There were many dramatic moments in the Senate in 2012. Correspondent SANNI ONOGU revists the high and low moments in the Upper Chamber.
The Seventh Senate is made up of seasoned technocrats, prominent politicians, retired Generals, and other professionals. These diverse backgrounds and perspectives shaped proceedings in the Upper Chamber last year.
Senators who dominated debates included Senate President David Mark, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, Victor Ndoma-Egba, Abdul Ningi, George Akume. Others are Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Ganiyu Solomon, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Hayatu Gwarzo, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, Ita Enang, and Uche Chukwumerije.
Also, Senators Smart Adeyemi, Ayogu Eze, Awaisu Kuta, Zainab Kure, Olubummi Adetunbi, Sola Adeyeye, Ahmad Lawan, Hope Uzodinma, James Manager, Oluremi Tinubu, Esther Nenadi Usman, Helen Esuene, Nkechi Nwoagu, Ifeanyi Okowa, George Sekibo, Benedict Ayaade, Emmanuel Paulker made waves.
In their absence, the chamber was usually dull. In the senate, an innocuous motion or bill listed for consideration can ignite passion and verbal fireworks. Also, a seemingly harmless contribution can lead to a long debate.
Exhilarating ritual
Senator Mark often lit up the stage during his procession into the chambers. As soon as his arrival is announced, senators quickly move from their seats to line the aisle. Handshakes, banters and chitchats would follow. Senators across parties would want to make sure that their House Leaders have taken their seats. Then, the Senate President opens the proceedings with invocations and holler: “The Chief Whip of the Senate!”
From that moment, the Chief Whip Senator Hayatu Gwarzo, moves swiftly to assist Mark in calling the House to order.
Gwarzo was associated with refrains such as: “Senator Smart Adeyemi, take your seat. Senator Ayogu Eze, take your seat. The Senate is called to order. Senator Nkechi, go back to your seat. Senator Uche Chukumerije, stop talking to Senator Nenadi Usman, go back to your seat. Ayogu Eze, go back to your seat. Senator Smart, the Senate is hereby called to order. Senator Heineken, please go back to your seat. The Senate is called to order please. Mr President, the Senate is set.”
However, hilarious atmosphere would vanish. Some moments evoke smiles, others provoke anger. There were predictable, dull and boring sessions. There were critical moments when weighty issues were debated on the floor and in committee rooms.
Pension reform drama
One event which was full of drama in the Senate in 2012 was the invitation of the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina. He was invited by the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service, States and Local Government probing the mismanagement of pension funds in the country. But Maina failed to honour the invitation. The committee issued a warrant of arrest and mandated the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to arrest Maina and bring him to the venue of the public hearing.
However, the warrant never left the the precincts of the National Assembly. At 11.00 am, on the day the committee was to reconvene, Maina was nowhere to be found. The other invitees waited patiently for over three hours.
Suddenly, the chairman of the committee, Senator Aloysius Etok and Senator Kabiru Gaya walked into the venue at exactly 2pm. Etok proceded to announce another round of adjournment. Just then, Maina walked briskly into the hall. He was flanked by a horde of heavily armed policemen and some operatives of the State Security Service (SSS). To the surprise of all, the committee adjourned after reading a signed warrant of arrest on Maina to his hearing but failed to arrest him.
Soon, Maina accused the committee of demanding N2 billion bribe. In apparent effort to defend the integrity of the committee, Etok offered to be shot if the allegation was proved to be true. Etok swore that members of the investigative panel did not seek N2 billion bribe from the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT). He described the allegation as a decoy to draw attention from the mismanagement of the pension funds by his team. He declared that the committee could not ignore the “foul alarm and cheap blackmail as a mere ranting since such is orchestrated to divert attention from the bare facts and incontrovertible evidences of fraud, misapplication, mismanagement and outright stealing of pension funds by the Pension Reform Task Team.”
The Maina episode was not the only one that was fraught with controversies. The process that led to the passage of the 2013 budget was another. Shortly after President Goodluck Jonathan presented the N4.92 trillion proposal to a joint sitting of the National Assembly in October, intense lobby from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) began with countless meetings between heads of the MDAs and chairmen of standing committees.
For the record, a major point of disagreement between the National Assembly and Presidency was the benchmark of crude oil pegged at $75 per barrel. But after much debate, the National Assembly pegged it at $79. Essentially, it was historic that the National Assembly passed the budget in December in the hope that it would pave the way for a faithful implementation.
Again, for the first time in the history of budget defence, the Senate President personally appeared in two sessions. Mark, whose visit was unusual, said he was uncomfortable with the poor level of budget implementation across the MDAs. He described as a contravention of the agreement between the Executive and the Legislature. The Senate President noted that implementation figures claimed by most MDAs were “mere statistics” as they “do not reflect realities on ground.” He accused the heads of the MDAs of complicity for the low budget performance, adding: “There is no justifiable cause for such; we would not take it any longer.”
Mark insisted further: “People believe that budget is a mere document; if you like it, you implement, if you don’t like it, you reject it. Finance Ministry is a problem. People are not concerned about implementation. That is not a correct attitude to budget. Once a budget is signed, it becomes law and it is binding on all of us. Statistics given by percentage never gives any real figure or perception or what is practically on ground.”
Another high point in the Senate in 2012 was the way the lawmakers reacted to the planned introduction of N5000 banknote by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The lawmakers, who were on annual vacation when Sanusi dropped the idea for the project, vowed to stop the move. And they made good their threat.
On their first day of resumption, the senators unanimously resolved “to urge President Goodluck Jonathan and the CBN to stop issuance of N5000 note and all issues connected therewith”. The decision was as a result of the unanimous adoption of a motion entitled: “Introduction of N5000 notes by the CBN.” It was sponsored by Senate Chairman, Rules and Business Committee, Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North East). The lawmakers described the CBN boss as exhibiting “arrogance, high-handedness and claim of monopoly of knowledge.”
Mark fumed that the argument for the introduction of the N5000 note “is not convincing”. He literally sealed the fate of the proposed banknote when he summed up the mood of the Senate thus: “The disadvantages of the N5000 note, at the moment, far outweigh not introducing it, and, on balance, we should not go for it. I also heard it from the news the way you heard it. I was not briefed. The only briefing I had about this issue was in the national dailies.
“The important thing is that if Nigerians say they don’t want a particular policy at any given moment, there is no harm in government retracing its steps on the issue and I think that is the situation that we find ourselves.
“I have listened to the arguments from those who support it, but those arguments are simply not convincing. There is no ambiguity in our stand on the issue. I am not sure that Sanusi is aware of the Constitution. If he was, he would make reference to us before addressing the issue.”
Criticisms
The Senate and indeed the whole National Assembly came under heavy criticism by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the course of the year. The lawmakers were so infuriated by his comments that they immediately challenged him to name lawmakers he had alleged to be corrupt. Had it not been that Obasanjo had spurned previous invitations, perhaps, they would have asked him to appear before its committee on Ethics and Privileges to explain himself.
Obasanjo had declared at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Academy for Entrepreneur Studies Nigeria (AES) held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos that important institutions in the country are corrupt, including the National Assembly.
“Integrity is necessary for systems and institutions to be strong,” Obasanjo said, adding: “Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly. What sort of laws will they make?”
But in a quick reaction, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, challenged Obasanjo to name the rogues and criminals in the spirit of transparency. He lamented that the Senate had been inundated with calls over the statement credited to Obasanjo.
As the senators settle down to business of lawmaking, more of these developments are likely to feature this year. But the desire of Nigerians would be that such actions will deepen democracy in the country.
