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Tsauri: Pilot of the Senate Rules and Business
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi National Assembly Correspondent, Abuja
Next Wednesday, ceteris
paribus, the Senate would heave a sigh of relief and proceed on a
‘well-deserved’ four-week recess.
On that day,
hopefully, the National Assembly would have fine-tuned and passed to President
Olusegun Obasanjo, for assent, the 2005 Appropriation Bill.
But legislating
entails much more than just the annual ritual of passing budgets. The
legislature makes laws for the smooth governance of the country. That is where
the National Assembly gets its relevance, legally accounted for in the
constitution of the country. And so, to ensure smooth running of both chambers
of the National Assembly, its members are, based on their level of competence,
divided into committees, which themselves are the engine rooms of both
chambers.
More than that,
there is a structure of how the affair of the Senate is run. Such
responsibility belongs to the Rules and Business Committee of each chamber. As
they say, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. That is the lot of Senator
Umaru Ibrahim Tsauri, the chairman of the Rules and Business Committee. But by
now, he should know where the shoe pinches. In simple terms, Tsauri is the
Senator charged with the onerous responsibility of sifting the chaff from the
grains and ensure that quality bills are brought to the floor of the house.
Probably because he is a first-time Senator, he has the guidance and experience
of Senate Leader Dalhatu Tafida to rely on, as his vice chairman.
For sure, the
legislator from Kurfi Local Government Area of Katsina State and who has listed
as a permanent referee his state governor, may not be best of friend to some of
his colleagues who would also be anxious that their bills are treated fast at
the Senater.
By the time the
Senate ended its first legislative year, there were so many bills trapped at
the First Reading stage that it earned the covert rebuke of Senate President
Adolphus Wabara during his inaugural address at the resumption of the second
legislative year. Understandably, Tsauri and his team at the Rules and Business
Committee knew the tea party was over. Even now with just nine days to the end
of this legislative year, there are still 29 bills awaiting concurrence with
the House of Representatives!
At the initial
stage during the resumption of the second legislative year, Tsauri’s
committee ensured that all bills to be discussed for the week were put on
notice so that Senators would not have the excuse to absent themselves from the
chamber on the day their reports or bills would be up for discussion. Soon
after, the novelty wore off.
Tsauri’s
track record would seem to have prepared him for this present task. A former
teacher and one who is proud to quickly let you know that he is of the ilk of
Sir Ahmadu Bello, former Premier of the Northern Region, Tsauri was the
chairman of the National Electoral Appeal Panel of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) National Convention in 1999. Also a member of the Strategy and Planning
Committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign in 1999, He cut his political teeth
in 1983 when he, at 31, was saddled with the responsibility of steering a local
government in his state as a sole administrator.
As in politics,
so also is with the man in business as he was part of the committee which
handed over power from the military regime to the civilian administration in
Katsina State at the dawn of democracy in 1999. In the Second Republic, he was
elected as a member of the House of Representatives, which was unfortunately
cut short by the military on December 31, 1983. And so his election as a
Senator in 2003 came as a no surprise because he was on a familiar terrain.
Reticent though
he may be, there is a humane as well as humorous side to Tsauri. I still
remember his reaction to the incessant increases in fuel prices. There was
angst in the land and most PDP Senators approached to speak against the fuel
hike shied away from being quoted against their government. They did not want
to be seen as opposing or being antagonistic to the policies of the PDP-led
government. Somehow, Tsauri came on the scene and his response showed another
side of the man. He recalled that during the inglorious military regimes, he
would drive his cars across the border, buy fuel at N100 per litre and drive
back to the country. Tsauri argued that though deregulation would ensure that
the product is regularly available, the government simply miscalculated about
the timing and its enforcement. His words were, to us, so explosive that it got
to a point where newsmen present asked him if he wanted us to tone down his
reaction. He would have none of it. He wanted his reaction published just the
way it was. That singular action endeared him to the Press Corps.
Back home, in
his village also called Tsauri, the youth, he confesses, are his primary
target. Apart from his people purchasing JAMB and BATC forms for indigent
students, his village is now connected to the national grid. A tall dream for a
community where N1000 is even considered a good capital to start a business
with! His dream, he said, is to “ensure that before the end of my tenure,
all the local governments areas in my Senatorial district hear, see and taste
dividend s of democracy.
A sponsor and
co-sponsor of many bills, he has singularly sponsored a bill on Farm Settlement
and Youth Empowerment in the Senate. Another is the Trust Fund Bill for the
Disabled, which if passed into law, seeks to assist the less privileged and
hopefully make the disabled feel comfortable and become useful members of the
society.
Level-headed and
down-to-earth, Tsauri says he considers the mandate given him by his people as
sacrosanct and “would strive through legislative and constitutional
means to see to the utilisation of Jibia and Zobe Dams, both of which are in my
constituency, for irrigation and increased water supply in the state. These
two dams, if well utilised will provide job opportunities for jobless youths in
the area”.
Tsauri may have
done well by his community standards, but his scorecard will be delivered by
his colleagues in the Senate. Next Wednesday will soon be here.
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