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Tag: Senators

  • It’s illegal to pay ex-governors as senators, says Falana

    It’s illegal to pay ex-governors as senators, says Falana

    •’They are on life pension’

    If activist-lawyer Femi Falana has his way, former governors who are now senators would no longer be paid salaries as lawmakers.

    He also would have the 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives refund the salaries they got for services not rendered.

    Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said it was illegal for former governors, who have been placed on life pension in their states, to earn salaries and allowances in the National Assembly.

    He also stated that the lawmakers ought not to have been entitled to the payment of their full salaries and allowances for failing to sit for the mandatory 181 days before going on a seven-month recess.

    The Lagos lawyer, in a lecture he yesterday delivered as the investiture of Mr. Dele Ojogbede as President of Rotary Club, Ikoyi in Lagos, counselled the Federal Government on what to do with those undermining the anti-corruption war.

    He also commented on the allegations of corruption against the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Tukur Buratai, Internal Affairs Minister Abdulrahman Dambazzau and Comptroller-General of Prisons Ahmed Jafaru, as well as the alleged budget padding in the Greeen Chamber.

    On of ex-governors in the Senate, Falana said:  “It is high time the Federal Government stopped the payment of salaries and allowances to former governors who are in the senate. Since they are on pension for life, it is illegal to continue to pay them salaries and allowances at the same time.”

    According to the lawyer, none of the 469 lawmakers in the National Assembly had justification for the emoluments they collected in the first legislative year under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    His words: “The APC-led National Assembly has also engaged in collecting jumbo emoluments for services not rendered to the nation.

    “Whereas Section 63 of the Constitution provides that the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for not less than 181 days in a year, Section 68 thereof states that any legislator who fails to attend the proceedings of the Senate for less than one third of the required number of days shall automatically lose his or her seat.

    “For the first legislative year which ended on June 9, the Seventh session of the National Assembly did not meet the constitutional requirement. Specifically, due to incessant recesses, the House of Representatives sat for only 104 days while the Senate sat for 96 days. This means that the Senate sat for barely 50 per cent of the required sitting period.

    “Indeed, some of the senators who had to attend criminal courts where they are standing trial for corrupt practices did not seat for up to 70 days throughout the legislative year.

    The Senate was actually shut down on a number of occasions to enable the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to attend the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) where he is standing trial for false declaration of assets. And in solidarity with him, a number of senators abandoned their duties to accompany him to the tribunal.

    “Since the labour policy of “no work no pay” is applicable to all public officers the legislators ought not to have been paid when they did not perform any legislative duty.

    “In other words, having failed to sit for the mandatory period of 181 days the legislators were not entitled to payment of full salaries and allowances for the whole legislative year.

    “Having been paid full emoluments when they failed to sit for the required number of days, the legislators ought to refund some money to the treasury.

    “In the circumstance, the Accountant-General of the Federation should ensure that the legislators are made to refund the money collected for the number of days they failed to sit in the National Assembly.”

    He urged the anti-corruptions agencies to investigate and ascertain how COAS Buratia came about the $1.5 billion property he claimed to have disclosed in his asset declaration form.

    “Aside the statement, the CCB should proceed to investigate and confirm that the properties were legitimately acquired from the income of the general.  This investigation should be speedily and transparently conducted to assure Nigerians that there are no sacred cows in the prosecution of the war against corruption”, Falana said.

    He recommended that the dismissal dose given to two judges for age falsification should be served on the prisons’ chief, who has not denied allegations that he doctored his age.

    Falana said: “Since two judges were recently dismissed for reducing their ages and ordered to refund the money they had illegally collected the Comptroller-General of prisons ought to be removed from office without any further delay.”

    The senior advocate said those involved in the 2016 Budget padding should be dismissed from service and handed over to anti-corruption agencies for prosecution.

    He said the budget padding row rocking the leadership of the House of Representatives should not be allowed to be treated as the lower chamber’s internal affair but be investigated and offenders sanctioned.

  • Nigeria economy still strong, says CBN boss

    Nigeria economy still strong, says CBN boss

    …Adeosun to brief Senate

    Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday declared that the strategic health of the country’s financial system is still strong.

    Emefiele also painted a gloomy picture of the sharp decline in the price of oil and commodity prices to the country’s economy.

    The CBN boss spoke at a closed session with Senators in line with Section 8 of the CBN Act, 2007, which required that the Governor of the Bank provide, to the National Assembly, periodic updates on the activities of the Bank as well as the performance of the economy.

    After the over one hour closed session, Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki noted that the Senate in a closed door session with the CBN Governor deliberated on the new foreign exchange management policy and the determination of foreign exchange market by demand and supply mechanism.

    Saraki added that the session also deliberated on the need to continue to grow the economy with focus on diversification of the economy.

    A statement by the leadership of the Senate said that the CBN Governor presented a comprehensive and lucid account of the performance of the Nigerian economy in the last one year.

    It said that Emefiele’s presentation began with current global economic conditions, which has been characterized by external shocks including the sharp decline in commodity prices, the geopolitical tensions along important global trading routes, and tightening of monetary policy in the United States of America.

    It said that the CBN boss drew linkages of these occurrences with the Nigerian economy, especially with respect to the over 70 percent decline in oil prices from about S116 per barrel in June 2014 to about $30 per barrel earlier in the year.

    It said, “The Governor’s presentation also gave us an insight into the Bank’s decisions in the Foreign Exchange Market, and the rationale underlying the recent re-introduction of a Flexible Exchange Rate Mechanism in Nigeria.

    “He also delved into the health of the financial system and discussed the Bank’s detailed examinations of financial institutions as well as its zero tolerance for insider dealings by Board and Management of deposit money banks.

    “In sum, the Governor declared that the Strategic health of Nigeria’s financial system is still strong at this time.”

    It said that after the presentation, many Senators asked a host of pertinent questions and raised issues concerning the banking system, the slippage in economic growth for the first quarter of 2016, the gradual

    rise in inflation, fall in foreign exchange reserves, and policy coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities.

    It said that following an exhaustive response by both the Governor and his team, the Senate acknowledged that “these are indeed difficult times all over the world and not just in Nigeria.”

    “The Senate also acknowledged the pains that many people may be facing at this time, especially in light of increases in price of electricity and fuels.

    “But having carefully considered the policies of the CBN, the Senate would like to commend and support these policies because they are mostly geared towards increasing local production, creating jobs here in Nigeria, safeguarding our commonwealth, and expanding economic opportunities and growth in Nigeria,” the statement said.

    The Senate insisted that it is critical that all Nigerians put hands together to seek long term solutions to the country’s underlying problem of non diversification of foreign exchange earning and revenues, rather than pointing fingers or apportioning blames.

    The Senators noted that they “believe strongly in the resilience of the Nigerian economy and the ingenuity of the Nigerian people and as such, we are confident that we will all pull through these difficulties and come out as a much better, equitable, and prosperous nation.”

    A source at the closed door meeting also said that “at a time, the CBN governor told us that we should also work together to pull the economy out of trouble.”

    He noted that “many of us believe that the economy is actually in trouble and something has to be done to rescue it in the interest of the country.”

    Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun will also face the Senate on Wednesday on the same subject matter.

     

  • Are Senators not obstructing justice by gagging witnesses in the alleged forgery case involving the Senate leadership?

    Are Senators not obstructing justice by gagging witnesses in the alleged forgery case involving the Senate leadership?

    • SANs: Senators can testify against colleagues

    Some Senators may have committed a crime – obstruction of justice – by asking that their colleagues who agreed to be state witnesses in the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, be suspended. Are they right? ROBERT EGBE asks lawyers.

    The Bukola Saraki-led Eighth Senate has not known peace since its inauguration on June 9, last year.

    Soon after his election as president and that of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy,  some of their colleagues under the aegis of Unity Forum alleged that their victory was aided by an illegal amendment of the Senate’s Standing Orders.

    The group, comprising some senators and their former colleagues, said the Senate Standing Orders 2015 was discreetly altered to replace ‘’open’’ voting system in the 2011 Orders, with secret voting system, among other amendments.

    The members reported the matter to the police. On June 27, the state charged Saraki, Ekweremadu, the outgoing National Assembly Clerk, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and his deputy, Mr. Ben Efeturi, with   forgery at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.

    The charge, signed by a principal state counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, D. E. Kaswe, reads: “That you, on or about June 9, 2015, with fraudulent intent, forged the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended) causing it to be believed as the genuine Standing Orders 2015 and circulated same for use during the inauguration of the Eighth Senate when you knew that the said order was not made in compliance with the procedure for the amendment of the Senate orders. You, thereby, committed an offence punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code laws.”

    Justice Haliru Yusuf adjourned the hearing till September 28.

     

    The 14 witnesses

     

    On July 11, the Federal Government published the names of its 14 witnesses in the case. Among the witnesses are serving and former senators who were in the Seventh Senate.

    They are Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi, Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central), Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North), Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice (APC, Ondo North) and Senator Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina South). Others are Senator Solomon Ewuga, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Deputy Inspector- General of Police, Dan’Azumi J. Doma and a police investigator, David Igbodo.

    During an executive session on July 12, angry pro-Saraki Senators, including Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), were reported to have demanded the suspension of the senators who petitioned the police and those who filed a suit on the Standing Rules 2015 (as amended), including the 14 witnesses.

    They were said to be behind the travails of Saraki and Ekweremadu.

    During the over one hour executive session, the petitioners were allegedly asked to disown the petition or risk suspension.

    Two of them, Marafa and Hunkuyi, were threatened with suspension if they failed to do so and apologise to the Senate.

    Following Senator Barnabas Gemade’s intervention, the Senate agreed, among others, to stay action on their suspension and set up a committee headed by Senator David Mark to resolve the Senators’ differences.

    Last June 28, Ojudu, now Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, said he was a member of the Unity Forum that called the police’s attention to the matter.

    Ojudu explained that during his four-year tenure at the Senate, the rules were never amended, “so tampering with the rules by the current Senate was seen as a misnomer by us and that was why we petitioned the police.’’

     

    Is it an internal

    Senate affair?

     

    The pro-Saraki Senators are angry with their collegues who petitioned the police because they consider the amendment of the Senate Standing Rules their “internal affair”.

    Melaye is reported to have added during the session that the trial was capable of inflicting irreparable damage on the sanctity and integrity of the National Assembly.

    Section 3 of the Legislative Houses [Powers & Privileges] Act, Cap L12, Vol. 8, LFN, 2004 provides for “immunity from proceedings”. “No civil or criminal proceedings may be instituted against any member of a legislative house-(a) in respect of words spoken before the House or a committee thereof; or (b) in respect of words written in a report to that House, or to any Committee thereof or in any petition, bill, resolution, motion or question brought or introduced by him therein”.

    Section 30 of the Act provides: “Neither the President or Speaker, as the case may be, of a legislative house nor any officer of a legislative house shall be subject to the jurisdiction of any court in respect of the exercise of any power conferred on or vested in him by or under this Act or the Standing Orders of a legislative house or by the Constitution”.

    But, according to Lagos lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, when a crime is committed at the National Assembly by members of the Upper or Lower Chamber, the matter ceases to be an internal affair.

    He said internal matters of the National Assembly would include: “The proceedings of the house, in particular, words that are spoken on the floor of the House and words that are written in motions, papers, questions that are used in the House. These are covered, so you cannot institute any civil action in respect of those matters.

    “However, if a crime is committed in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, that is not covered by immunity.”

    Ogunye continued: “For instance, if a member of the House smuggles a gun on to the floor of the House and in a pre-meditated manner, kills a colleague of his, on the floor, nobody will argue that that is covered by immunity.

    “The allegation that is being made is not about whether they complied with the provisions of the Rules, of the Standing Order of the Senate, whether Standing Order 2011, or 2015. It is not about compliance with those provisions, it is not about quorum; it’s about whether the purported Standing Order 2015 that was used has been amended by the Senate or whether it was forged.

    “Section 100(5) provides that in amending the Senate’s Standing Order, two-third majority of the members shall pass a motion amending the provision. In the case at hand, there was no such amendment, either in the Seventh Senate or in the Eighth Senate. So, nobody has denied the fact that the Seventh Senate didn’t amend that. What we are being told is that an amorphous bureaucracy of the National Assembly was responsible for the amendment, an assertion that flies in the face of what the Senate’s Standing Order provides as to how an amendment can be effected. That is the forgery that is being alleged.”

     

    Can a Senator be suspended for testifying against his colleague?

     

    Does the Upper Chamber have the power to suspend a Senator for testifying against another Senator in court? Did Melaye and the others make a lawful threat?

    Four Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), Alhaji Yusuf Ali, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe, Dr. Paul Ananaba and Mr Godwin Obla, said the Senate does not have such power.

    Ali said: “First and foremost, when people speak on the floor of the Senate, they enjoy some level of pivilege, that is why as a Senator or a legislator, anything you say on the floor, you cannot be sued for libel. And he (Melaye) is one out of 109 members of the Senate so, if he expresses it, it is neither here nor there, except for when they move it as a motion and then it becomes an issue.

    “So, for me, it’s just political talk. Issues in the Senate are decided by the moving of motions which are carried or not carried. Anybody can say whatever he likes as a member, but it is when he wants to translate what he said to action that it becomes an issue.”

    Fagbohungbe said: “Nobody can stop any member of the Senate from testifying, that’s unlawful,” he said.

    Ananaba said there is no law preventing Senators from testifying in a criminal matter. He explained: “As far as I know, the Senate has not adopted that, and I’m not aware of any law under the Evidence Act or the Criminal Code or any other law that permits disciplining Senators for giving evidence.

    “Rather the law does not even allow anyone to withhold evidence particularly when there’s a criminal charge. It’s against the state and every citizen should give evidence of what he or she knows. I don’t think that the Senate or the National Assembly can go on to suspend any member because he gave evidence as to what he knows about the Senate.”

    Obla said it is unbelievable that Senators are thinking like that.

    He said: “First and foremost, I think this is a simple and straightforward matter. I do not think that Senator Melaye could have actually suggested such a thing. I say so because he is a beneficiary of the Constitutional status of Nigeria and our Constitution recognises that the three arms of government are independent and discourages interference in the affairs of one arm by another arm.

    “The suggestion, if carried out, would amount to an interference in the exercise of judicial power. So, I do not think he would actually suggest a thing like that. But even if he did, it is not even achievable, because the people who are listed as witnesses are going to be summoned to appear under the coercive powers of the court, if they refuse to appear voluntarily.

    “So, testifying is a public duty, a responsibility and nobody can be suspended from the Senate on that basis. In fact, the Senate rules, if they contain such provisions – and I know that they do not – but if they do contain it, I know that the courts will strike them out for being unconstitutional. So, I don’t think it is anything to be worried about, the only thing about it is that it is an uncomfortable development that our lawmakers will begin to think along such lines.”

  • How distinguished are our senators?

    SIR: Distinguished senators.  That is how members of Nigeria’s Upper House address themselves, and wish to be addressed by all of us, 170 million Nigerians.

    Now let us look back and also see contemporary legislators across the globe.  The expression is one of recent concoction.  It was never in our historical political lexicon.  Humbler, more evasive parliamentarians up to the end of the last century did not bother about high sounding nomenclatures.  They were concerned about public interest, in deference to the wishes of the people who voted them into parliament.  Things have since changed.

    But this is not surprising considering the calibre and orientation of our political practitioners today.  Today’s legislators want to be cast in a different and unique role.  In addition to remunerations that are hidden and repellent to societal norms, they want to have life pension and also to be immune from the consequences of all malfeasance.

    Looking more critically the word ‘distinguished’ denotes extra-ordinary performance or beyond the ordinary.  In Abuja, you  become a ‘Distinguished’ senator the moment you are sworn in. To say the least, this is ridiculous, as it makes a big joke of the level of comprehension and the low level of responsibility which these pampered politicians think they owe us.

    My English Dictionary describes ‘distinguished’ as “very successful and admired by people or having an appearance that makes people look important or that makes people admire them”.

    In Abuja, does the cap fit?

    Some people have said that many members of that hallowed Chamber have been in public domain throughout their adult life. From council chairmen, to members of state assemblies, to state commissioners, speakers and governors; they have lived and fed fat on the public.  Arriving at the Senate is the climax of their political journey through life.  All they have to do is to go to their constituents once or twice a year, distribute T-Shirts bearing their names, give out sewing machines or potato grinders.  All these generous donations will make the poor, the unwary and unsuspecting gather together like butterflies, dancing and singing the praises of these wonderful people.  Don’t these people have a conscience?  Certainly some would have, but unfortunately the game is, if you cannot change them, join them! The stark reality today is that the social and economic condition of the large chunk of the population is dipping.  It has come to the stage where people are prepared to trade their young children for a bag of rice or gari.  As obnoxious and obscene that this is, it has not occurred to the ‘fantastically’ wealthy Nigerians especially people who are used to ‘sharing’ to have a re-think and modify their vision and purpose of life.

    Senators, and we must not forget, the Honourables.  It is time for real change, not chasing the looters only, but in transforming the society witch is fast grounding to a screeching halt.  Are all members of the Upper House distinguished?

    The cost and national scandal involved in having a super-structured two chambers at the national level is gradually dawning on us.  Apart from the fact that our legislators are living on another planet, the scope and benefit of their law-making has no bearing on the development of our democracy.  Rather the system is creating tension, envy, suppressed insurrection leading to possible explosion.  For now the saving grace is that our society, at least most parts, is structured along hierarchal strata that constitute natural checks and balances.  Our Obas, Emirs, Ezes etc have below them elders of varying degrees of responsibility and command structure that one layer respects and accepts the superiority of the other and will therefore be hesitant to topple the applecart.  This in fact was what the British discovered and built upon in the 19th century when there was a rush to colonise Africa.  But with education and especially advanced education which elevates many youths to higher planes, one cannot for too long depend on this traditional restraint or constraint.

    What do we do now?  We should put into motion the process of amending the constitution so as to make the parliament a one-chamber lawmaking body or make lawmaking part time.  The later postulate i.e. part time members will attract those whose main or sole purpose is to serve the father-land, not those who will earn N18m to N20m per month, take a car loan (essentially free) acquire a N38m SUV car, crave for life, pension, and immunity from all criminal and civil misbehavior and live a free life throughout their sojourn here on earth.

     

    • Deji Fasuan, MON; JP,

    Snr Citizen, Ekiti.

  • Detectives probe N60b vote for Senators, Reps

    Detectives probe N60b vote for Senators, Reps

    EFCC asks National Assembly to state why Omisore got N2.5b

    Detectives have recovered a sensitive document from Otunba Iyiola Omisore’s Abuja home.

    The document shows how N60billion was voted for extraneous overhead expenses for some senators and members of the House of Representatives in the Sixth Assembly, according to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) sources.

    Omisore, former deputy governor of Osun State, was the chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee between 2007 and 2011.

    The anti- graft agency is probing  the document to identify the senators and members of the House of Representatives who got the largesse.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said when detectives went to search the Abuja home of the ex-deputy governor, they stumbled on the “budget padding” document in his bedroom.

    The source said a sober Omisore joined issues with the EFCC operatives, asking why they were interested in the document.

    The source said: “In the course of searching Omisore’s residence at 1, Kainji Crescent in Maitama, Abuja, we stumbled on a document on budget padding worth about N60billion for some Senators and House of Representatives.

    “Immediately we picked the document, Omisore was a bit concerned. He asked our operatives to limit their investigation to only the N1.310billion from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) but we insisted that we are interested in the document.

    “It contained a list of budget padding of about N60billion and how it was spread for some Senators and members of the House of Representatives from 2007 and 2011.

    “A crack team is already looking into the details of the padding of the budget and the affected Senators and Representatives.

    “Certainly, as a former chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, we expect him to speak on the document.

    “The fact that Omisore proved difficult before we arrested him has actually paid off for EFCC. His stubbornness has assisted in opening new investigation frontiers. If he had honoured our invitation as a gentleman, we might not have been able to get these new areas of investigation.”

    To get to the root of the matter,  the EFCC has written to the management of the National Assembly to explain why it paid N2.5billion to Omisore.

    The letter followed the discovery of the strange remittance in Omisore’s account by the management when he was a serving senator.

    But the management, in a response to the EFCC signed by a top official, said Omisore was not awarded any contract or engaged for any service to have warranted such a payment.

    In a follow-up letter, the anti-graft agency mandated the management to be more “forthcoming on what the N2.5billion was meant for to have earned remittance into the account of the ex-deputy governor”.

    The NASS bureaucracy has up till the end of this week to clarify the “purpose of such a huge payment” to an individual.

    There were indications that the commission may quiz two former National Assembly and Senate Clarks as well as and some management members of staff in the Finance Department, including directors.

    According to EFCC findings, the strange payment of N2.5billion was discovered during the screening of Omisore’s transactions in the course of investigating a N1.310billion  illegally allocated to Omisore and three companies by the ONSA.

    The source added: “We were able to detect that the sum in question was transferred from the Skye Bank account of the National Assembly to Omisore’s account.

    “We got a letter from the management that Omisore did not at any time execute any contract for the National Assembly or offer any service to be able to earn such a payment.

    “We have written another letter to the management to explain why the money was paid to Omisore. We want those in the relevant desk behind the payment to guide the EFCC accordingly.

    “We are expecting a detailed response from the management of the National Assembly, including vouchers for the payment and authorisation. Once we get their response, we will invite those connected with it.

    The source explained: “This was why we secured a court warrant to detain Omisore to get to the roots of this latest payment.”

    After about three months of hide and seek, the EFCC arrested Omisore in Abuja for alleged N1.310billion ONSA slush funds traced to him  and three companies.

    According to a report by the EFCC, the funds were  remitted as follows: Fimex Gilt Limited (N160m)-8/8/2014in UBA; Metropolitan Consortium (N350m)—9/7/14 in First Bank; Sawanara (N300m)—1/8/14 in First Bank and Metropolitan Consortium (N350m)-1/8/14 in First Bank.

  • Senators and sexual harassment bill

    SIR: Nigeria is a very funny country. In a country where more than 90% of the people are living in abject poverty, people like Senator OvieOmo-Agege are chasing shadows looking for relevance. The sexual harassment bill is an attention-diverting mechanism to shield the senators from their inadequacies. Why are they not passing bills that have impact on the lives of the people?

    For the information of Omo-Agege and his co-travellers, the so-called sexual harassment is usually initiated by the purported victims in majority of the cases. Most of those girls come from very poor backgrounds but when they come to school, they want to be happening babes. They thus go into prostitution and many of their patrons are the big men in the corridors of power including our lawmakers. When politicians enter any university town, the first thing they do is to send for girls from the university. This makes them to abandon their studies and when they come back to campus, they start harassing their lecturers for marks while pledging to do ANYTHING. If the senators do not know what to do at the three-arms zone, they should go back and sit in their villages.

     

    • John Amine,

    Gboko, Benue State.

  • Senators disagree on 1999 Constitution’s legitimacy

    The legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution came to question at the just ended Senate retreat on constitution amendment.

    While some senators described the military-imposed 1999 Constitution as lacking in legitimacy which should be completely changed, others saw the attack on the document as unwarranted since the question of its legitimacy had been settled.

    A resource person, Prof Okechukwu Oko, in his presentation, titled: The Need for a New Constitution and the Procedure for Achieving It, provoked the debate.

    Prof. Oko asked rhetorically whether the National Assembly could write a new constitution for the country instead of the incremental approach to constitution review the lawmakers adopted.

    He posited that after repairing a car so many times, a mechanic might summon the courage to ask the owner to buy another.

    Also, another resource person, Prof. Sam Egwu, was categorical that the National Assembly was not elected to write a new constitution.

    Senate Chief Whip Olusola Adeyeye said the call for a new constitution because the 1999 Constitution was not written by the people was misplaced.

    The Osun Central lawmaker noted that even the American constitution did not originate from the people.

    He said the American constitution came from the Aristocrats.

    Adeyeye said the legitimacy of the American constitution was because of the faith and trust in the fidelity of the people that came later.

    The senator said if Nigerians insisted that the 1999 Constitution lacked legitimacy, the way out was to conduct a referendum to change what Nigerians opposed.

    Adeyeye said it should not be forgotten that leaders had been sworn in by the constitution.

    Enyinnaya Abaribe said the talk about a new constitution meant the dissolution of the National Assembly.

    The senator noted that nobody elected the National Assembly to write a new constitution.

    He said the question of the legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution could be settled through a referendum.

    Abaribe supported the incremental approach adopted by the National Assembly to amend the constitution.

    Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume cautioned that rather than talk about the legitimacy of the constitution, the retreat should focus on fundamental issues bothering Nigerians.

    A House of Representatives member, Nkem Uzoma Abonta, said those who say the constitution is not the issued missed the point.

    The Abia State-born lawmaker said the constitution was the issue “because what we have as a constitution makes some people lazy due to a lot of imbalances, especially in sharing formula”.

    He insisted that there should be fundamental changes in the constitution to make the document workable.

    Abonta said the first part to amend is Section 9, to enable Nigerians write their constitution, instead of the military-imposed document.

    Hamman Misau said anybody talking about changing the constitution should be prepared to resign his or her membership of the National Assembly.

    Senator Jeremiah Useni threw the session into a prolonged disquiet when said: “Some people just sit down here to talk nonsense.”

    Useni said some of those who benefitted from military rule still had the audacity to talk ill of the military.

    “They don’t know what to say. I mean they came to talk nonsense,” he said.

    But Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) replied Useni.

    He said: “If we are going to have a constitution that is truly called the people’s constitution, I will be the first to resign.

    “I will be one of those who will be prepared to resign my position. If we say we senators, we know senators are elected; if you say teachers, you know that teachers are trained. For us to say ‘we the people’, let it be truly the people.

    “No matter what we do, this document we call the constitution remains an illegitimate document. The (former President Goodluck) Jonathan’s Confab report is even better than this document. If it means referring to the Confab’s report, we should do something.

    “Some people just sit here as if some of us did not fight for democracy. Some people will sit here and want to rewrite history.”

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said the talk about a new constitution was not about legitimacy but about being futuristic and thinking ahead.

  • FG to inject N6.5b in Capital Market

    FG to inject N6.5b in Capital Market

    The Federal Government is to inject the sum of N6.5 billion into the Capital Market, Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market, Senator Isiaka Adeleke has said.

    The information is coming even as Senators and members of the House of Representatives Wednesday commenced the process of shoring up the dwindling fortunes of the country’s Capital Market.

    At a joint press briefing of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Capital Market, the lawmakers said that they have resolved to rejuvenate the Capital Market to enable it play active role in revamping the economy of the country.

    Senator Adeleke who spoke on stakeholders’ forum on “realizing the full potentials of the Nigerian economy through proactive capital market legislation,” said that the government planned to inject N6.5 billion to shore up the fortunes of the Capital Market as well as to protect investors’ funds.

    He noted that the era of change in the country called for major shift in approaches to seeking solutions to political, social, and economic challenges facing the country.

    Senator Adeleke said that the National Assembly is aware of the dwindling fortunes of the Capital Market and by extension the economy.

    He said, “As a mono-product economy, with oil and gas constituting the life-blood, the global downturn has continued to negatively affect meaningful growth and development.

    “As a parliament we strongly believe that the downward slide of Nigeria’s economy provides the best opportunity for major stakeholders to begin to return the economy to vibrancy. We are confident that the Capital Market can and should perform this role.”

    Senator Adeleke also said that the National Assembly planned to enact legislation that would compel idle funds in bodies like Pension Funds to be used to stimulate the Capital Market to play expected role in the growth of the economy.

    The two chambers of the National Assembly, he said, “came to the jolting realization that the Nigerian economy cannot fully develop without making the capital market the hub or pivot of its developmental strides.”

    He said, “This market has long been neglected and denied its rightful and strategic role in our march towards economic recovery. The Capital Market is a veritable institution for the mobilization, allocation and utilization of long term funds, not just by the federal but also for states and local governments.”

    He added that the forum which intends to create an enabling legal environment for the achievement of the recommendations of the Capital Market Master Plan (2015 2025) is primed towards the rejuvenation of the economy.

    According to him, “the desire of the Joint Committee on the Capital Market and Institutions in this direction is to focus its legislative work in making the recommendations of the Master Plan the catalyst for achieving the infrastructural and development needs of a diversified national economy.”

    He said that the Joint Committee on the Capital Market will be interested in legislations that will encourage Nigerian entrepreneurs to have access to long term funds for productive activities as well as enhance their capacity to create employment opportunities.

    He also said that the committee would work to create liquidity and investment opportunities for both foreign and local investors as well as facilitate the translation of pension funds into investments for national economic development.

    “Laudable as these objectives are, we reason that they can only be achieved when stakeholders in the capital market are able to discuss issues and challenges that will bring about an optimal use of the capital market and mainstream the Nigerian capital market as a critical component in national economic policy.

    As legislators, we are ready to retool the laws guiding capital market operations or make new ones that would accelerate the relevance of the capital market in national economic development. Therefore, we seek to grow the Nigerian capital market to be in a position to contribute meaningfully to economic growth and development.

    “This will make the capital market spearhead development in key sectors of the national economy such as oil and gas, agriculture, tourism and hospitality,” Adeleke said.

     

     

  • Deafening silence of Lawmakers over MTN fine

    Deafening silence of Lawmakers over MTN fine

    There comes a time when silence is not golden, when policy makers and decision making institutions deliberately and needlessly extend prompt decision on an issue of national importance or even refuse to proffer an amicable way forward in line with national interest.

    From the delay in assenting the 2016 budget, to the muting of the Social Media Bill and even the muting of the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill, there have been several efforts by the Nigerian legislators to remain silent instead of  promptly and actively standing up to address them.

    Perhaps one of such glaring circumstances, is the MTN and NCC regulatory fine issue it is almost two months now since the House of representatives summoned the leadership of leading telecommunication provider MTN Nigeria, to explain its role and the circumstances surrounding its initial payment of N50b fine. But rather than instantly resolving the issue, it is unfortunate there just seem to be no head way. As it is, we are all stuck!

    It is interesting to note that the CBN and the five banks recently fined for some regulatory irregularities have quickly dispatched the matter even without so much ado. That the matter only became a ‘public knowledge’ from the reports is a demonstration of expediting actions in matter of critical national interest.

    While the legislators are backed by the law to investigate, what they have failed to do is to quickly and promptly conclude on the matter through its house committee to support on-going efforts towards an amicable solution.

    We must commend the efforts of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Communication both of who have shown desire to ensure a quick resolution but unfortunately as the Minister of Communication said in one of his chat, the legislators have to conclude their investigations before negotiations can continue.

    Many experts in law, economy, business and finance have expressed worries on the unnecessary delay of the legislators to come up with a decision especially as the president had earlier ordered a renegotiation of the 780 billion Naira fine imposed on the company. The experts have expressed in their several analysis that the best way to stimulate growth in the economy is to ensure that investments keep flowing into sectors that need them which in-turn  progressively lead to improved revenue for the government.

    It has been agreed that Nigeria’s best example of success in attracting and retaining foreign investment has happened in the telecoms sector and that experience in the past 15 years ought to encourage Nigeria to solicit more in sector even outside telecoms. The knowledge of the need for an economically stable Nigeria is behind the loud criticism of the silence of Nigerian legislators on this matter like many others, with many experts calling on the legislators to take prompt action now on the MTN and NCC matter. We wish Nigeria a successful digital switch over in 2017.

  • Let our senators be

    Let our senators be

    Whenever the story of this republic is told, the Eighth Senate will surely occupy a big space – for what is generally believed to be its intransigence and utter insensitivity to its environment. But, is this true?

    Our senators have been savaged by a highly combustible social media mob for flimsy reasons, including incredibly their pay, which many who have little or no knowledge of lawmaking and its hazards have described as unnecessarily huge. Thankfully, those who have assigned themselves the sensitive task of knowing exactly how much our distinguished senators take home monthly have not succeeded in laying their hands on this highly flammable information with which they could set the country on fire and imperil our future.

    But for the hard times, our distinguished senators would have been pressing for all those privileges and allowances that they have graciously not awarded themselves. They include allowances for their wives, who some of them declared as part of their assets forms, their concubines, pets, gardeners, cooks, stewards, designers, who conceive those kingly dresses, the tailors who sew them, the washer men, who make the fanciful dresses always crisp and smart as befitting of a senator’s wardrobe, drivers, shoe shiners, barbers and – I almost forgot – their armies of thugs. Don’t they pay for these and more? Yet some people scorn them for being spendthrifts and undeserving of the little they take home.

    It is this same group of fastidious people who have been purveying the rumour that the National Assembly has refused to join the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which is being hailed for retrieving trillions of naira that would have been shared by ravenous public officials feeding fat on the system.

    Their proof is that if the TSA was embraced by the lawmakers, it would have been difficult for them to have spent without recourse to the budget N1.314b on glistening Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) at a time when many are out of jobs and hunger stalks the land. But let’s be fair: when has buying some choice items become seasonal, like planting maize?

    In vain did Senate Services Chair Ibrahim Abdulla Gobir (Sokoto East), the distinguished senator who handled the deal, explain that it was a testimony to the exceptional prudence of the lawmakers that only 36 Land Cruiser VXR V8 SUVs were bought at N36.5m per unit and not 109 units for each member of the Upper Chamber.

    He said: “Come to think of it, there is no minister that hasn’t got about three to four cars. One Land Cruiser, maybe a back-up and two Hilux cars. There is no director in the civil service that hasn’t got a car; there is no permanent secretary that hasn’t got a Land Cruiser. In fact, every House of Assembly member has either a Prado or a Land Cruiser and here is a senator you say he cannot have one Land Cruiser.”

    Poor man. His explanation, despite its lucidity, was like water off a dock’s back. It was as if the distinguished senator had committed treason. The pundits and self-appointed commentators descended on him. Some, obviously the decent crowd, said he was blabbing like an overfed baby. Others, the usually pugnacious and envious few who will never mind their own business, called him names as if he was a Lagos pick pocket caught in the act. Ah. Just because N1.314b was spent on cars?

    Don’t our senators deserve some respect? How do we expect them to go about their oversight duties – in rickety molue, Keke NAPEP and tuketuke, buses?Haba! Shouldn’t there be a limit to frugality and prudence ? How do we expect these people who have humbly agreed to serve their fatherland to do so like paupers, being senators of the “Giant of Africa”, “the largest democracy in Africa” and the continent’s biggest economy – a trophy that South Africa was clinging onto until former Finance Minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala devised the magical formula Rebasing with which we snatched it away.

    At the  peak of the intensity of the bitter criticisms against the purchase of the vehicles, some envious fellows, who obviously would do anything to set the people against the senators, obtained many of the lawmakers’ telephone numbers and mounted a desperate campaign to get their constituents bombard them with calls to drop the deal.

    “Don’t take that car. People are suffering and you guys want to buy jeeps? You represent me in Ekiti and we are watching. Ile ni apoti n joko de idi o(the seat waits patiently at home for the buttocks,” one told Senator Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South).

    Apparently not one to shy away from a street fight, she replied: “Sit anywhere. If you voted it was not free. I paid every inch of the way. Get a job and earn a living, so you don’t keep issuing threats that you can’t enforce and you don’t keep invading the privacy of people. Only dirty people do that.”

    Mrs Olujimi has told of how her phone rings every minute. If indeed she paid her way to the Senate, will her constituents be fair, if they keep monitoring how she is exercising the mandate they sold to her? What right do they have to do that? Did she give them a receipt?

    Just a few days before they were accused of being insensitive to the ordinary Nigerian’s feeling, our senators rejected a motion to ban used tyres, sponsored by Senator Shehu Sani.

    Senators rejected the motion because the measure would compound the hardship in the land. Not everybody can afford new tyres, they said. How else can a group be compassionate? Yet, senators are pilloried for being greedy, lacking human feeling and discipline as well as a sense of service.

    The critics are not done. They have accused the distinguished senators of padding the budget with extraneous items, spiking some key projects, such as the Calabar-Lagos rail line, delaying its passage and, thereby, extending the fiscal and economic hardship that has gripped the land. Really?

    If a senator suddenly remembers that the public toilet in his town is crumbling and the roof of the town hall is leaking, what crime has he committed if he puts these key items in the budget to show that he is enamoured of his people?

    But it was never like this. Ministers used to lobby for their budgets to be passed and lawmakers obliged them with remarkable excitement. In fact, a former Senate President once told a permanent secretary who came to defend his ministry’s budget on behalf of the minister: “Your minister is not here? OK. Tell him last year we did not see his Coke. Even Mirinda we no drink. Tell him that when coming here he should add that of last year to this year’s. Then we will pass the budget.”

    Needless to say, the fellow’s ingenuity did not last. He was fired some months after for some financial malfeasance.

    By the way, where is former Senate President Adolphus Wabara; remember him?

    Since the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki for alleged false declaration of assets began, his colleagues have been following him to the Code of Conduct Tribunal. This, say the critics, portrays the lawmakers as busybodies and idle hands who are unworthy of their seats. Won’t we be carrying our oversight duties too far when we tell our senators where to go and whose company to keep? Where are the fundamental human rights, including that of movement, to which we all subscribe?

    When the Senate Committee on Ethics summoned Justice Danladi Umar before whom Dr Saraki is standing trial over a petition in which His Lordship’s integrity was questioned, the lawmakers were dazed by a hail of attacks. Some people said the timing of the invitation was wrong: others said it was contemptuous and immoral. Being respecters of public opinions, the lawmakers withdrew the summons. Needless to say, the attacks are yet to cease.

    The senators, not given to sentiment, ploughed on. They announced that they were reworking the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal Act. The attacks got more intense and hit a crescendo that forced the Senate to pull the brakes on the amendments. It was all  to please those who felt, again, that the timing was wrong, coming during Saraki’s trial. The question is, when will the time be right? Whose exclusive privilege is it to determine the right time?

    The other day at the Senate, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu was in his office when a senior official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) showed up to decorate him with the badge of a partner in the anti-corruption war. The simple ceremony sparked a bitter row between him and the agency, which minced no word in saying that the official did not get its blessing to honour Ekweremadu. The senator swiftly told the EFCC that he never lobbied for the honour that was dropped on his laps.

    Surprisingly, that little matter was the impetus those revisionists needed to pounce on Ekweremadu. They lashed him as they would a wayward school pupil for what they called legislative profanity. They claimed – apparently without any proof whatsoever, let alone some ironcast evidence – that Ekweremadu and others forged the Senate Rules to gain undue advantage in the controversial election of officers. They did not stop at that; they called for his trial. Is that fair?

    One would have thought that after conceding so much, our senators will be allowed to do their mentally demanding job in peace. Wrong. Now there is the “OCCUPYNATIONALASSEMBLY “ campaign and many are suggesting the seeming extremism of scrapping the Upper Chamber. I disagree.

    Let our senators be, if for nothing but for those periodical displays we see on television. Is it easy to find an assemblage of such eminent citizens entertaining us ordinary folks?