THE leadership crisis rocking the National Assembly has started taking its toll, especially in the Senate. The misgivings have stalled the composition of special committees that would have been running the affairs of the 8th Senate.

By Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke

The special committees

According to Senate Standing Orders 2015 As amended, the special committees are  Selection,  Rules and Business; Senate Services; Public Accounts and National Security and Intelligence.

With the inauguration of the 8th Senate with the election of Senator Bukola Saraki (APC, Kwara Central) as Senate President and Senator Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu) as Deputy Senate President, these special committees ought to have been announced within the first 14 legislative days. However, following the inability to fill the entire principal offices, these committees were put on hold, just as the Senate had to adjourn for three weeks when it ought not to.

According to Chapter XIII, 96, “Within ‘the first fourteen legislative days following the first sitting of the Senate, the membership of the following Special Committees shall be appointed: (i) Committee of Selection, (ii) Committee on Rules and Business, (iii) Senate Services Committee, (iv) Committee on Ethics; Code of Conduct and Public Petitions,

(v) Public Accounts Committee and (VI) Committee on National Security and Intelligence.”

According to Chapter XIII, ( 97) -(1) (a) “There shall be a committee to be known as Committee of Selection appointed at the  commencement of the life of the Senate to perform the functions allocated to it by these rules, and for such other matters as the Senate may from time to time refer to it.

“(b) The Committee on Selection shall consist of the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the Senate Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Majority Leader, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and the Deputy Minority Whip.

“ (c) the President shall be the Chairman of the Committee of Selection and in his absence, the Deputy President; (d)  nominating Senators to serve on committees to consider any special matters brought before the Senate; (e) such Senators as may be going on parliamentary delegation other than Committees.”

No show 26 legislative days after

Senator Bokola Saraki

As of press time, it is 27 legislative days into the Inauguration of the 8th Senate.

Now, there are strong indications that a fresh crisis is brewing especially between the majority All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the new rule providing  equal distribution of the committees when they are constituted.

The new rule also states that the sharing formula would be according to the six geo – political zones of the country.

Accordingly, each zone would get at least nine committee chairmanship seats out of the 57 Senate committees.

The new tradition is in compliance with Order 3 (4) of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended and it states: “The appointment of Senators as chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geo-political zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of Senators from a few geo-political zones”.

The 2011 order: The new section of the Standing Orders differs from that of 2011, which favoured the then ruling PDP. It was used by former Senate President David Mark during the 7th Senate and distribution then showed a serious gap which was in favour of the PDP.

Then, the South-South got 14 chairmanship seats, followed by the North-Central, South-East and North-West, which got 10 each. South West got the least number of chairmanship positions with only five seats while the North East got seven.

Implications of new order

The implication of the new Standing Order and equal sharing of committees would be that the APC which drew its membership mainly from the North -West, North-Central and  South-West will not enjoy any special preference, contrary to what the PDP enjoyed as a ruling party.

Brewing crisis: This is the reason another round of crisis is brewing as the Red Chamber resumes next Tuesday from its one month-break. Some senators are said to be dissatisfied with the committees expected to be allocated to them. Senator Saraki is expected to announce the various committees and their membership shortly on resumption from recess, preparatory to commencement of full legislative business.

Senators who would lose out in their quest to head some committees they consider not only strategic but also sensitive, are impatiently waiting to swell the rank of the pro-Ahmed Lawan group, in a renewed battle against the Senator Saraki-led leadership.

Explaining why the Senate embarked on a sudden break recently,  Senate President Saraki said it was allow members of the committees on Finance and Legislative agenda set up by him to carry out their assignments.

Saraki had announced at the beginning of plenary that caucuses nominated Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South) as the Majority Leader and Bala Ibn Na Allah as the Deputy Majority Leader. Also endorsed was Senator Francis Alimikhena (Edo North) as the Deputy Whip. However, the position of the Majority Whip, which has been zoned to the South-West in the person of Senator Olusola Adeyeye appeared not to have been concluded.

The 2015 Standing Rule had generated serious crises leading to the intervention of the Police, just as Unity Forum Senators, loyal to Senator Ahmed Lawan had petitioned the Police over  alleged forgery of the Senate Rule.

As a follow up to the petition, the Police summoned the leadership of the 7th Senate including Senators David Mark, Ike Ekweremadu as well as Victor Ndoma-Egba. Also invited for questioning were the President of the 8th Senate, Bukola Saraki and Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

The petition read: “We write to bring to your attention, the existence of the fraudulent introduction of the 2015 Senate Standing Rules as amended. We wish to attach the original and authentic Standing Order for 2011 that was used by the 7th Senate, Annexure A.

“We again attach the annex Herero, a purported amended Standing Orders 2015, which was used by the Clerk to the National Assembly (along with the Clerk of the Senate) in inaugurating the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015.

“The so called new Standing Orders purport to allow for secret instead of the open ballot system that has been prevalent in all Senate elections as permitted by the extant rules. This infraction, among others, arise from the fraudulent production of the Rules without an approved consideration by the 7th Senate.

“At no time was the Standing Orders of the Senate amended during the entire life of the 7th Senate neither has the 8th Senate sat for long enough to produce the rules now being circulated and in use.”