In a country where her economy still operates in a shambolic manner, President Obasanjo is seeking legislative rubber stamp to grant a loan to neighbouring nations under the guise of being brotherly. And the Senate, under the distinguished presidency of Wabara, is saying amen in a manner which seeks not to challenge Mr. President.
Opening the first sitting of the second legislative session of the fifth Senate last Tuesday, Senate President, Adolphus Wabara congratulated his colleagues for the radiance they showed after what he described as a demanding first legislative session.
But beneath the teasing of the Senate president, was a provoking challenge from the presiding officer on the need for senators to take their legislative responsibilities with more seriousness.
And in challenging his colleagues, the Senate president pointed to his liberality in decentralizing the leadership of the Senate, a situation that has seen all 109 senators holding a leadership position either as a principal officer, Committee chairman or vice-chairman. Leadership, the Senate president said, demanded responsibility.
“On Tuesday, 13th January 2004, we increased the number of Committees to 54. With 54 chairmen, 54 vice-chairmen and 10 principal officers, one believes that leadership in this Senate of 109 members has been largely decentralized,” Senator Wabara affirmed.
“This number of Committees also enables us to have a better oversight of the numerous government agencies in our system and give senators the opportunity to specialize on specific departments and areas of national policy,” Senator Wabara said in apparent reference to his determination to increase and sharpen the legislative capacity of the Senate.
Well, never mind that the bogus number of Committees which has arguably given the Nigerian Senate the dubious world record of having the highest number of parliamentary Committees, is Wabara’s own way of survival in the leadership. By making each senator a Committee chairman or vice-chairman, he, like the immediate former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, has broadened his power base to stabilize his leadership of the Senate.
Well, as the events of the last crisis may have revealed, and obviously impressed on the Senate President, spreading Committee positions without empowering them financially, is not enough to stabilize a leadership.
The Senate President’s commendable effort in stimulating the committees to work has found resonance in the Senate bureaucracy where apathy to committee work has been a recurring gossip among Committee staff as confirmed by the Senate president last Tuesday.
“During the period under review, some Committees held 12 to 14 meetings while some held just 2 meetings. One had expected that a Committee should meet at least twice in one month,” Wabara said.
In pushing the Committees which are indeed the engine rooms of the legislature to action, the Senate President was indeed making a collective case of ensuring that the Wabara Senate left a lasting legacy.
“I would therefore urge Committees to please endeavour to work within the time frame given by the Senate during referrals. As you will agree with me, after we have left here, history shall judge us by the improvement we have brought to the lives and conditions of living of Nigerians through the laws we enacted during the period we served as senators in this chamber,” Wabara said.
Towards ensuring his goal of improving the effectiveness of the Committees, Wabara spoke of his intention to tinker with the membership of the Committees in order to reduce the number of Committees a senator may belong to.
Presently, a senator may belong to as many as five or six Committees, a situation that reduces the commitment of senators to Committee work.
The situation is seen glaringly during the yearly ritual of budget defenses when senators are seen hopping from one committee to the other, giving divided attention to each Committee.
If the leadership’s proposal sails through, Wabara said each senator would be limited to only three committees.
In the United States Congress, such specialisation is seen in some Committees where a senator like the legendary Jesse Helms, made a name in Foreign Relations and Teddy Kennedy, a name in Labour.
If Wabara would be more politically adventurous, one could even prod him to forge ahead and reduce the number of the Committees or even tinker with the leadership of some Committees.
Last week, it was obvious that the Senate president’s injunction on the Committees was making a positive impact as evidenced by the holding of most of all scheduled Committee activities. On Thursday, Vanguard confirmed that the Committees on Land Transport, Works, Sports, Power and Steel and Identity Card held their meetings as scheduled.
Returning from recess with his commendable drive to reform the workings of the Senate towards improved efficiency and effectiveness, Wabara is, however, unrelenting in his proclivity to the administration.
That inclination was apparent in his almost effusive adulation of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s stride on the African continent in his opening speech last Tuesday.
While observing the continuing state of penury in the country, Senator Wabara, however, had a word of cheer for the foreign exploits of President Obasanjo.
“During the recess, there was some cheery news in the foreign scene in relation to Nigeria. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was elected Chairman of the African Union for which I congratulated him on your behalf. You are also aware that he is the Chairman of the Commonwealth and as well, the Chairman and one of the prime motivators of NEPAD.”
Wabara’s seeming resolve to transform the Senate chambers into an ‘amen corner’ of the presidency was again manifest last Wednesday as the Senate considered a belated report by the Senator Patrick Osakwe led ad-hoc Committee on Sea Piracy in the Niger-Delta.
While urging the administration to improve conditions in the oil-rich but neglected Niger-Delta region, the ad-hoc Committee had in the last of its seven-point recommendations stated thus:
(vii) That a message of appreciation be sent to the President, Commander-in-Chief, for his prompt response, by sending relief materials to the people of Ekeremor.
Well, not considering the fact that the president may have been doing his job in dispatching relief materials to the affected people, the drama that followed the consideration of the recommendation reflected the psyche of the Wabara Senate.
As he put the question on the seventh recommendation, Senator Wabara who had been playfully hitting the gavel to the responses of the recommendations before the seventh one, was taken aback, suspending the gavel in mid air as majority of Senators with a loud 'No' rejected the seventh recommendation.
His hand in suspension, the Senate president was indeed hesitant to hit the gavel in confirmation of a rejection of the recommendation praising Baba.
The chorus of the 'nays' above the whisper of the 'ayes' was apparently a short-term coup by ANPP senators who caught their inattentive PDP colleagues unawares.
With his hand suspended in mid- air, Wabara pleaded with his colleagues, pressing them that somebody that does a good work should be commended.
Again, he put the question by which time the PDP majority recovered to triumph over the ANPP senators and endorse the recommendation praising the President.
Further test of the independence of the Senate was shown last Thursday when the President ‘informed’ the Senate of his decision to give loans of $40 million and $5 million respectively to Ghana and Sao Tome & Principe in apparent demonstration of Nigeria’s spirit of good neigbourliness.
A move by ANPP Senator Mohammed Anka to question the rationale of the loan was hushed by the PDP senators and knocked off by Wabara who charged at him, asking him if he wanted a personal loan from the President!
Interestingly, in a country where her economy still operates in fits, President Obasanjo is seeking to grant a loan to neighbouring nations under the guise of being brotherly. And the Senate, under the distinguished presidency of Wabara, is just rubber-stamping the request.
Even if as the president noted in his letter that he was only informing the Senate of his decision to grant the loans, the aptness of the President appropriating public money for loans without legislative sanction, would remain open to constitutional debate in the public arena.
However, such debates are not welcomed in the Wabara Senate!
And that, in a nutshell, is the nature of the amen corner which the Senate has reduced itself to.
