil society organisations paid off when Saraki threw open and removed the lid on the budget of the National Assembly.
It was all about transparency in the management of the National Assembly budget and resources. Observers say for the first time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the detailed budget of the National Assembly was laid on the floor of the Senate plenary, alongside the report of the annual Appropriations Bill.
National Assembly budget was also published online for closer public scrutiny and monitoring.
One of the effective interventions was on fixed and bulk metering of consumers through which electricity generating and distributing companies fleece Nigerian electricity consumers.
“In August 2015, the Senate mandated the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately abolish fixed charges on electricity consumption and bulk metering of villages and communities, as the practice was deemed contrary to the interest of consumers.”
Identified fraud in Treasury Single Account (TSA) Management, was another intervention the Senate made.
“In November 2015, the Senate detected fraudulent activities in the implementation of TSA, raised a resolution to bring such practices to a halt.” The intervention was said to have saved the country N25 billion.
The Senate also intervened to cushion the effect of the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast. “In March 2016, the Senate allocated N10billion in the annual budget to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northeast, to alleviate adverse humanitarian consequences unleashed by insurgents in the region.”
On the fraud in humanitarian crisis management in the Northeast, on October 4, 2016, the upper legislative chamber launched investigation into alleged corruption in the management of the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast. A fact-finding technical team, headed by irrepressible Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, was dispatched to conduct on-the-ground assessment of the situation. This investigation by the team ultimately led to the dismissal of the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, for alleged misappropriation of N200million meant for IDPs in the Northeast.
Another intervention was on fraud in the import duty waivers scheme. In May 2016, a Senate probe uncovered abuse and fraud to the tune of N447 billion in the import duty waivers scheme on rice.
It also fought to end fraud by revenue generating agencies which came through point of order and motions. On November 30, 2016, it resolved to probe revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government for leakages, non-remittance and misuse of generated revenue. The investigation, according to findings, revealed that “majority of MDAs had, over a long period, spent billions of generated funds without the necessary annual appropriation by the legislature.”
Another intervention was on the controversial access to Foreign Exchange (Forex) for businesses. In 2017, “the Senate intervened in the lack of access to Forex for SMEs across the country, owing to Central Bank of Nigeria’s policies at the time. The intervention led to a review of the CBN policy to enable small business owners to access necessary Forex for the import, export and service delivery needs.”
Continue in page 2
