The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Senate

  • Senate’s search for peace continues as House settles rift

    Senate’s search for peace continues as House settles rift

    With yesterday’s adoption of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and others as principal officers, peace seems to have returned to the House of Representatives. But, for the Senate, the search sure continues, writes VICTOR OLUWASEGUN, GBADE OGUNWALE and ERIC IKHILAE

    House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his challenger Femi Gbajabiamila cut the image of two friends who had not seen for some time on Monday. It was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where President Muhammadu Buhari had hosted them to a peace meeting. The duo talked, joked and laughed. At the end of the meeting, Nigerians were told that in a few hours the crisis in the House of Representatives would be over. Many took the claim with a pinch of salt and almost all major news medium reported yesterday that the meeting did not provide the desired result.

    Yesterday was an eye-opener for many who doubted the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership who saw the end of the crisis. Gbajabiamila was yesterday announced the House Leader as the party had wanted. Alhassan Doguwa, who was earlier chosen by Dogara, did not object. He accepted to be Deputy House Leader.

    The magic behind the resolution of the crisis, The Nation learnt, is no other than Buhari, who Dogara decided to defer to.  Dogara allowed the caucuses of the APC to have input in the choice of principal officers.

    The horse-trading ran late into the wee hours of yesterday and at the end, all parties decided that it was time to face the business of law-making.

    The Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Information, Mallam Sanni Zorro, who spoke exclusively last night with our correspondent said: “It was the triumph of democracy, the House is the winner. The House has demonstrated political maturity because politics is about give and take.

    “President Buhari is not only a leader but a game changer. Since 1999, past Presidents had always installed the leaders of the National Assembly but President Buhari decided not to interfere.

    “There was pressure on him to interfere but he refused. It was only when the crisis got to a critical stage that he intervened. Yet, he did not impose his will. The party also did not use force.”

    Zorro praised the Speaker for championing peace in the House.

    He added: “To resolve the crisis, Dogara came up with a final consensus formula which took into consideration the interest of critical stakeholders including the nation, the presidency, regional politics, zoning and all those things that divided members.

    “It is a win-win situation. There was no winner, no loser. With the crisis amicably resolved, the House is now open for business, legislative activities and engagement with public, private and non-governmental actors.

    For the Senate, however, the search for peace continues. Like the House of Representatives, it resumed yesterday. At the sitting, Senator Kabiru Marafa tried to nullify the election of Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, on the ground that they were not duly elected.

    Marafa (Zamfara Central) and a member of the Senate Unity Forum opposed to Saraki’s emergence, draw the attention of the Senate to what he described as an obvious error committed by the Senate during the inauguration of the 8th Senate on June 9.

    The lawmaker, who raised order 1 (a)and (b) ; 13 1 and 2; and order 3 (2), said he was guided by the ruling of Saraki on June 24th that the Senate rules in force is the Senate Standing Order/ Rule 2015.

    He said: “I am guided by your (Saraki) ruling of June 24 that the Senate Standing Rules in force is the Senate Standing Order 2015 as amended. I also rely on the wise counseling of Senator Ike Ekweremadu on the issue.  Order 1 (a) talks about the proceedings of the senate in accordance with the book.”

    The senator said going by the rules of the Senate in force, Order 13 ( 1 ) states that on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,  Thursdays, Fridays except the second and third Fridays of the month, committee meetings are to hold between 9:00am and 12 noon.

    He also referred to Order 13 ( 2 ) which states that on Tuesdays,  Wednesdays and Thursdays,  the Senate shall meet at 2pm and unless previously adjourned,  it shall sit until 6pm .

    He added that a substantive motion has to be moved by the leader of the senate or a senator acting in that capacity that the senate be adjourned by 6pm.

    Marafa said Ekweremadu said the Senate rules had come into effect and that for them to be amended, order 110 had to be followed.

    “I want to posit that the activities of the Senate on the 9th of June stands because it was covered by the proclamation of Mr. President which states that the proceedings of the chamber shall start by 10:00am.

    “But all other activities of the Senate from the time but not limited to the oath of office, is a nullity because it was not done within the time frame stated in the rule book. The activities of the Senate on the 23rd and 24th are equally a nullity.”

    But, Saraki cut him to size. He ruled that the issue of timing of the proceedings of the Senate Marafa raised would be referred to the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

    He said: “You came under three orders. Orders 1 and order 13 as regards to the timing of seating will be referred to the Clerk. Your interpretation of the Order on nomination of principal officers is not in order.”

    He subsequently ruled Marafa out of order.

    Yesterday, another amended version of the Senate Standing Order/Rule 2015 was distributed to Senators. The new rules essentially corrected the timing errors Marafa referred to in his point of order.

    Saraki also asked members to pick up forms where they would signify not more than five committees in which they wish to serve. Significantly, Marafa and others case seeking to prevent Saraki from constituting committees came up yesterday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.  Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja declined the request of the five senators to restrain the Senate from constituting its standing and ad hoc committees.

    The judge, in a ruling yesterday, refused an ex-parte motion filed by  Senators Abu Ibrahim, Marafa, Ajayi Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuni – on the ground that it was without merit, because there was no urgency in the issue raised by the plaintiffs.

    The five senators, who had earlier filed a substantive suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015, brought the ex-parte motion, containing the prayer, and which their lawyer, Mamman Osuman (SAN) argued yesterday.

    They said their prayer, which is to stop the constitution of the Senate committees pending the determination of their application for interlocutory injunction, was informed by the fact that the Senate was operating with an illegitimate and unconstitutional Senate Standing ?Orders 2015 including using it to conduct the election of June 9 which produced its current leadership.

    The plaintiffs alleged that the Senate Standing ?Orders 2015 was “contrived” from the amendment of the 2011 version of the Orders without following its relevant provisions and those of the Constitution.

    They argued that the said amendment was in breach of the “prescriptive procedures” stipulated by the extant provisions of section 60 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Rule 110(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended).

    The plaintiffs are of the view that the election of the current leadership of the Senate and other proceedings based on the unconstitutional Orders were null and void.

    In his  ruling, Justice Kolawole held that there was no urgency in the case because the plaintiffs had known about the purported illegal Standing Orders since June  9 when it was allegedly used for the election, but  chose to file the ex parte motion barely 24 hours to resumption of the Senate from its about one month recess.

    He further held that the court would hardly intervene in a matter relating to the application or misapplication of the internal rules of the Senate or the legislature when such action did not amount to “substantial infraction” of the provisions of the Constitution.

    Justice Kolawole was of the view that, in matters relating to disputes over the “the decision reached by a majority of the members of the Senate”, aggrieved members of the arm of government could only seek a redress by mobilising their colleagues to reverse such decision.

    He held that in various appellate courts’ decisions, courts had been warned “to be wary” in intervening in such internal legislative activities, let alone granting an order to restrain the activities of that arm of government at the stage of an ex parte hearing.

    “In the light of the above analysis, I will be unable to grant the ex parte application dated July 24 and only filed on July 27, 2015 ?by only five out of the 109 senators constitutionally elected to the upper legislative chamber,” Justice Kolawole said.

    He ordered the plaintiffs to serve the motion on notice, seeking the same prayer contained in their ex parte motion, on the defendants – Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; the Clerks of the National Assembly and the Senate and the National Assembly.

    Justice Kolawole fixed August 5 for hearing of the plaintiffs’ motion on notice.

    The plaintiffs are, in the substantive suit, seeking among others, the declaration of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as null and void for being a product of an alleged illegitimate and unconstitutional amendment of the 2011 version of the standing orders.

    They also want the court to nullify the amended order as well as the election of Saraki as the Senate President and that of Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President, ?for being products of the alleged illegal orders.

    If Saraki has his way, the aggrieved senators should just accept that the battle was won and lost. He enjoined them yesterday to stop bickering and face legislative duties.

    In his welcome address at the resumption of plenary, Saraki reminded the senators that Nigerians elected them was to deliver on their mandate and not to struggle for positions on the floor.

    Acknowledging the enormity of the hydra- headed challenges facing the country, Saraki spoke of the urgent need to address these challenges.

    He said: “Distinguished colleagues, we have our work cut out for us. We cannot afford to frolic. Nigerians did not give us our mandate to come and pursue leadership; their mandate was for us to pursue governance and bring solutions to their burning issues.

    “It is time we remind ourselves of the solemn promise to deliver to our people real change. Leadership is secondary to our primary responsibility of good governance.

    “As Senate President, you have given me responsibility to ensure that our primary responsibility is placed on the table, not under the table. Nigerians did not put their lives on the line for politics but for the delivery of good governance.

    “My distinguished colleagues, the job of changing our corporate destiny starts today. Though the challenges are huge, they are not insurmountable.

    “Let these challenges inspire us as leaders to show courage, statesmanship and valour. We have taken the right first steps out, we must now set out at dawn. We do not have all the time; indeed our clock is ticking.

    “Distinguished colleagues, it is time; let’s get started and deliver meaningful change to our people.”

    Saraki lamented the dwindling national revenue profile, which he blamed on falling oil prices, oil theft, indiscriminate granting of import duty waivers, dubious concessions and grants.

    He continued: “Distinguished colleagues, our country is passing through a difficult time. We cannot afford to watch the mind-boggling leakages in our oil receipt to go on. This Senate is in tandem with Mr. President on this and is determined to turn every stone and shift every rock to ensure that all revenues due to the country from oil are recovered.

    “We are not the only oil producing country in the world; oil theft cannot therefore become an acceptable part of our oil business.

    “Furthermore, Nigerians are tired of the inadequacies in the power sector and want to see a reinvigorated power sector capable of delivering enough energy to power the new Nigerian economy.

    “Our people dream to see a more open economy, they want to see legislative instruments that will help to open and stimulate private sector investment in infrastructure development, and enhance the ease of doing business in the country.

    “Nigerians want to see the National Assembly tackle these obscenities in our revenue systems as they deny our people the right to good governance.”

    He added: “Make no mistakes about it, the aim of these militant groups is simple; to test our resolve and disintegrate our unity. But let me reiterate the readiness and willingness of the National Assembly to support and work with President Muhammadu Buhari to comprehensively rout Boko Haram.

    “We join Mr. President in saying that we will defeat terrorism in our country and region, because we have the will to win this fight. Our resolve is collective, we urge all friends of Nigeria, including the United States and the entire international community, to join us.”

    For his opponents, who feel sad that he has exposed the party to ridicule by rejecting its position, he can tell all that to the marines. They certainly are not done with him. Not even his appointment of a key member of the group, Senator Barnabas Gemade, to chair an adhoc committee seems to have achieved any end.

    The days to come will sure prove that all is not well with the Senate despite the vote of confidence passed on him by some 80 senators yesterday.

     

     

  • Buhari asks Senate to confirm Service chiefs

    President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to confirm the appointment of the Service chiefs.

    Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki yesterday read the President’s letter seeking the confirmation of the appointees.

    Those Buhari asked the Senate to confirm include Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin as the new Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Tukur Y. Buratai as Chief of Army Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas as Chief of Naval Staff and Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar as Chief of Air Staff.

    In the absence of a standing committee, Saraki is expected to set up an Ad Hoc Committee to screen the appointees.

  • Musings on the Senate’s Order-gate

    Musings on the Senate’s Order-gate

    The jury is now more or less out on the validity of the legal instrument  on which Dr Bukola Saraki and his confederates relied to foist him on the Senate as its president and Ike Ekweremadu, a stalwart of the minority PDP, as deputy president.

    The most generous construction one can put on it is that it is a desperate interpolation.  The police who have scant regard for nuance have called it a forgery.  Others have gone farther and called it a brazen forgery, and a transparent one for that matter.

    Don’t take my word for it.  Read the report of the police, as summarised in the weekend papers.  Even more crucially, read attorney Jiti Ogunye’s brilliant and indissoluble forensic analysis for this newspaper and some online publications last week.

    There was always something underhanded, insidious and smart-alecky about the process through which Saraki, in stark pursuit of his personal ambition, conspired with all 49 members from the opposition PDP and nine renegades from the APC to wrest control of the Senate from the ruling APC.

    In execution, the whole thing was shot through and through with indecent haste, in the absence for good reason of roughly one half of its 108 members, the goal being to create on the ground a set of accomplished facts. Too bad if the operation came across as the parliamentary equivalent of a street mugging, the usual apologists said.  Politics is a game of wits and one side simply outsmarted the other.  Get over it and play smarter next time.

    The old rules stood formidably in the way of this creepy project.  So, new rules had to be devised and pressed into immediate service.  To create the illusion that everything was being done by the book, make it clear from the outset that the exercise was undergirded by the Senate’s own rule-book, to wit:  Standing Orders 2015 “as amended.”

    That phrase, designed to assure the public that scrupulous adherence to law and lay at the heart of the process that threw up Saraki and Ekweremadu as the Senate’s leaders, has instead given away the game in a way the conspirators could not have imagined. For it immediately begs several questions:  Amended by whom?  When? Where?  And how?

    When the 7th Senate was prorogued, the law in force was the Senate Standing Orders 2007  “as amended,” according to the best authorities.  And until the Senate convened to elect new officers, it transacted no official business whatsoever.

    So, how did Standing Orders 2007 as amended morph into House Standing Orders 2015 as amended?  Was this the handiwork of ghosts?  Almost everyday, we hear of ghost teachers, ghost public servants and ghost towns.  But ghost senators?

    The closest thing to an answer to this overarching question has come from an unidentified official of the Senate’s secretariat.  The 7th Senate had ended its run, but the 8th Senate was yet to be inaugurated.  So, there was a vacuum.  Nature abhors a vacuum.   So the vacuum had to be filled — if only to avert nature’s wrath, he might have added

    The extant rules had served the Senate well.  If they had not, they would have been thrown out long ago.  The problem was that, as they stood, they could not be employed to advance the agenda of usurpation that Saraki and his confederates had in mind.

    The dodgy 2015 enactment, it is now clear, was a disingenuous solution to a manufactured problem, the problem being to get Saraki ensconced in the Senate president’s chair at all cost and by whatever means, and Ekweremadu in the deputy president’s chair, as a reward to the PDP for giving aid and comfort to Saraki’s personal agenda.

    It was designed to establish facts on the ground that the polity would have to live with.  It did not matter that the process by which they arrived at it was in flagrant breach of the Senate’s standing rules, an impregnable barrier to the ignoble project they were about to launch.

    The 2007 Standing Orders (as amended) enjoin any member seeking any amendment to the rules to give a written notice to the Senate president, providing details of the proposed changes.  Within seven days of receiving the notice, the Senate president will send a circular detailing the amendments and have it printed in the Order paper.

    The member proposing the changes will get a chance to talk about them from the floor. Following that, the Senate will decide by a simple majority whether to consider or reject the proposed changes. If the Senate votes against the changes, the matter ends there.

    But if the Senate decides to take up the matter, two-third of the members must vote affirmatively before the proposals become a part of its rules.

    This foregoing is the process the Senate should have followed if it was minded to respect its own rules.  But why submit to a labyrinthine process with an uncertain outcome when you can “amend” the pesky law in question, an amendment in this case meaning, for all practical purposes, cooking the statute books?

    Even in Nigeria where “anything goes” and nothing is impossible, this is without precedent.  The Senate in whose name this tawdry transaction was consummated is going to come out of it hugely discredited.  So also will those members who orchestrated and have been celebrating it as an achievement that will guarantee the “independence” of the legislature.

    They have by their shabby tactics cast a penumbra of uncertainty over the prospects of the new administration’s agenda and the national yearning for change expressed so unambiguously in the recent general elections.

    The public they claim to serve is surely entitled to feel betrayed.

    The whole thing is being seen, rightly, as a test of President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to root out corruption in the body politic.

    Thus far, he has handled the challenge with credit.  If this had happened in the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan, it would have been smothered by all the obfuscation and the dilatoriness that rented crowds and hired publicists masquerading as “Abuja-based public affairs commentators” ever ginned up. The police leadership would never have risen to the professional challenge.

    The matter is now before the courts.  Given the issues at stake, the courts will have to accord it accelerated hearing. Until it is disposed of, the Senate cannot in good conscience transact any business, with Saraki and Ekweremadu officiating.  Any such business will come tainted with a  heavy presumption of illegality, given the overwhelming evidence that their ascendancy was founded on illegality.

    The Senate will therefore have to stand adjourned.

    Sure, the administration has already lost a great deal of momentum by its excessive caution and stands to lose more if the Senate goes into a long recess.  But it is better for the polity, for democracy, and for the rule of law, to ensure that when the Senate acts, it does so with unassailable integrity and authority.

    This is no time for shabby compromises dressed up as a “political solution.”  The ongoing criminal investigation must be allowed to work its way through our institutions.  For, in an exact sense, Senate Order-gate is also a test of the capacity of those institutions to guide and lead at a time of grave national crisis.

  • SANs: prosecute Senate rules forgery suspects

    SANs: prosecute Senate rules forgery suspects

    National Assembly Clerk Salisu Maikasuwa, senators and any other person found culpable in the illegal amendment to the Senate Standing Order should be prosecuted, some eminent lawyers said yesterday.

    The police have declared the Standing Order, which was used for the June 9 election of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the President of the Eighth Senate, a forgery.

    Prof. Itsay Sagay,  Yusuf Ali (SAN) and Monday Ubani yesterday called for the prosecution of those who had a hand in the alteration of the standing rules applied to pick the Senate President, his deputy and four principal officers.

    But the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the defunct Second Republic, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), held a contrary position.

     He argued that the police lacked the power to meddle in what he described as the Senate’s internal affairs.

    Sagay said he was not surprised by Maikasuwa’s alleged involvement in the matter.

    He said the Clerk should be suspended immediately and be put on trial.

    His words: “Forgery is forgery. It is a crime. And it is a crime that should be prosecuted. As far as I am concerned, the first thing is that he should be suspended as clerk of the NASS and then should be prosecuted for forgery.

    “It has always been my view from the very first day (June 9, 2015) that Saraki fraudulently got himself into Senate presidency, that it would not have been possible without him compromising the clerk of the NASS.

    “It was the clerk himself who convoked the little crowd of PDP senators that were there and APC senators that were there.

    “In other words, he was the one who got the proceedings started when over 60 of the APC senators were away somewhere else. I am, therefore, not surprised that he was involved in altering the rules of the Senate illegally.”

    Ali urged law enforcement agencies to do their work.

     “If a crime has been committed by anybody, the rule of law should take its course,” he said, adding that the  police know the appropriate organ to report to if there is need to prosecute the suspects.

    Former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, Monday Ubani also maintained that all those found culpable in the alleged forgery should be prosecuted.

    Ubani said: “The only thing we expect now is that those involved be arraigned and charged to court.  Even if they are senators and are involved in the forgery case, we expect that the appropriate agency should take up that matter  and prosecute them and to also ensure that the case is tried speedily and concluded because it is very important to us.”

    Ubani cited China where he said the rule of law will be allowed to take its full course in such a matter to buttress his view for the prosecution of those found culpable.

    “China is not a godly nation. They don’t go to church on Sunday. But do you know why China is working today? It is because they allow their laws to work. The rule of law is supreme in China”, he noted, emphasising, “as long as we don’t allow our laws to work, Nigeria would not grow.”

    “The moment we begin to obey our laws and do the right thing with our laws, Nigeria will begin to work. Let whoever is culpable be charged to court and be prosecuted successfully.”

    Second Republic lawmaker Dr Junaid Muhammed said if the police report was correct, Maikasuwa should face the music.

    Muhammed, a House of Representatives member in the Second Republic, condemned the clerk for his involvement in the conspiracy against due process in the National Assembly.

    “Maikasuwa, as a civil servant should have acted in a manner that will support a vibrant institution like the National Assembly, but he has undermined the process of the second era of government,” Muhammed said.

    He advised Maikasuwa to go back to his  state if he want to be a politician. “What  he did to undermine the democratic  process is treachery,” Muhammed said.

    However, to a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), the police lack the power to meddle in the Senate’s internal affairs.

    Akinjide is in doubt if any lawmaker can be prosecuted on the basis of the police report.

    He said: “It would have been better to first see the police report and rules which governs the Senate. But don’t forget, the National Assembly is sovereign. You cannot mix National Assembly rules with party rules. They are two different things. I was in parliament for two terms and I know that party rules are different from parliament rules.

    “If they break the rules of the National Assembly, they have not committed any offence. Two, this is not a matter for the police. The National Assembly is sovereign, so it is not a matter the police should be investigating.

    “It will be absurd in the House of Commons in London or parliament in America for the police to investigate what they did well or didn’t do well. With the greatest respect to the police, I think they are wrong in what they’re doing.”

  • ‘Impunity in Senate threatening democracy’

    ‘Impunity in Senate threatening democracy’

    •Unity Forum’s spokesman writes Saraki, Ekweremadu

    THE senator representing Kano North and Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Unity  Forum, Barau Jibrin, has warned against impunity by some lawmakers.

    Unity Forum is the group of senators supporting Senator Ahmed Lawan for the leadership of Senate.

    The senator, who made the observation yesterday in an open letter to Deputy Senate President Ike  Ekweremadu  and Senator  Muhammed  Danjuma Goje, said impunity was threatening the nation’s democracy.

    He said: “Unless the rule of law is restored in the Eighth Senate, the foundation of impunity and double-talk being played out in the Senate is capable of derailing the Buhari administration.”

    Jibrin  noted that the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate president and deputy Senate president had affected the nation’s democratic values and direction.

    He regretted that “the Saraki-Ekweremadu group, in their desperate political ambition, which manifested a few days before the June 9 betrayal, suddenly turned upside down the time-tested values of democracy and leadership they had professed publicly and privately”.

    He noted how Ekweremadu,  in a paper, titled: Leadership in the National Assembly, he presented  in  Abuja at the Induction Certificate Course on Legislative Studies for the Eighth National Assembly on April 27, espoused party supremacy, particularly as it affects the appointment of the principal officers of the Senate.

    Quoting from Ekweremadu’s paper at the lecture, Jibrin said: “The offices and functions of officers of the Senate, for instance, are enumerated in Chapter 6 of the Senate Standing Orders. Thus, in addition to the Presiding Officers captured therein, Sections 25 to 32 provide for the following Offices: 1. Majority/Senate Leader; 2. Minority Leader; 3. Deputy Majority  Leader;  4. Deputy Minority Leader;  5. Majority/Chief Whip;  6. Minority Whip;  7. Deputy Majority Whip; and 8. Deputy Minority Whip.

    “However, whereas the entire members of the House elect the Presiding Officers, whether in the Senate or the House of Representatives, the above listed offices are party affairs and are supplied by the affected parties, accordingly. Generally, as the titles imply, the posts of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority leader, Majority/Chief Whip, and Deputy Majority Whip are supplied by the party with majority members in each house of the National Assembly while the reverse is the case for Minority Leader, Minority Whip and their deputies.”

    Calling Ekweremadu’s attention to his comments about developments at the National Assembly, Jibrin said: “…Lately, you made an unfair remark that the National Assembly was not a party secretariat when our great party (the All Progressives Congress, APC) insisted that its supremacy and wishes in the matter of who occupied leadership positions be respected.”

    He added: “It is not only the flouting of the rules concerning the party’s latitude to present the leadership of its Senate caucus that Senator Ekweremadu had provided support for, but he had also provided support to Senator Saraki to flout the ranking rule in the legislature, unlike what he explained at the same public gathering inter alia:

    “Ranking Rule: Both the House and Senate Standing Orders lay emphasis on legislative experience or Ranking Rule. In the Senate for instance, Order 2 provides: ‘Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers and appointments of principal officers and other officers of the Senate or on any parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of senators.

    “In determining ranking, the following order shall apply: 1. Senators returning based on number of times re-elected. 2. Senators, who had been members of the House of Representatives. 3. Senators elected as senators for the first time.’

    “This rule, though not law in itself, is a parliamentary norm, even in the United States of America (USA), and has been variously upheld by the courts. It is protected by Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution’.”

    He noted that the parlous situation foisted on the Senate by impunity and double-talk would persist until ”we see to it that the rules you have enjoined others to breach are asserted”.

    Jibrin reminded Saraki  and Ekweremadu that ”as they remain in the Eighth  Senate,  wanting to make laws for the people of Nigeria, they must  themselves obey the rule of the game”.

    On Goje, who was Gombe State governor, the senator said he could not understand his sudden change from being an adherent of the rule of law and a party disciplinarian.

    Jibrin said: “Senator  Goje  told me, among others at the  Aminu Kano House at  Asokoro, Abuja, before the  purported inauguration of the Eighth Senate what we already  knew, that the appointment of principal officers of the Senate is in the purview of the concerned political parties that have their members in the Senate, guided by ranking rule of the Red Chamber.”

    He added: “But I was surprised to hear Senator  Goje insisting on the floor of the Senate that the so-called zonal caucuses should appoint the principal officers instead.

    “I wonder which part of the Senate’s Standing Order  Senator  Goje relied on to make his  assertion.”

    Jibrin urged well-meaning Nigerians to resist the desecration of the Eighth Senate  through impunity.

    He said the development   could undermine the sanctity of the Senate, the present administration and ”our entire democracy”.

  • Can Senate screen Service Chiefs?

    It was one of the things many Nigerians expected President Muhammadu Buhari to do immediately he assumed office on May 29. By the evening of his inauguration, they were waiting to hear that he has sacked the Service Chiefs. There was no such news until last Monday when Buhari gave the Service Chiefs the boot. Also sacked were the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, and National Security Adviser (NSA) Sabo Dasuki. The public was so much interested in the military chiefs’ fate because it believes that they were partisan under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Indeed, Dasuki and Badeh, who were sacked along with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Usman Jubrin and Chief  of Air Staff Air Marshal Adesola Amosu had unwittingly played into politicians’ hands with the way they discharged their duties. The military is known to be a non-political institution, which primary duty is to protect the nation’s territorial integrity. It has to be above political fray to discharge its constitutional responsibility.

    It can only be above the fray by not straying into political matters, which are better left in the hands of politicians. But at a stage, the military or better still its leadership, allowed itself to be used by politicians. The military leadership kowtowed to the immediate past Jonathan administration in everything for what many believe to be filthy lucre. But, why it did what it did is best known to it. Without any qualms, the military took sides with the ruling party in elections without regard for its operational rules, which state that it should distance itself from such matters. At best, it could only help the police in maintaining law and order.

    It was under the guise of maintaining security during elections that the military helped then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the Ekiti State Governorship Election on June 21, last year. Till today, some military personnel are still aggrieved with what happened in Ekiti. One of such officers is Captain Sagir Koli, who spilled the beans on how the military rigged the Ekiti poll for PDP. To save his life, Koli fled the country.

    There is a lesson to be learnt in all this by the new security topshots – Maj Gen Babagana Monguno, NSA,  Maj Gen Abayomi Olonishakin, CDS, Maj Gen T.Y.Buratai, COAS, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, CNS and Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar, CAS. They should strive to ensure that they are not used to fight political fights that do not concern them. They should leave politicians to their wily ways and concentrate on how to save the nation from Boko Haram’s stranglehold. If they cannot defeat Boko Haram and rescue the Chibok girls the change of guards would have been in vain. The sack of their predecessors will only have meaning if, in the discharge of their duties, they meet the people’s expectations.

    But the billion naira question is, is their appointment subject to the Senate’s approval? The answer is capital NO. The Constitution does not confer such power on the Senate. Although, Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 1, 2013, in his verdict in a suit filed by activist lawyer Festus Keyamo, held that the appointment of Service Chiefs is subject to the Senate’s approval, he may not have attuned his mind to the provision of the Constitution in arriving at that decision. His verdict was based on Section 18 (1) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A20, Laws of the Federation, which states :

    The president, may, upon consultation with the Chief of Defence Staff and subject to confirmation by the National Assembly, appoint such officers (in this Act referred to as ‘’Service Chiefs’’) as he thinks fit in whom the command of the Army, Navy and Air Force, as the case may be, and their Reserves shall be vested. Was the judge right to have used this provision without recourse to the constitutional provision, which grants the president power to appoint his Service Chiefs without seeking the National Assembly’s approval? Again, in my layman’s view, the answer is no and in support of my submission, I cite Section 218 (2) of the Constitution, which reads :

    The powers conferred on the president by subsection (1) of this section shall include power to appoint the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of Air Staff and heads of any other branches of the armed forces of the Federation as may be established by an Act of the National Assembly. From the foregoing, we can see that there is a conflict in both provisions. The Armed Forces Act says that the president may consult the CDS and subject to the National Assembly’s confirmation, appoint the Service Chiefs.

    But the Constitution states that the president will appoint the CDS and the Service Chiefs without recourse to any other authority. Service Chiefs are not ministers, who the Constitution, in Section 147 (2) says can only be appointed by the president subject to the Senate’s confirmation. Being the nation’s supreme law, what lawyers call the grundnorm, the Constitution supersedes any other legislation. Where there is a conflict, the constitutional provision prevails. And in this instance, it cannot be different. The Senate is not constitutionally empowered to confirm Service Chiefs.

    We cannot blame former President Jonathan for sending the names of the immediate past Service Chiefs to the Senate for confirmation based on Justice Adamu’s verdict. He acted in accordance with the exigency of that time. But we can save Buhari from making the same mistake two years after that verdict or we will continue to live a lie – that the Senate is empowered to confirm Service Chiefs, while the president is duty bound to send the names of Service Chiefs to the National Assembly.

    It is in our collective interest for the Attorney-General of the Federation, whenever he is appointed, to challenge Justice Bello’s contentious judgement at the Court of Appeal and if need be, the Supreme Court. We will be expanding the law, rather than allowing this contentious verdict to remain the law, if the attorney-general, who was a party in the Keyamo suit, takes this matter ‘’upstairs’’ as lawyers would say. Otherwise, the Senate will continue to exercise the power it does not have, while the president will continue to act contrary to the Constitution.

  • Senate and purging of political pebble

    Senate and purging of political pebble

    The unfolding power play at the National Assembly has attracted attention of Nigerians more than ever before. The reason is not far-fetched; the masses are beginning to know the implication of the choice of a lawmaker that speaks for them. The fight was not new, but the level of debate emanating from the emergence of current leadership of the National Assembly has been raising critical discourse.

    I am actually not surprised to see how people are reacting to this with bitterness. The lawmakers have been called ‘greedy’, ‘self-serving’, ‘power drunk’ and in some cases ‘thieves’. They described as disgraceful and shameful the current fiasco going on at both the red and green chambers, claiming that the nation is severely suffering from leadership deficit.

    To argue in favour of normality of the present scenario might meet severe condemnation on the path of Nigerians. But why will anyone expect a House totally free of rancour as if the Parliament is expected to be the most sacred and safe place to run business? For anyone having such expectation, I will request him to speak to Julius Caesar on this issue.

    Debate is the fundamental principle of legislature; for and against teams assemble to iron out matters in order to produce good resolutions, though not in all cases. The Chamber is likened to a courtyard where power stands as threshold for all forms of achievements as a lawmaker; and wherever argument reigns as the main business of the day, brawls are just around the corner, knocking!

    Before now, no one cares about the legislature but presently everyone cares and it is a good sign that awareness is growing and our democracy steadily evolving; am sure when next we queue at the polling booths, the choice of who represents us will be sacrosanct.

    Legislative scuffles are not limited to Nigeria alone. Indeed, around the world, heated parliamentary debates have, on occasions, turned violent.

    To witness severe parliament fights, a trip must be taken to Ukraine where yelling, pulling, pushing, shouting and fighting are very common. In some cases, pillars which support foundations of parliament were pulled causing a collapse of structures upon lawmakers themselves.

    Further visits to Georgia, Argentina, South Korean, Pakistani, and Taiwanese Parliaments will reveal House of commotion loaded with free for all.

    The top five parliamentary riots were recorded in Turkey, South Korean, Taiwanese, Ukrainian and Indian Parliaments. As a matter of fact, the great British Parliament is not excluded from legislative brawls.

    Much this said, the nature of purpose for legislative brawls differs from country to country. It is sad that in Nigeria, in most cases, lawmakers fight only about sharing something.  In some other countries, scuffles have erupted based on policy issues, though not without interest in something, which is fundamental.

    While agreeing that there must be disagreements, the fundamental question is “where do we place the interest of the constituents?”

    Today, the parliament is being made to lose respect. Many lawmakers are unconsciously debasing integrity of the institution that earns us the title of ‘Honourable’ or ‘Distinguished’ members of the society. Also, the rules of the party are being thrown away at slightest consideration of power, forgetting that fundamentally every legislator already has embedded in him both political and legislative powers combined together once he is voted into office.

    Speaking about the larger picture, there is the school of thought that argues that party should have refrained from dabbling into selection of leaders of the upper and lower chambers. This argument is so riddled with flaw you can liken it to asking the eye not to shed tears as long as it is not the part of the body that was hit.

    Talking about the supremacy of the party, you can liken it to a game of Chess whereby the puns in the attacking force are all elements of advances on and defence against the opponent. Whenever a pun stills, it does no good to its constituency. Senator Saraki suddenly became a pun that could not be used to advance the cause of its constituency (APC), and at the same time it is not playing a trusted role capable of preventing imminent onslaught from the opposing constituency, it stills.

    Historically, constituting self as a pebble that one’s constituency has to cope with usually has dare consequences. In worst case scenario, the constituency (APC in this case) can choose to purge itself even using a painful surgical method; but importantly, if this happens, the political future of the purged pebble (being a Saraki) might just end there. If we have had a President who is keen at political push, the Saraki caucus would, after a while, be withdrawn back into the party ship, allowing the supposed smart red chamber leader to drown. In the entire game, the ascension of Saraki into Senate Presidency only makes him a Castle or Knight bringing back my Chess power play analysis, but it never made him the Queen in the game. The personality being castigated without him uttering a response in the entire scenario understands the game and the moves.

    Silent, calm, unruffled, calculated and patient, the owner of the entire game knows how to use patience and intensity to let the world know when the Castle or the Knight is picked before the game is over.

    There are too many angles to the unfolding situation; there are many agenda running all at the same time. The Adamawa factor is always taken care of so no lasting threat is feasible from that power bloc; the North/South alliance for advancing the cause of the party is yet to even recognise many political puns serving as lieutenants of the current Senate President talking about taking major decisions in the party. And when the die is cast, what is left is the sight of many broken pebbles. The spoil of war shall be many with no one interested to pick them because they will be of no use in the future political equation. Time is all we need to see a clearer picture of how the entire equation stands.

    •Olulade is a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Epe Constituency II

  • Senate asks CBN, Customs to recover $30b waiver funds

    Senate asks CBN, Customs to recover $30b waiver funds

    •External reserves now $31.89b, says CBN Gov

    The Senate yesterday mandated the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to set machinery in motion to recover over $30 billion waivers granted to rice importers by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki gave the mandate when top officials of the CBN led by its Governor, Godwin Emefiele visited him in Abuja.

    Saraki who insisted that the money must be recovered and paid back to government coffers said the waivers were granted on taxes and duties to certain companies.

    He sad the country cannot succeed in attempts to build a buoyant economy when some people are enjoying unnecessary tax holidays.

    The CBN governor, he said, should immediately collaborate with the NCS to ensure that the money is recovered and paid back into government coffers.

    He said the Senate will, when it resume plenary, reconsider Customs Act especially relating to waivers, to strengthen it and plug loopholes.

    On the issue of smuggling, he said no matter how good the policy on import substitution may be, if smuggling continued the way its going on now, the policy will not be successful.

    He said government must find ways and means to stop big time smugglers that are well known.

    Saraki said fiscal discipline has now become important more than ever before.

    He urged the CBN to fish out government agencies that are used to not remitting accrued funds to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and force them to do the needful.

    He said the diversification being underscored by President Muhammadu Buhari, should be pursued with vigour.

    The CBN boss in his briefing said the efforts of President Buhari to block all leakages as well as the vigilance  of the CBN on foreign exchange reserve had started yielding result.

    According to him, the external reserve which declined from $37.3 billion in June last year to $29.1 billion at the end of June this year has risen to $31.89 billion as at July 7th, this year.

    Emefiele described the trend of the increase as extremely gratifying.

    He said given the understanding that a fall in oil prices is temporary, and that some speculative activities were ongoing in the foreign exchange market, the CBN took a number of proactive actions.

    The  actions, he said include further tightening of monetary policy, closure of the official foreign exchange window, review of operators’ net open position, placement of 72-hour limit on foreign exchange utilisation by customers, introduction of a two-way other based quota system, introduction of a bank-around CBN tentative rate and bank on selective items from assets to foreign exchange.

    He said the policies have led to significant stabilisation in exchange rate and an improvement on the market segment, having earlier traded at as high as N206 to a dollar.

    According to him, the naira to dollar exchange rate has appreciated and remained around N197 to a dollar in the interbank market in the last five months.

    He insisted that the issues that currently confront the country is the need to diversify the structure of the economy from being import dependent to being an economy that produces what Nigerians should consume.

    The CBN chief said liquidity consumption in the financial market remains relatively stable so far this year as growth money supply boomed as expected and capital and deposit as well above industry averages.

    He said in view of this, the strategic demand of the country’s abandoned system remained remarkably good.

    The CBN, he said, will continue to be vigilant in the market to ensure that there is no tolerance for speculators.

    He said that Nigerian foreign reserve remained the country’s common wealth “and we must all strive to work together to protect this and prevent speculators and ruin seekers from plundering it.”

  • PDP kicks as IGP invites Ekweremadu

    PDP kicks as IGP invites Ekweremadu

    The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised an alarm over the reported invitation extended to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.

    According to the party, Ekweremadu has been asked to report at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, Monday to answer questions on a petition said to have been filed against him by a group of senators detailing how he unilaterally tinkered with certain provisions of the Senate Standing Rules relating to the election of the President of the Senate and that of the Deputy.

    The petitioners were said to have alleged that Ekweremadu had taken undue advantage of the slated rules to become the Deputy Senate President in the June 9 election of principal officers of the National Assembly.

    But speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh said the said amendment to the rule was effected by the bureaucracy of the National Assembly headed by the Clerk, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

    Metuh said the invitation from the IGP was a build up to phantom charges with a view to arresting and incarcerating Ekweremadu, and thereby creating a vacuum in the Senate and pave the way for the imposition of a preferred APC senator to take his position.

    The party accused curtain unnamed All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders of instigating the police action against Ekweremadu, adding that the party had uncovered threats to the life of the Deputy Senate President and other key leaders of the PDP.

  • Senate: Beyond the noise

    Senate: Beyond the noise

    It is just three weeks since the Eight Senate was inaugurated on the proclamation prepared by President Muhammadu Buhari.  Since then, a lot has happened within the institution which under normal circumstances should have attracted positive attention from members of the public, including the ardent critic of the nation’s legislature. However, all the developments in that upper chamber of our legislature had been overshadowed by the din emanating from the circumstances in which its leadership emerged.

    The quest and hunger for sensationalism and controversy by the press and its audience as well as the deliberate propaganda by a power group in the polity has made it impossible for people to see the Senate beyond the externally propelled and inspired schemings, quarrel and struggle for power that attended the election and selection of its leadership.

    After the June 9 inauguration in which Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki was elected Senate President, he has continued to articulate the issues which he believed should be the focus of the eight Senate. The man had talked about the need for the Senate in particular, and the National Assembly, as a whole, to be prepared to support the programmes, policies and projects of President Buhari with enabling laws, motions and moral force necessary for their accomplishment. The President had spoken about addressing the issues of security, unemployment, corruption, development of agriculture and mining as ways to diversify the economy,  improving on power and fuel supply, among others.

    The Senate President therefore believe there is need for the federal legislature to develop a legislative agenda which will complement the identified direction of the Presidency.    There are two indicators that can give anybody the direction that Saraki is already nudging the Senate. One is the various groups that the Senate President has hosted so far. Another one is the committees that he has set up and the address to the visitors and the committee members.

    The Senate President had deliberately opened his office doors to visitors who can be of help to the realisation of his plans. First to visit was the civil society. They visited Senator Saraki exactly  a week after his election as Senate President. Their visit was to open discussion with the Senate President on how to create an open, transparent and just process in the affairs of the federal legislature.

    In his address to the group under the aegis of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room,  Saraki said the 8th Senate has an agenda to bring the lawmaking process through broader participation. “ We are determined to have a more focused legislative session that will prioritise on bills that will help us deal with revenue leakages, inculcate accountability, reduce impunity and ensure prudence in our public governance through a concerted oversight function”.

    He enjoined the civil society to help “galvanize civil support and provide field feedback that will enrich the deliberation and implementation of these agenda”. “We believe that this will further enrich our democratic process, guarantee public buy-in and ultimately empower our people”. The ultimate aim of engaging with the civil society is “to help the government of the day to actualise its policy agenda of reducing unemployment, infrastructure renewal, improvement of the business environment, power generation, justice delivery and agriculture”.

    By June 24, the next critical group of visitors were the National Executive Council members of the Nigeria Bar Association led by Mr. Augustine Aleghe (SAN). The Senate President believe there is need for partnership between the bar and the law making institution so that the instrumentality of the law can be used to effect the positive change that APC promised Nigerians in the last general elections. He told the senior lawyers that “ the NBA has been at the forefront of advocating and advancing legal and political reforms in Nigeria (and) the change that our people voted for is in line with the ideals the NBA has consistently advocated over the years : better justice system, accountability, improved business environment , reform of the criminal justice system and the advancement of our people’s rights and opportunities”.

    He said the federal legislature under his leadership aim to help the executive plug the loopholes in the revenue mobilization and management systems which have made accountability of public funds very weak, leading to brazen corruption and mismanagement in the system.

    From now on, he said the Senate will improve on the budgeting process to make it easier for scrutiny, interrogation and accountability.

    Saraki appealed to the NBA to help the Senate to achieve a reform of the justice system to improve justice delivery system, strengthen alternative dispute resolution systems, reduce delay in courts, improve our people’s confidence in its processes and incentive arbitration and remove regulatory bureaucratic bottleneck.

    Then, the oil sector operators gathered under the umbrella of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce to discuss with the Senate President. The Senate President used the occasion to articulate the objective of the Eight Senate which included partnering with the government on how to deal with the common challenge of falling price of oil in the international market.

    “We are desirous of having an oil industry comparable in structure, systems and output with international best practices…The oil and gas industry in Nigeria needs to evolve . We know the importance of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in making this happen”, the Senate President’s speech directly posed a challenge to the team led by Mrs Elisabeth Proust, the Managing Director of Total Oil.

    As he told the OPTS, the Senate President in an earlier speech while receiving the delegation from Shell Production and Development Company led by the MD, Mr. Osagie Okunbor stated  that the falling oil price presented a golden opportunity for the oil companies to retool and become much more efficient and proactive.

    “It is high time we eliminated gas flaring in the country, deal with oil spills and third party related spills in a manner that is responsible and just to those affected”, he said. He expressed the willingness of the Senate to work with operators in the oil industry to ensure that the PIB is passed into law to stimulate investment in the industry.

    “We are open to your suggestions and opinion on how we can move the industry forward so that investment decisions are not tied down. We are determined to ensure that our partnerships endures and we can do our best to promote the growth of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria so that it becomes an index for measuring international best practices, competition, transparency and environmental friendliness”, he said.

    In the last three weeks too, Saraki played host to envoys from United States, Britain, China and France, all of whom came to assess the man and listen to his agenda, particularly to judge whether he shares the same goals and objectives with the new President of Nigeria. However, all the envoys  had left fully satisfied that a competent, mature, exposed and intelligent man is heading the new Senate and that there is no cause for alarm in the synergy that will exist between the two critical arms of government in Nigeria that is destined to change for the better.

    Incidentally, the Senate President had used all the occasions to also tell his guests about the two committees he inaugurated on June 25 with the aim of markedly defining the road map for the Senate. The Committee on Finance of the Senate is billed to submit its report this week. The report is aimed at opening up the financial process in the Senate for public scrutiny so that members of the public can easily access the facts and figures on the finances of the institution. The plan is to eliminate rumour and exaggeration concerning the budget and funding of the senate. This will encourage accountability, transparency and financial discipline in the Senate.

    As for the committee on Legislative Agenda, their duty is to develop a plan of action for the Senate. The primary aim of the plan is to improve on service delivery to the people.. This plan of action becomes the barometer and standard with which members of the public can measure the success or otherwise of the Eight Senate. Thus, the Senate is putting itself up for public scrutiny, judgement and periodic assessment.

    Accompanying the Senate President to these sessions were Senators from the two parties who also use the occasion to familiarise themselves with the goals and objectives of the new Senate leadership. One would think that debating some of these plans, goals and objectives emanating form these sessions with degrees will help the legislative institution to grow and serve the purpose for which the members are elected, rather than focusing on the issue of what complexion the leadership has and which camp they belong to or who is sporting their candidacy.

    •Olaniyonu is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the Senate President.