By Victor ndoma-egba

Twelve years ago this month, the 5th  Senate  was inaugurated with Senator Adolphus Wabara as Senate President and I was sworn in as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,  after my election to represent the Central Senatorial District of Cross River State.   I was assigned Committees and made Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on  Solid Minerals  with Senator Cosmas Niagwan  of blessed memory  as Chairman.

Upon the assumption of the Senate Presidency by Senator Ken Nnamani following the resignation of Senator Wabara I was appointed Chairman of the newly created Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, making me the official spokesman of the Senate.   It became my lot to develop a framework and strategy for engagement with the Media, Civil Society and the public at large.   It was a challenging,  yet exciting assignment.  I received a lot of support for which I am eternally grateful from Rt. Hon. Abike Dabiri who was  already playing a similar role marvellously in the House of Representatives.

I was also, though a new Senator, appointed to Chair the Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the affairs of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) right in the middle of the sensational disagreement between then  Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo  and  his then Vice President, Alhaji, Atiku Abubakar.   Those were very difficult times indeed.

*Ndoma Egba

I was re-elected to the 6th  and 7th  Senates and became Deputy Senate Leader and eventually. Leader.   I have had very rare opportunities, opportunities far beyond what I deserve, including being elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) from the National Assembly, giving me the distinction – the first and only one so far to have been so elevated from outside legal practice and academies.   My country Nigeria and my constituents  have been most generous to me.   The opportunity to represent a people is the highest privilege that a people can  bestow  anyone.   My people not  only gave me multiple opportunities but, also every support any one could dream for.   My country on the other hand gave me opportunities to express and exert myself to the limits of my endowments, with the People Democratic Party (PDP) providing the platform for these great opportunities.

I was part of the Leadership that gave the Senate its most stable era  in the history of our democratic episodes.  The  Senate President, Senator David Mark, Nigeria’s longest serving Senator serving out two unprecedented terms, along with  his  Deputy  all through, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who  become Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament and earned  academic P.hD in law,  while on that busy seat,  and a Deputy Senate Leader, becoming Senate Leader.   Most significantly, it was  a scandal  free  Senate.

I led the successful campaign for the election of Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi as President of the Pan African Parliament, headquartered in Midrand, South Africa. It was an assignment that took me to  many African Countries as Special Envoy of the then President and  Commander-in-Chief, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,  being with presidents,  Heads of Government, and National Parliaments,  It was a great honour to me by my country.  I was also President of the first ever, Africa Legislative Summit held in Abuja in November 2013, a Summit that brought together the Heads of Legislatures all over Africa. I was leader of Nigeria’s  delegation to the Association of Senates Shooras and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab world (ASSECAA)  in Sanaa, Yemen in the 6th  Senate and Pan African Parliament Midrand South Africa in the 7th  Senate. I was a delegate to the 50th  United Nations General Assembly in the 5th  Senate.

A parliamentarian is one  most misunderstood public officer.   While parliament oversights the executive, the parliamentarian is over sighted directly by the public at  large, and this is  usually  a  scathing scrutiny.

He or she (the parliamentarian) is often held responsible for duties or failures that are constitutionally not for parliament and is always the ready scape goat for society’s failings.   The comfort though,  is that no Parliament anywhere in the world  that can win a beauty contest.

• Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, was Senate Leader of the 7thSenate.