Senate in 2011:Suspicions, controversy trail legislative activism
By Inalegwu Shaibu
YEAR 2011 saw two Senate terms; it was the twilight year of the Sixth Senate as well as the year of birth of the Seventh Senate. The year, which was also heralded by general elections in the country witnessed a flurry of legislative activities.
A YEAR of general elections in Nigeria is usually a big year for politicians, it is a year for building new frontiers, alignments and re-alignments in the political space and a year where destinies are shaped and reshaped depending on whose side, the average politicians is.
In 2011, there were the presidential election, National Assembly, gubernatorial down to the councillorships elections across the land. The Senate was also caught up in the election fever, leading to a drab in the activities of the upper chamber in the prelude to the elections.
Senators recurring absence
The drab came mainly because of the absence of most Senators from sessions, expectedly so because Senators must stay in touch with their constituencies to guarantee their return tickets and enjoy the spoils of office.
But despite elections, there were pockets of activities at the Senate, notably, the passage of 2011 budget submitted to National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan in December of that year. The budget was eventually passed in March by the Senate, after it had extended the life span of the 2010 budget to the March 3, 2011.
The budget of N4.972 trillion was passed by the Senate few weeks before the polls. The budget was based on the
David Mark entering Senate chamber
benchmark oil price of $75 a barrel and oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day.
The budget assumed an exchange rate of N150 to the U.S. dollar and a 7 per cent GDP growth rate. Spending was made up of N2.467 trillion for recurrent expenditure, N1.563 trillion capital expenditure, N497 billion in statutory transfers, and N445 billion for debt servicing. The budget was characterised by the usual outcry against high allocation to recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital expenditure.
PIB controversy
Besides the passage of the budget, there was dilly-dally with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, popularly called the PIB. Before the expiration of the Sixth Senate, the PIB had already assumed a status of mystery because of the attention it attracted. The bill, it was believed, will reshape the nation’s oil sector and help revamp the ailing economy.
The Senate was among the elitist group that attested to the fact that laws in the oil and gas sector of Nigeria had lost their relevance. and that oil majors take advantage of lax laws in the sector to pillage Nigeria’s oil wealth.
Even the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, at various times had claimed that government might be losing $55.4 million (about N8.31 billion) monthly as a result of the continued delay in passing the PIB.
The PIB was to replace the tax laws and block perceived leakages in the sector. Yet with this strong convictions and good intentions, work on the PIB which had reached advance stage at the twilight days of the sixth Senate failed to guarantee its eventual passage.
The non-passage led to outcries from Nigerians against the Senate. This prompted the Senate into self defense with Senate President David Mark, assuring Nigerians that there was no foul play in its failure to pass the PIB. Mark, on several occasions, assured that Rule 111 of the Senate as amended, enables the seventh Senate to pick up and dust the PIB for eventual passage.
The circus show with the PIB continued at the Senate as there were already contentious issues with Rule 111. There is yet to be a consensus on the viability of Rule 111, which hitherto states that ‘the legislative business of the Senate which remain undecided at the close of the session of the Senate shall resume and proceed with in the same manner as if no adjournment of the Senate had taken place and all papers referred to committees and not reported upon at the close of session of Senate shall be returned to the office of the Clerk of the Senate and retain until the next session of the Senate when they shall be return to the Service Committee to which they had been previously referred.’
Chairman Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, who is the custodian of all bills, had attested that the PIB had ceased to exist with the demise of the Sixth Senate. “There is no Petroleum Industry Bill in the National Assembly and in particular in the Senate. There is none,” Enang affirmed.
He added that unless a new bill was sent by President Jonathan to the seventh Senate, Rule 111 could not resuscitate the PIB.
The situation of the PIB does not augur well with the Senate, when juxtaposed with allegations that the Senate had been bought over by multinational oil companies that never wanted the bill to see the light of the day. And unless something drastic is done to remove the mysteries surrounding the bill, the furore generated by the non passage of the PIB will take a while to be wished away by the Senate.
Seventh Senate
The second half of 2011 witnessed the birth of the Seventh Senate. About 34 Senators were re-elected on various party platforms. Top on the agenda after the inauguration of the Seventh Senate was the rush to constitute its leadership.
There was little drama except for the position of the Senate President. Mark who had enjoyed the apex seat for four uninterrupted years, a new record for the Senate, was the undisputed favourite.
However, there were rumoured contenders for the coveted seat in the likes of Senators Abdullahi Adamu, Bukola Saraki and Danjuma Goje all of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
But whether they were contenders or not was quickly dealt with by the amendment of the Senate Standing Order 2 which placed appointments of presiding officers in accordance with ranking of Senators. The amendment however drew suspicions as some analysts believed it was targeted at knocking out the contenders, who were all first term Senators.
It forced Senator Goje to deny his interest in the contest even as he affirmed that the amendment precludes him, a first term Senator from vying for the position of the Senate President.
The road then became clear for Mark. He got a sweeping victory as he was unanimously re-elected by his colleagues as the Senate President for a second time running.
With the leadership constituted, the upper chamber began work in earnest, there were the ministerial screening and confirmation to form the new cabinet of President Jonathan, screening of heads and members of boards of federal government agencies, motions, bills, and probes.
It received 42 ministerial nominees from the President and quickly confirmed 41 with the exception of Dr. Obadiah Ando, the nominee from Taraba State, who was turned down by all three Senators from his state. Dr. Ando’s sins were that he failed to develop his home State of Taraba while acting as Minister of Water Resources.
BPE Probe
The Senate also responded to outcry from Nigerians triggered by Vice President Namadi Sambo on the ailing status of government privatized enterprises. An ad- hoc committee chaired by Senator Ahmed Lawan was constituted to investigate the entire privatization exercise from 1999 to date.
The committee, after three months of painstaking investigation, submitted its report to the Senate which among other recommendations, reversed the sale of top government enterprises such as Delta Steel Company, Aluminum Smelting Company of Nigeria, Ikot Abasi, Volkswagen of Nigeria, and a host of many other entities privatized by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE).
The BPE report also indicted three former Director-Generals of BPE, Mallam Nasir El-Rufia, Dr. Julius Bala and Mrs. Irene Chigbue. It also recommended the sack of the incumbent, DG, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa.
However there was a slight delay in the adoption of the report leading to concerns and suspicions from National Assembly watchers that the delay was being orchestrated by the Senate to sweep the report under the carpet.
Eventually, 45 recommendations of the report were taken; with Mark describing the action as proof that the Senate could not be bought over or blackmailed into taken decisions that were inimical to the growth and development of Nigeria.
Fuel subsidy probe
ASide BPE probe, there was the fuel subsidy management probe that is still on-going. There has been some mind bugling revelations especially the naming of beneficiaries of the subsidy funds put in excess of N1.3 trillion.
It was not just probes and confirmations of nominees at sessions, the Senate also took bills and motions. A total of 25 motions were received and resolution reached upon. Also a total of 106 bills were introduced including 14 executive bills and 92 private members’ bills.
Of the 106 bills, 61 have gone through first reading, 16 read the second time and referred to the relevant committees, while 26 others are awaiting journal publication, while six were withdrawn for representation by sponsors.
Same sex marriage
But so far, apart from the approtiation bills, only one bill has been passed. Senate passed the Same Sex Marriage (prohibition) bill 2011 outlawing all forms of marriage between man and man and between woman and woman, amid controversies and pressures from the international community.
The Senate however gained support beyond measures from Nigerians on the bill which also penalized support for marriage between people of the same sex. Nigerians have thrown their weight behind the Senate in condemning the act openly, describing it as alien and an assault on the nation’s diverse culture.
In all, the Seventh Senate has, perhaps lived up to expectations six months into its inauguration. But analysts argued that the pace was still slow given the myriad of problems facing the nation, and the urgency required to proffer solutions to them.
Senator Enang again held a different view on the performance of the Senate so far. He argued that the Senate had achieved much in the little space of time it has existed.
According to him, “the work of the Senate is not only to pass bills and motions. It is the first and second year that you can start measuring the number of bills passed. You should commend the Senate for the number of bills passed in the last six months.”
