Even if considered as spineless and liverless in engaging the administration in the rule of law, the Wabara Senate must be commended for compensating its deficiency with a sharp focus towards attending to the ordinary issues that affect the masses. But again, just that these are only those issues that may not brook the anger of the Villa
If Comrade Uche Chukwumerije was a stranger to the Senate or one of the disgruntled anti-Obasanjo politicians scattered all around the federal capital who take turns criticising the government, then his prophecy of doom on the Senate could well have been understandable.
But Comrade Chukwumerije or former Comrade, as his colleagues in the Senate call him, is a distinguished member of the nation’s highest legislative body and indeed, chairman of the Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs. That position may well have given him the advantage of assessing the conduct of other parliamentary bodies in the world.
Contributing to the debate on the report of the Senate Joint Committees on Judiciary and Foreign Affairs which considered President Olusegun Obasanjo’s ‘‘information’’ that he had decided to approve $45 million loans to Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe, Senator Chukwumerije roundly warned the Senate that acceptance of the report would show the Senate as spineless and liverless.
The report, anchored by the two chairmen of the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, Senator (Professor) Oserheinmen Osunbor and Senator (Prof.) Jubril Aminu, respectively, had indeed been widely praised by even some rebellious senators for its poignant analysis and daring condemnation of the president’s action in authorising the loans without legislative approval.
Besides, the report presented to the Senate by Prof. Aminu asserted that the loan approvals were also violations of the Central Bank establishment laws. The report also frowned at Nigeria, itself a debtor nation, giving out loans to other countries when its own efforts at debt cancellation were yet to bear fruit.
“The approval given by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria runs contrary to the provisions of section 80(4) of the 1999 Constitution which specified that all withdrawal of public funds be made in a manner prescribed by the National Assembly. This was not done before the president’s approval was given,” the committee deposed in its finding.
On the capacity of the CBN to make the loans, the report said:“The Joint Committee notes that, the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, as amended, does not allow the institution to make loans to a foreign borrower and that even the internal lending to the Federal Government is only in circumstances of budget deficit on recurrent estimates and, furthermore, will only be a temporary advance, and in accordance with an Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly.”
Following the findings, the Joint Committee thus recommended:
“That the loans approved by the President of the Federal Republic, as reported in his letter to the Senate, were taken out of Nigeria’s public funds and did not satisfy the requirements of the 1999 Constitution both in terms of each loan itself and the due process to be followed in any such transactions. The attention of Mr. President of the Federal Republic should be respectfully drawn to this anomaly.
“That the Senate do grant approval to the action of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of giving a loan of 40 million US Dollars to Ghana and one of 5 million US Dollars to Sao Tome and Principe, in accordance with the terms and conditions already agreed upon between Nigeria and the borrowers as communicated to the National Assembly.”
The two recommendations were followed with a third asking the Senate to “kindly note and ‘respectfully’ convey to the President” that future loan requests must be considered through the due process of law.
Senator Farouk Bello (ANPP, Kebbi Central), once considered to be a rebel in the Senate, commended the bold and magnanimous recommendations of the joint Committees, asserting that the poignant analysis attested to the professorial qualifications of Senators Osunbor and Aminu.
Senator Ken Nnamani (PDP, Enugu), increasingly acquiring a reputation of fearlessness in his contribution to issues of public discourse castigated the administration’s action as hypocritical of its much vaunted proclivity to due process.
“The due process which has become a cornerstone of this administration was not followed. I think we should practise what we preach both in the executive branch and in the legislative branch,” Nnamani said.
Senator Chukwumerije in his comment, departed from the path of commendation of the report of the Joint Committee, saying the Joint Committee fell short of exacting a logical recommendation from its findings.
According to him, the “report concedes that the loan is illegal, but in the next breath, invites the Senate to legalise illegality. I am worried by the prospect of the Senate being made a part of the illegality,” he said as he charged that the report should not have endorsed the loan approvals.
“The report is self contradictory in its conclusions and we are doing a lot of injuries to the Constitution of the Senate. We will be exposing the Senate as spineless and lily-livered,” Chukwumerije said.
Following his comment, Senate President Adolphus Wabara interjected asking senators to shift from the constitutional arguments to the political dimensions of the loan, a point that Senate leader, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida latched on to endorse the President’s action as being in good faith.
“I am sure that the advisers of Mr. President in legal matters did not do their work in advising Mr. President because I know that the current president that we have is a very law abiding President,” Senator Tafida said as a round of uncontrollable laughter caught up with senators and members of the public in the gallery.
Continuing in defence of the President, the Senate leader said:“It must be a mistake of the head and not the heart. I am sure it was not a deliberate error and the attention of Mr. President should be drawn to the future. We all make mistakes,” Tafida said.
In the voice vote that followed the contributions, though majority of senators were heard to have voted to reject the loan approvals, the Senate President ruled in the affirmative.
As Senator Wabara moved to bang the gavel, the Senate Minority Whip, Senator Mohammed Anka, alongside a number of senators in the minority benches sought to speak out, but they were roundly bluffed by the Senate President.
If the Senate action in contradicting itself on the loan approvals was a setback for the affirmation of legislative authority in a democracy, the Senate action in dumping the Senate report by its joint Committees on States and Local Governments and that of Security and Intelligence on the Kwande crisis directly questioned the Senate’s claim to the articulation of the people's interests.
The report of the two Committees was laid before the Senate on June 24 by Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, Chairman of the Senate Committee on States and Local Governments and scheduled for consideration last Tuesday.
The report, as reported by several newspapers, had indicted Prof. Iorycha Ayu, the Minister of Internal Affairs, former Steel Minister, Paul Unongo, among others for directly stoking the crisis that has led to the death of scores of people in the affected area.
The report was largely seen as an indictment of the Benue State Government, a development that unusually saw acolytes of Governor George Akume inveighing upon members of the Committee, notably Senator Anisulowo. Anisulowo, a former local government chairman and minister, was accused albeit without evidence, of impropriety in the investigations, by the governor’s supporters.
Benue gubernatorial hopeful, Gabriel Suswan who represents Katsina-Ala Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, took the unusual parliamentary detour of openly denouncing Senator Anisulowo at a press conference over the report.
Against the background of the human lives that had been lost to the crisis, the continuing state of unease in the state and a willingness to show rapport with Anisulowo or even Senator Daniel Saror, sponsor of the motion to investigate the crisis, the consideration of the Senate report had evoked much feeling.
Penultimate Thursday, August 12, 2004 when the report was listed on the notice paper for consideration the following Tuesday, the PDP caucus, led by Senator Wabara, went into a meeting reportedly convened by a PDP senator from Benue State.
At that meeting, the PDP caucus was eventually prevailed upon to stand down the report.
Speculations that some financial inducements were used to prevail upon the Senate, have been working the rumour mills in Abuja since last week.
In any case, some level of credence to the allegations was given by the decision of the Senate leadership to stand down the report on the scheduled day and that without any formal explanations.
Confronted on the issue last Tuesday, a principal official of the Senate agreed that the leadership agreed to stand down the report saying that the decision was based on the allegations of impropriety levelled against the Anisulowo Committee by officials of the Benue State Government.
Senators who have bothered to ask the leadership for the reason of the standing down of the Kwande report, have been told that the PDP caucus resolved to take up the issue as an internal PDP affair and that the report would be forwarded to the presidency for implementation.
Such explanations inevitably serve as armour for critics like Chukwumerije who said that the Wabara Senate is spineless and liverless.
It is lamentable that a report of the Senate which has not been considered by the Senate which initiated the investigation, would be purveyed to the executive branch or so cavalierly handled, especially against the background of rumours of impropriety.
Last Thursday, the Senate approved the President’s request for the deployment of Nigerian troops to Sudan amidst controversy over the legislative body’s willingness to appease presidential requests even at the expense of undermining legislative authority.
Presenting the report of the Senate Committee on Defence which studied the request, Senator Fidelis Okoro, the Committee chairman, confessed that he could only present an interim report granting anticipatory approval to the request. That anticipatory approval was quickly granted.
Following the anticipatory approval, he cited the committee’s inability to meet with the service chiefs since the request was forwarded to the committee 24 hours earlier. According to him, the meeting with the service chiefs would show the level of preparedness of the troops for the mission and thus a final approval or rejection which he promised to present on Tuesday, August 24, the next legislative day.
Okoro’s arguments were further consolidated by Senators David Mark and Isa Maina, the first a retired general, and the other a retired Colonel, with varied experiences in peace- keeping missions.
Both Senators Mark and Maina, who are among the leading cheer leaders of the ‘Obasanjo Amen Corner’ in the Senate, while affirming their loyalties to the Commander-in-Chief, restated that it was hasty to grant the approvals to Baba’s request without meeting with the service chiefs.
However, Senator Wabara would not brook such, insisting that the anticipatory approval was final approval.
As it seemed, the arguments of the military politicos were sinking in, it took the hurried intervention of Senator Arthur Nzeribe who relied on a technical order to annul further arguments against the approval of the Senate request.
With its consistency in now and again bending legislative procedures to accommodate the interests of the executive arm of government, the impression would be that the Wabara Senate is really spineless and liverless. But such arguments may not always hold true, given the determination of the Senate President to ensure that the Senate is seen to be working and indeed, works.
Arguably, above all other Senate Presidents before him, Senator Wabara has demonstrated a capacity to work and indeed a willingness to nudge his colleagues to work hard in the interest of the masses.
It was for this reason he has contemplated reducing the numbers of committees a senator may belong to in order to make the senators more focused. The Wabara Senate has also done well in passing a high number of bills, including the power sector reform bill which it passed last Thursday.
So, even if considered as spineless and liverless in engaging the administration in the rule of law, the Wabara Senate must be commended for compensating its deficiency with a sharp focus towards attending to the ordinary issues that affect the masses.
But again, just that these are only those issues that may not brook the anger of the Villa.
