Lawan’s ninth Senate: 6 months after…

SENATOR representing Yobe North senatorial district, Ahmad Lawan,   had last June emerged the president of the Senate.

The competition for the exalted office commenced as a three horse race between  Senator Lawan, former governor of Gombe state, senator representing Gombe Central,  Danjuma Goje and the senator representing Borno South, Mohammed Ali Ndume.

Senator Goje  withdrew from the race after a  shuttle to the Presidential  Villa and the attendant horse trading.

What was, however, predicted as a hot contest  between Senators Lawan and Ndume  turned out to be an anti-climax as the former won with a convincing margin. Senator Lawan  scored 79  votes, defeating Ndume  who polled less than 28 votes.

Despite the threat by the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  to repeat its feat that threw up, Senator Bukola  Saraki as the president of the eighth Senate,  to discerning All Progressives Congress faithful,  Lawan’s  victory was a fait accompli, a done deal going by the rigorous  campaigns and commitment extracted from  certain  PDP senators who, to the consternation of their party’s National Working Committee, openly campaigned for Lawan.

In his victory speech, he had promised to walk the talk of one united chamber, a bipartisan Senate that would be blind to party affiliation. He pledged to be fair to his colleagues, irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious 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 ninth 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.”  Lawan has since convinced his colleagues that he is willing to integrate opposition lawmakers in the running of the affairs of the Senate.

The list of chairmen and other members of the 69 Senate committees released at the end of July  offered an illumination of  a man anxious to keep his words. To the utter surprise of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led national working committee of the APC which had vowed that the ninth National Assembly  would ultimately be winner takes all in both chambers, Senator Lawan conceded juicy positions  to lawmakers of the PDP. 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 and announced by Senator Lawan included: Senators Dino Melaye, (PDP Kogi) Aviation; James Manager, (PDP Delta) Gas Resources; Senator Peter Nwaoboshi,  ( PDP Delta) Niger Delta;  Senator BasseyAkpan, (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 Agshift

Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, chairman, Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa and NEPAD, and Senator Francis Alimikhena, Customs, Excise and Tariff.

Managing an apathetic Presidency  President Muhammadu Buhari just like in his first tenure in which the list of ministerial nominees was delayed, the names of his 43- man ministerial nominees were received by the ninth Senate, almost two months after he was sworn in for second term. Senators anxious to proceed on their annual recess were determined to rebuff the Presidency but for the leadership which placated their colleagues.

Like the list of the ministerial nominees, the  Medium Term Expenditure Framework/ Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/ FSP, which was to  precede the presentation of the 2020 Budget estimate to joint session, suffered the same fate in the hands of an apathetic presidency.

But for a Senate which has promised to return the nation to a budget cycle of January- December, the document was treated with dispatch while the  Appropriation  Bill was equally treated with utmost consideration to enable  President   Buhari  sign  the  budget  in  good time.  The Senate passed  the Appropriation Bill 2020 along with the  Finance Bill 2020.

President Buhari, while presenting his 2020 Budget to the joint session of the National Assembly equally, presented the Nigeria Tax Law (Amendment Bill) in his last October presentation.

Using legislation to boost revenue drive

For a National Assembly not enamoured by the huge fund of about N2.5 trillion  dedicated to servicing of local and international debts in the 2020 budget, it was convinced that an amendment of the tax law would increase the revenue profile of government and ultimately, give it the financial leverage needed fund to finance social infrastructure and developmental projects.

The seven bills that have since been amended 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 has 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 the loopholes must 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 was  assented into law last November by President Buhari.

Sponsors of the bill, in their lead debate before the Red Chamber, said the bill 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 said Nigeria lost about $28 billion over a period of 10 years as a result of the failure to review the PSC act. President of the Senate, in his remarks during the passage of the bill, said the feat achieved by the ninth 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,” Lawan said.

The tag of rubber stamp? 

The machinery of the party and the State were deployed ahead of the election to embolden Lawan as the anointed candidate for the Senate presidency.  Those against his ambition had pushed the narrative that what the nation was about to witness with the senator representing Yobe North in the saddle would be a pliable legislature, a  Senate that is  a factotum of the executive arm of government.

Those with this narrative point to certain developments in the last few months to convince the nation  that they have been vindicated.

The Senate president had assured the Presidency that its formal request for legislative approval for a foreign loan of $30 billion would be passed even when the request had not been debated on the floor of the Senate and it is still in the custody of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, led by Clifford Ordia. Another contentious issue was the manner the Presidency inaugurated an interim Management  Committee to manage the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) the same week President Buhari sent the list of nominees for the substantive board to the Senate.

Despite the screening and confirmation of the nominees for the board, the Presidency is yet to dismantle the committee!

Senator Lawan has, however, continued to fault those who dismiss his leadership as a rubber stamp. In an interactive session with journalists, he said  he would maintain a cordial relationship with the Executive in the larger interest of the nation.

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,” Lawan stated.