By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—SENATE Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, said weekend that 107 senators have failed to return to the Senate since 199, noting that this has robbed the Red Chamber of the desired experience and stability.

Ndoma-Egba, who stated this while fielding questions on why he wanted to go back to the senate, noted that experience was a necessary weapon in the art of legislation as was evidenced in the leadership of the senate led by Senator David Mark, which had led to its stability.

There had been stiff opposition from the Cross River State government and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against the re-election of Senator Ndoma-Egba and the adoption of the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Appropriation, John Owan Enoh, for the Cross River Central senatorial district.

The Senate Leader, who said that he had attracted 76 projects to his constituency, said: “From 1999 till date, we have only two senators who have survived. They are Senators David Mark and Bello Gwarzo.

“Secondly, Nigeria lost 107 senators and we did not notice. All the institutional memory of the 107 senators lost, had been eroded. When memory is eroded, capacity is equally eroded.

“In the United States, if about four or seven senators lose their position during an election year, it is an upheaval but here in Nigeria, there is no election year that we have up to 30 senators who would return to their position.

“This development constitutes massive hemorrhage, massive erosion of institutionalization. What have we benefitted from the experience of David Mark and Bello Gwarzo? The senate had achieved stability and peace.

“Before 2007, during the musical chairs era, some days you could even have two senate presidents, one presiding over plenary in the morning and the other emerging before the session.

“However, from 2007, because we have these two very experience senators who started since 1999, now at the helms of affairs in the senate, we have stability in the upper chamber. There has been no scandal since 2007 and Nigeria had benefitted a lot from that stability. The stability in the senate also stabilized the polity.

“I am re-contesting next year because it will be in the interest of the polity for us to continue with the stability and fortunately, I have been part of the leadership that had provided this stability.”

On the allegation that he was stingy, he explained that he never liked to dramatized the act of charity like some of his political opponents do, adding that he was always with the people, while his opponents would be with government officials.

He advised those interested in the senate seat to campaign on issues, show what they had achieved or the projects they had attracted and stop attacking his personality.