The Mace
Senate Prepares Way Out Of N25 Billion Logjam
From: Alifa Daniel, Abuja
After weeks of nerve wracking positions and counter
positions on the wisdom or otherwise of the N25
billion capital base for banks by the Central Bank of
Nigeria, the Senate lived up to the expectation of the
various interest groups and its function when last
week, two members of its Committee on Banking,
Insurance and other Financial Institutions, together
with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Privatisation, Senator Isaiah Balat, rolled out a bill
that should douse all the tension in the system.
The two other Senators who sponsored the bill were
Senators Ambuno Zik Sunday and Farouk Bello Bunza,
Chairman and Vice respectively of the Committee on
Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.
Specifically, the Senators are seeking an amendment to
Section 9 (1) of the BOFIA. The proposed Amendment
reads: " Banks shall be categorized according to
paid-up share capital. There shall be three categories
of banks as follows:
a. Mega banks with minimum paid-up share capital of
N25 billion
b. Medium Banks with minimum paid-up share capital of
N10 billion; and
c. Small banks with minimum paid-up share capital
of N5 billion
For some time, the CBN Governor has been carrying on
as if the new capital base was a sacrosanct position
that could not be reversed by ordinary mortals, while
President Olusegun Obasanjo has brought in his
hallowed office to intimidate every one into
submission, on a decision that appears not to have
gone down well with the stakeholders in the banking
industry.
Even the bankers do not seem to have a common position
as they have been singing different tunes while the
not too knowledgeable have joined the debate depending
on their motives.
With the position pushed in the bill by the three
Senators, the disquiet in the financial sector should
die down, while those who do not have any business in
the sector should leave it for the serious ones who
can afford the base set for the three different
categories.
In the last year, the Senate, except in the case of
the Contributory Pensions Scheme, has rarely impressed
Nigerians with the manner it conducted its
affairs. More often than not, the average Nigerian has
seen the Senate as an adjunct of the Presidency. There
are Senators who do not agree on this.
Said Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba: "I have heard that
allegation over and over. In fact a friend of mine
even told me that we're a department of the
Presidency. I don't think so. The nature
of the Senate is such that it should always act as a
stabilizing institution. In every policy, if you take
the U.S. Senate, it's not activist. There is no Senate
any where in the world, as I know to be activist
Senate. And it has to do with a number of things. One,
even the way the Constituencies are delienated, makes
it more imperative that you consult and that you have
a wider area to consult."
Insiders said last week that if the bill by the three
Senators passes through the scrutiny of the National
Assembly and is signed into Law by the President, the
Senate would have begun to play the stabilising role
cut for it in the polity.
Hopes are that the Senate will employ the same measure
of wisdom to deal with the Labour Bill rather than
dance to the less than pleasant tunes from the House
under the rock.
In the House of Representatives, it is training time
for the law makers as they proceed to Bauchi, Osun, and Niger
States for a Retreat to build capacity on how to
legislate for the country.
Meantime, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has insisted that
it will continue its probe of the Niger Delta
Development Commission. With that position, the ICPC
appears to have pitched its tent against a member of
the House of Representatives, Hon. Ulaka Nwogu, who
maintains that any investigation of the NDDC be based on
hard facts. Nwogu is the Chairman of the House
Committee on the NDDC.
Said he two weeks: "We have resolved at the committee
to use all legislative instruments available to bring
the full weight of the law to bear on anybody found in
any form of corruption or misdemeanor at the NDDC. But
our actions must be based on substantiated facts and
figures. These we are not getting. What is flying all
over the place instead are distractions and
unsubstantiated petitions that can neither help us nor
the ICPC or any investigative body," Complained Nwogu.
The chairman further expressed fears that the
Commission may soon find itself abandoning projects
every now and then to answer to petitions before one
investigative agency or another to no avail, instead
of concentrating to develop the Niger Delta region and
its people.
Asking that his committee's position not be mistaken
as endorsement of credibility for the NDDC management,
Nwogu cautioned against premature judgment of a
development Commission which still had various
projects nearing completion in the Niger delta states.
"It is imperative to state that the NDDC has various
ongoing projects which we want eagerly to commission.
This Fact alone makes it illogical, distractive and
destructive to conclude that it has failed," he said,
adding that such a conclusion could give erroneous
coloration of the commission, the country and the
region before the eyes of the world that is keenly
watching.
Last Friday, the ICPC in a statement on one petition
said: ''we wish to make it clear that the petition
filed against the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) by the National Youth Reform has not
been withdrawn. The impression created by some media
reports claiming that the petition has been withdrawn
is therefore false. The ICPC will continue with its
investigation which have reached appreciable stage and
follow them up to their logical conclusion'''
