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Senate can still improve �Tafida
Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, told SAM AKPE that the National Assembly would implement the provisions of the 2004 Appropriation Act to the letters. Excerpts:
On a comparative note, what has been the performance of the present Senate in the last one year that could place it above the previous Senate in terms of number of bills and motions passed?
In the first session of the last Senate, by the end of the first year, if I remember correctly, we were able to pass only about six to seven bills, two of which were Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the main Appropriation Bill. Others were minor bills, which I cannot specifically remember. This time around, we have been able to pass some 27 bills, which include a Supplementary Appropriation Bill and of course the 2004 Appropriation Bill. And there were four or five private bills.
What reasons can you cite for this level of performance?
I think the main reason why we have been able to perform better this time around was because first, we had our retreat in time. In the last Senate we had the retreat in the second year or in the third year. And people never had the expertise to send bills and to get them passed. Secondly, the issue of the atmosphere is very important. You know we came in literally fighting ourselves during the immediate past Senate. The senators found themselves with a Senate President whom majority felt should not have been there. So, they fought to remove him. And when we finally got another Senate President, again those who lost out started fighting back. But this time, we came fully together. And the leadership was prepared even before we assumed office. We knew who was going to be the Senate President, we knew who was going to be the deputy and we knew who was going to be the leader. When we came in, it was not a matter of why should that man be the leader or why should that man be the Senate President. It was just a matter of settling down to work. Thirdly, there is also the matter of Executive-Legislative relationship. They say only a fool learns from his mistakes, a clever person learns from the past. We knew we made some mistakes initially during the last Senate. So, we tried to avoid those issues that will make us less successful. We knew that we fought the executive because we were told before we came in that we are an independent arm. Well, we are independent but we are not totally independent. And the executive also has learnt that it is not all together independent. It has to have the concurrent of the National Assembly to perform. So, there is this general understanding, which meant that right from the word go, we have been working together. I think these are some of the things that contributed to our success.
Why have we had more executive bills passed than private member bills in the last one year?
You know when you say bills not from the executive, you are referring to bills coming from a senator, from the people through a senator or bills coming from organisations, unions and so on, which have to be presented by a senator. The main reason why we are not having bills coming from senators is because people are not fully aware that they need to send in ideas that will ultimately be put into a law. They need to interact with their senators in this regard. But what most people expect from a senator is money or something like a project that the senator might be able to scoop and execute. But that is not all. A senator can be made effective when his people send in bills through him. For instance, I am a medical doctor, maybe the Nigerian doctors have something that bothers them, perhaps the system may have problems and they think they need to have some laws that may ease those problems, it is not a matter of sending it through the minister, it is not only the president that presents bills, they can come directly to me and I can sponsor the bill like I have done before.
Why has the National Assembly Joint Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution been so slow in bringing out a new draft constitution?
Well, last time around, I was a member of the 1999 Constitution Review Committee of the National Assembly. But this time because I am very busy, I opted not to be a member. But I think the main problem is finance. During the last senate, literally speaking, the work had been finished. We had even drafted the bill that would go through as a motion. We were on the verge of finishing but we were not able to finish because of certain technicalities. This time around, the new members of the Senate are more in number than the old ones. They want everything to repeat itself. But we have succeeded in convincing them that we don�t have to repeat everything. So, we have gone far and we believe soon when the resources are available, and I believe the resources should be made available, the job would be completed. We understand the executive has some money, which they were using for that purpose, they should give us. We did not put this in our budget because that may be frowned at.
What is your position on the Sovereign National Conference?
Why I am against it is because I am an elected person and I represent a people. How do you get the people to conduct the conference? Are you going by tribe? Are you going by constituency or are you going by just mere imagination? If you are going by constituency, there are people already elected to the National Assembly. If you are going by tribes, all the tribes are represented here. If you are going by selection, then let�s know. I know Nigerians are already beyond that because if you brush aside an elected person to bring in somebody selected, then it is another thing altogether. What do you do with the government that is already in power when you talk about Sovereign National Conference? You can have an agenda by way of a bill that will spell out what you want to achieve. This is why I am against it. It is not because it is senseless. It is just a proposition by people who believe they know it all.
Some of your colleagues have been accused of being truants. What are you doing about this?
As you know, a senator may be absent because of a job given to him or her by the Senate to do within or outside Nigeria. What is important is for us to have a quorum. Another thing is for you to write about some of these lousy senators if you are sure they are lousy.
Is this the Senate of your dream?
As a person, I cannot consider myself to be perfect. I think there is a lot of room for improvement. For instance, I want to see a senate where, if a senator is called to consider or discuss or deliver a speech on a certain issue, it will be a pleasure to listen to him because he has read, he knows so much about it and he has experience. I will want to see a senate where there is a continuous recycling of good senators. Senators that are living up to expectations, senators that know what they are doing, senators that are responsive to the yearning of the people. I will want to see the recycling of those senators so that whenever you hear the name senator you shiver because you know that is somebody very important. At the moment, we do not have that. But we are aiming at that. Maybe after about twenty years, the senate of my dream will be available. I may not be there. But I believe it is then that we will have a senate of the dream of many Nigerians.
When is the Minister of Finance coming to render account on the performance of the budget to the National Assembly as stated in the 2004 Appropriation Act and what are your plans for the excess oil revenue?
We intend to invite her soon because it is a law and we said it is going to be done quarterly. We want to abide by the law. On what to do with the excess revenue from oil, the whole idea of even having this account or record for the excess revenue is because we believe sharing the money among states and local government and also the federal is not good. We believe that there are certain things that can be done specifically to show that in a particular year that we had excess crude revenue, we were able to do this. Secondly, even this issue of crude, you know we just have some problems with labour and they went on strike. The reason given was that nobody would be able to afford petroleum products at the rate they are being sold. That being the case, it means government has to subsidise. And you can look at that with the excess money we are making. I believe that can be done. We will expect the president to bring in proposals and we will also think of other proposals on what should be done with the excess crude revenue that has come to us.
After all these years in politics, can you still give an injection to a patient?
I can because to be trained as a doctor, it is not only your hand that is being trained. Your brain is being trained also to do certain things. Your behaviour, your morality are all part of the training programme that makes you a doctor. And once you are qualified as a genuine doctor, there are certain things that you may forget but it will require just a short period for you to remember.
The PUNCH, Thursday, July 1, 2004.
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The President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
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STOCK MARKET
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As at Wed, June 30, 2004
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8,250
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