The Senate vs Nigerians

The Nigerian Senate looks less than itself. That may not be entirely correct. There is nothing wrong with the Senate. But everything is wrong with its occupants; the senators. As an institution and in concept, the Senate is irreducible. Its definition does not necessarily change with its occupants. That the Senate in Nigeria is populated by hustlers who turned the hallowed chamber to a trading post does not detract from the place and sanctity of the Senate in a standard republic. It was to maintain this sanctity that the Senate in Ancient Rome voted to take out Julius Caeser. The Senators wanted Rome to remain a Republic and if an Emperor Caeser was a real or imagined stumbling block, even the noble Senator Brutus was prepared to be rechristened a conspirator to liquidate Caeser for the sake of the Republic.

And so, everything considered, there is a better description of the Nigerian situation. The Senators in Nigeria do not understand why the prefix ‘Distinguished’ precedes their names. They take it for granted. They think it is one of those gratuitous and incidental privileges that come with scaling an electoral crucible. The Senate, in a democratic republic, has an installed capacity against which performance is measured. Optimum capacity utilization is when the Senate defends the constitution and the republic. Under-utilization is when the Senate stands upside down the principle of separation of power and operates as an appendage of the executive in an ignoble alliance to truncate democracy.

It cannot be further stressed that Nigerian senators operate far below this installed capacity. They are stuck in a reductionist and defeatist mode. In that state of negative statesmanship, their collective impact in law-making and oversight functions amounts to a burden on the people and institutions. They are hardly a relief. This 10th Senate is particularly negative. It cannot be associated with anything noble outside efforts to merge with the executive and underscore the futility of Montesquieu’s principle of Separation of Power. It is the Senate with a leadership that adds and removes from duly passed bills at will to accommodate executive expectations. It is the Senate that pads budget for self-interest. It is the Senate that remembers to cheer Mr. President to high heavens but forgets to check him against the legitimate expectations of the people on earth. It is the Senate that has vowed to stand on the mandate of Mr. President even if that mandate derives from a scheme to subordinate the constitution to a personal ambition.

It is the Senate that neither inspires hope nor confidence in the people. Its occupants are a bunch of contradictions. Their description as law makers and nation builders offends common sense. Every opportunity to rise up to their high calling is recklessly wasted on the platter of self-interest and political exigency. They make laws to dilute the consolidated commonwealth into swathes of personal wealth. And they are so hooked on this that their interest is also the overriding public interest. Public interest only becomes overriding when it does not conflict with their interest. Anything that injures their interest is not in public interest. Any piece of legislative proposal that portends to promote public good above the wellbeing of legislators, is bad thinking. Such does not deserve to be accorded the recognition of a bill for legislative scrutiny.

By their own acts and omissions, our Senators have pushed themselves into first class public enemies. The standard is to doubt their intentions until they prove their sincerity of purpose. This was the case with the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act 2022. The provision that mandates compulsory electronic transmission on the IREV portal is in public interest which automatically puts it on a collision course with the interest of Nigerian lawmakers. A thing as pure as a statutory provision to guarantee the sanctity of the electoral system should attract automatic legislative assent. It shouldn’t call for the characteristic ordinal scrutiny of first, second and third reading. But it wasn’t so. The provision was killed because it contained the prospect of killing many of the legislators for bad performance in the next electoral battle. They chose to kill the bill before it strengthened to kill them in 2027.

But the killing had looked too much like open murder. Attempt to bury the crime in technicality failed woefully. The argument of technical limitation or failed mobile network, could not convince the grand jury. The people rose in spontaneous protest to cause the Senate to walk back, interestingly for the first time, from committing sin against God and Nigerians. Where we are today in legislative rascality is very critical. It calls for some measure of intellectual and spiritual reorientation and rearmament to align the aspirations of Nigerian senators with the universal ideals of the senate institution. It is like the British House of Lords abdicating the core duties of law and morality to hustle for personal gains.

I repeat. It is not for nothing that Senators are called ‘Distinguished.’ There is a presumption of high moral standing built on deeds and experience. In fact, I have a beautiful idea that can help the situation. Senators in Nigeria should be taken through a mandatory finishing school where they will learn and unlearn. They will, among other things, learn the etymology of the word Senate. This will open them to all the associated imageries of the institution of the senate. They will understand, for instance, that senate is rooted in ‘senior’ and even ‘senile’, albeit, not in the derogatory sense. They will know that Senate is an adaptation of the Latin word Senatus which means council of elders. It is not a council of hustlers.

A senator is a defender of the faith. It is not faith in the sense of religion. It is faith that approximates the aspirations of the jurisdiction. And no jurisdiction aspires to run on injustice to foist pains on the people. Accordingly, he or she that is called a senator must work, using the instrumentality of law-making, to enthrone the best conditions for human existence. Election, anchored on the finesse of universal adult suffrage, remains the best process of political leadership recruitment at all levels. However, the situation in Nigerian is markedly off range. It does not conform with universal standards. Here, politicians do not fear or worry about elections. They only worry about money and a lot of it to conquer elections, including election into the senate, and get what they want.

The people are always short-changed. It explains why a so-called Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will, in 2026, move with determination and gusto, against the people it is created to protect, without scruples. Meanwhile, every peculiar ailment calls for peculiar therapy. The control levers of the political leadership at the central and regional levels are too many to be held in desirable positions in an experiment to correct. There are governors, state legislators and even council chairmen. Add to these, the president and national legislators. This calls for eminent focusing. And the area to focus on is the senate which has only 109 members.

Maybe I should explain a little more to aid understanding. A democracy is neither defined by the executive nor the judiciary. It is defined by the legislature. In the years of military dictatorship in Nigeria, the only organ of government that did not exist was the legislature. The judiciary comfortably ran side by side with dictators to promulgate and interpret decrees. On the other hand, the legislature got atomized into special military councils that came with different brand names depending on the lexical capacity of the ruling junta to coin appropriate names. There was the Supreme Military Council (SMC). There was also the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). Another had introduced the adjective ‘provisional’ to arrive at (Armed Forces) Provisional Ruling Council (PRC). These bodies suspended the constitution and the parliament to operate, so to say, a non-constitutional and non-parliamentary democracy. In the period under review, Nigeria had a President called General (not retired) Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

For now, the Nigerian people have lost the Presidency and the Judiciary to evil forces. To lose the legislature is total annihilation. Even at that, we cannot afford to be too ambitious for a start. We may leave the House of Representatives for the axis of evil to control. The focus should remain on the Senate which we shall seek to populate with hand-picked men and women that are truly senior in all ramifications. In effect, I am proposing an amendment to Sections 76 and 77 of the operating constitution as well as the relevant provisions in the Electoral Act that deal with the issue of election into the National Assembly. Those for, should say ‘aye’ and those against, should say ‘nay.’ The ayes have it!

Going forward, only a Senate populated by accomplished men and women of proven integrity is good for Nigeria. People with nothing to hide and who can square up to a rogue presidency to move the country forward. I am saying time has come to change from elected to appointed Senate. We can project a composition right away. Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Aliko Dangote, Femi Falana, Dr. Charles Apoki, Mike Igini, Prof. Nnenna Oti, Jim Ovia, Aisha Yesuf, Babatunde Fashola, Donald Duke, Obong Victor Attah, Mrs Funsho Alakija and even Peter Obi. Follow the prescription and add your candidate. These ones are not likely going to constitute a Senate of hustlers. Everything cannot come by election. We need an affirmation outside a fraudulent statutory process to terminate the vicious circle. The British House of Lords is by selection. Yet, it remains a tradition and institution that has withstood centuries of political and military upheavals in Europe.

With the most generous estimates, the entire public sector bureaucratic and political workforce comes less than three million or about five percent of Nigeria’s estimated population of 250 million. This tiny minority that sits on the national destiny like an incubus can be discharged without too much sweat. That is what I am saying here. And we can start from taking ownership of the Senate which, in the Nigerian context, symbolises the strength of the legislature.