As Democracy Day, June 12,2020 beckons in the country, TAIWO AMODU X-rays the activities of the Senate since the inauguration of the National Assembly in 2019.
LAST June, senator representing Yobe North senatorial district, Ahmad Lawan, emerged as the President of the 9th Senate and by extension, Chairman of the National Assembly.
What was predicted as a hot race turned out to be an anti-climax as senator Lawan defeated his closest rival and Senator representing Borno South, All Ndume by a wide margin. Senator Lawan scored 79 votes defeating Ali Ndume who polled less than 28 votes. Former Gombe State governor and Senator representing Gombe Central, Danjuma Goje, withdrew from the race.
The forces, who lost out in the election, have dismissed Lawan as a factotum of the Presidency, which was bent on imposing its stooge as the leader of the legislature.
Going by the fractured relationship between the eight Senate led by Senator Bukola Saraki and the Presidency, the insinuation of a plot by the Executive arm to ensure that its own lackey emerged gained currency.
Prior to the election, Senator Lawan had assured his colleagues and Nigerians that his vision was to cultivate the Executive for mutually beneficial relationship that would foster the larger interest of the electorate.
He said, ”In terms of the relationship between the executive and the legislature, I believe that you can have two relationships. The first is a negative one, the other one is a positive one. If you choose to fight, the two arms suffer and the country suffers even more. Because it is not possible for you to fight and yet get something done for the country. I don’t belong to the school of thought of encouraging fighting between the two arms of government. I can tell you I was in opposition for 16 years from 1999 to 2015. I argued and opposed positions that I felt was supposed to be opposed. But I knew the limits of my opposition when the issues before us were issues that would make life better for Nigerians. There is nothing like rubber stamp. Of course, I won’t deny it. I am a President Buhari man. I am. I believe in him, I believe in my party because of the ideals it stands for. “
Cementing bipartisanship
In his victory speech, Lawan also promised to run a bipartisan Senate that would be blind to party affiliations. He said: “Elections are over. It shows that we voted for a united Senate and it is clear that the outcome is bipartisan. All parties including the PDP and the Young Peoples Party voted for me and with the outcome, the 9th Senate is ready to take off as a united Senate.
“Today means so many things. It is the commencement of another decade of our democracy and we will work to ensure best global parliamentary practices among other things.”
In the last one year, to what extent has he walked his talk in terms of fidelity to his ‘manifesto’? The list of 69 Senate committees released at the end of last July, offered an illumination: a Senate President anxious to integrate his colleagues in the opposition platforms in legislative business.
A breakdown of the list showed the APC taking chairmanship positions of 49 of the committees, while the PDP senators had 20 of such committees as chairmen and deputies.
The PDP chieftains, who took chairmen of committees perceived as juicy announced by Senator Lawan, included Senators Dino Melaye, (PDP Kogi he has since lost out in a bye-election) Aviation; James Manager, ( PDP Delta) Gas Resources; Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, ( PDP Delta) Niger Delta; Senator Bassey Akpan, (PDP Akwa Ibom) Petroleum Resources Gabriel Suswam, (PDP Benue), Power, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, (PDP Enugu) Environment. Others were Senator Rose Okoh, Chairman, Trade and Investment; Senator Stella Oduah, Vice- chairman, Appropriation and Senator Gershon, Henry Bassey, Federal Roads Maintenance(FEMA); Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, chairman, Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa and NEPAD and Senator Francis Alimikhena, Customs, Excise and Tariff.
Having promised to return the nation to a budget cycle of January- December, the document which was to precede the presentation of the 2020 annual budget, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/ Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/ FSP, was accorded urgent attention despite the tardiness of the Presidency.
Passage of Appropriation and Finance bills 2020.
President Buhari, while presenting his 2020 Budget estimate to a joint session of the National Assembly equally presented the Nigeria Tax Law ( Amendment Bill) in his last October presentation.
Boosting nation revenue drive
Lawan has promised Nigerians that the Senate under his leadership would initiate legislations that would boost the revenue drive of the country. Concerned about the N2.5 trillion dedicated to servicing of local and international debts in the 2020 budget, the Senate was convinced that an amendment of the tax law would increase the revenue profile of government and ultimately, give it the financial leverage to have needed fund to finance social infrastructure and developmental projects.
Seven bills had since been amended. They included Petroleum Profit Tax, Custom and Excise Tariff Act, Company Income Tax Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax, Stamp Duties Act and Capital Gain Tax.
The Senate also passed the Public Procurement Act 2007 (Amendment) Bills, 2019 to sanitise the public procurement process and curtail the incidence and influence of corruption.
With a commitment to be on the same page with the executive on moving the economy from its present mono-cultural status, the lawmakers were not ignorant of the fact that loopholes needed to be blocked to increase the Federal Government crude oil earnings.
The Deep Off-shore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act CAP D3 LFN 2004 (Amendment Bill, 2019.) sponsored by the duo of Senators Albert Bassey Akpan and Ifeanyi Ubah, representing Akwa Ibom Northeast and Anambra North, respectively was passed and it has since been assented into law last November by President Buhari.
The sponsors of the bill, in their lead debate before the Red Chamber, said that it sought to amend the act by reviewing the sharing formula to accrue more benefits for the federal government from its contractual agreement with International Oil Companies.
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) recently squealed against Nigeria loss of about $28 billion over a period of 10 years as a result of the failure to review the PSC act. The president of the Senate, in his remarks during the passage of the bill, said the feat achieved by the 9th Senate in helping the nation boost its revenue drive was remarkable.
“We have done what could not be done since 2003 to date. Today marks a milestone in the history of the Senate, and particularly the National Assembly. “With the passage of this bill, Nigeria will gain at least $1.5 billion in 2020 as a result of this amendment. The Senate will do more,” he said.
Edo conundrum
If there is one political impasse which the National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila got themselves entangled, it was in tussle for the control of the Edo State House of Assembly. The National Assembly had asked the Edo governor, Godwin Obaseki to issue a fresh proclamation for the emergence of leadership of the Edo Assembly as it aligned itself with the position that the process that threw up Francis Okiye as Speaker was an aberration.
But a federal high court judgment dismissed the threat of the National Assembly to take over legislative functions in Edo state. Delivering judgment in a suit brought by Yekini Idiaye, the Deputy Speaker of Edo Assembly, and Henry Okhuarobo, the member representing Ikpoba-Okha state constituency, Justice Kolawole Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja declared that the National Assembly could not compel Governor Obaseki to issue another proclamation within the lifespan of an existing proclamation for inauguration of Edo House of Assembly. The two lawmakers from Edo had approached the court to challenge moves by both chambers of the national assembly to take over the functions of the Edo House of Assembly.
The court also ruled that NASS lacked the power to take over the functions of Edo House of Assembly or any other House of Assembly in the country.
Justice Omotosho further declared that the NASS lacked the power to direct the Edo governor to issue a fresh Proclamation to the state House of Assembly as this would lead to extending the tenure of members of the Assembly.
The judge further ruled that the Senate and the House could not seal or direct anybody to seal the State House of Assembly in Edo because the House was not its appendage.
NDDC acid test
Accusation from certain quarters that Senator Lawan presides over a mere rubber stamp parliament gets him and his aides angry. But it continues to dodge his steps. He has refused to be goaded to take on the Presidency and its aides in the face of flagrant breaches of normative procedures by direct aides of President Muhammadu Buhari, heads of federal agencies and even Ministers in his cabinet. While lawmakers were itching to draw battle ground, Senator Lawan remains the restraining factor. One of such agencies that have provoked caustic remarks from the lawmakers is the Niger Delta Development Commission. Despite screening of the list of 17 nominees for the substantive Board of the agency, by the Senate, it was not allowed to function as the same Presidency which dispatched the list created an interim Management Committee to administer the agency. The Federal Government put the Board which has Dr Pius Obudu as chairman designate in abeyance under the guise of conducting a forensic audit of the agency, using the IMC.
Despite protestations and threat not to relate with the IMC by the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs led by Peter Nwaoboshi, President of the Senate pleaded with his colleagues to avoid confrontation with the IMC since it enjoyed the blessings of President Buhari.
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