The Senate resumes this week after a six-week recess. In the eyes of the public, its pre- six-week session appears merely dominated by the usual dull phenomenon of “ayes have it”, or the flying allegations of corrupt practices.
But the minority leader of the Senate, Senator Usman Albishir, Yobe North, believes it’s wrong to see the Senate in this wise.
He tells Sunday Vanguard that within the constitutional function of the Senate and indeed the entire parliament, the activities of the upper legislative arm was commendable. “Yes, we have always had our time of dormancy and also the time of activity, like any other arm. It is not reasonable that we should generally be seen as rubber stamp of the executive.”
But he is quick to state that if the public sees the Senate as not positively vibrant, greater blame should go to the PDP dominated house leadership who he accuses of allowing party sentiments rather than merit of issues to colour their perspectives. “Yet while I would not white wash the opposition in the upper house, I must say that we are the ones that have always stood against unpopular policies, and we always do that not because we are in the opposition but because we see it as unwholesome and unhealthy to the interest and cause of the people”, says Albishir.
With the resumption of the upper arm, next Tuesday, two salient issues are likely to be lying in wait for the senators: the bill on reform of the NLC and that of the recent Central Bank of Nigerian CBN) pronouncement of the N25billion capital base on banks. In Albishir’s view, the two issues require “caution, understanding and altruism” on the path of legislators.
Speaking particularly on the Labour Bill which presentation to the floor of the Senate was tactfully skipped prior to the break, the Senate minority leader says, “We have no choice to be careful. We are talking about an organisation that has been very vibrant and in which the people appear to have so much confidence in. We shall have to rely heavily on public hearing to take a stand”.
On the issue of the 25billion capital base for banks about which the Banking Committee seems to have acquiesced during its last week meeting with CBN Governor, Charles Soludo, he says no much difference has been made, because the entire Senate would have to look into the issue. “I can assure you that a lot of people are not very happy with the raising of the capital base”, explains Albishir, adding, “the gap is outrageous and insensitive”.
The government he noted has allowed all its economic polices to be devoid of “human face” “How can you for God’s sake shoot the capital base from N2 billion to a whopping N25billion which is equivalent to about 200 million dollars”, he queries.
The multiple effect of this measure, he observes, is that a lot of banks may be forced to go under. “If you want merger, it is not achieved by instigation or an imposition, merger is usually a product of mutual economic understanding”, he points out, adding that the deadline of December 2005 was itself “inconsiderate”.
The Senate minority leader also fears a situation where a lot of Nigerians are going to be thrown out of job, particularly in the midst of serious economic crunch and saturated labour market. He would want the CBN to go back to the drawing board and find a very amicable way of bridging the gap between the N25billion and 2billion.
The Senator again speaks about the review of the constitution, which has been dragging for a long time now. He admits that the review has been slow but argues that the delay was more auspicious than otherwise. “Review of a constitution is not a tea party affair. It is always thorough.
The thinking of the people is that the 1999 Constitution has a lot of inadequacies and that’s true, so to come upon with an amendment needs time. We would have to involve the House of Representatives, the state Houses of Assembly, etc and that is no mean assignment”, Albashir emphasises.
Veering off to topical political issue of the North vs South agitation for power, the Yobe born Senator says he often gets disturbed when such an issue is belaboured.
“We talk about democracy, and democracy is about people- making their own choice through the ballot, and over a large unrestrictive mass of contestants. But to rule out certain section of the people as not entitled because power has been zoned somewhere else is deceitful and undemocratic”.
But if the political thinking in the country is that zoning should subsist, Albishir succumbs, “so be it”. In that case, he reasons, only the North and no other zone, in principle, has the chance to vie for the presidency in 2007.
He supports his facts this way: “You see, we all know that in 1999, when the three major political parties came on stream, the PDP, the ANPP and the AD, there was the general feeling that the long sufferings of the South, especially after the June 12 should be assuaged. Then the parties agreed in principle. While the PDP came up with Obasanjo, the APP/AD jointly picked Chief Olu Falae as presidential candidates.
“Well, when it came to the election, we were defeated. But the PDP had the actualisation of this power shift on Obasanjo for eight years- meaning that the term for the South has been concluded. From all I know the deal, if you like, was not on the six geo-political zones. It was on the block of North and South. So it is only logical that after this year, if the power shift thing still exists, the North should have it back”, he stresses.
Should the ANPP not shift power to the South? “Why, Why?” queries Albishir. Because it produced a candidate from the North (General Muhammadu Buhari rtd) in 2003 who failed.
“No, no” cries the Senate monitory leader, stating: “We are maintaining our presidential candidate, for now, because we have not tasted power at the federal level. I am not sure the essence of power shift is in just presenting a candidate; it goes beyond that“.
Would the ANPP Senator from Yobe comment on why political calculations seems to be concentrated by Nigerians on the PDP’s members like Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former President Ibrahim Babangida without any serious mention of the ANPP's Buhari or any other person?
“It is a pathetic case” laments the Senator, explaining: “To start with, we are not happy that attention is focusing on 2007 by now instead of on the need to sanitise the system which is fundamentally largely skewed against the opposition parties. We have been saying that 2003 elections were greatly marred by large scale rigging and irregularities, and this is still being contested in several tribunals in the country. Even though it appears that the judgement by the tribunal is not in our interest at least, this point should be addressed by Nigerians”, stressing that “by taking about 2007 by now, without addressing this problem, wholly only explains that we are prepared to fall into the same pitfall”. He is, however, confident that on a good day, ANPP is equal to the challenge and task.
Isn’t the weak nature of the opposition one of the factors that accounts for the sustenance of the electoral defects the senator bemoans? What does the ANPP do, as an opposition party, to pressure for certain changes, to impact upon any item of development? Its existence is not felt even through the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) where it claimed to be a member or founder. The party to say the least is divided and can be safely pronounced dead……. But Albishir would not tolerate this stream of outburst, “You are very unfair in pouring this chain of curses on the party”, he says, stressing, “I think they are curses which are baseless and unnecessary.
“In a democracy we have got limits in dealing for instance with the excesses and inadequacies of the ruling party –– all we are allowed falls within the purview of the constitution, or do you want us to sponsor a coup before you know we are active? We hate that with all the blood in our veins. We have gone to court to deal with electoral malpractices, you know... we criticise the government for all its obnoxious policies. As you can see, even in the legislature we are handicapped, because we can only have our say and not our way. You are saying we are not doing enough, I think we are doing well.
“But then, bringing the PDP led-administration to the track of sanity and moderacy isn’t the sole responsibility of the opposition. The press is involved, the civil society. Let’s all join hands together instead in guiding this government from sinking our ship in the ocean”, says Albishir.
Would he support the convocation of Sovereign National Conference? The Senate leader says the pursuit of this conference was born out of the urge to seek relevance. He is sad that while the National Assembly, “a true representative of the people”, is functional; a group could be talking about the SNC. But the related argument is that the assembly is non functional and merely a rubber stamp of the executive, and therefore has failed the nation in helping proffer solutions to some of the most fundamental issues that touch on the fabric of our unity and nationhood.
“If that’s is their argument, then its simple: let them wait for us at the poll with their votes as the only weapon to club us out of the chamber. Or else, all the talks about Sovereign National Conference would be reduced merely to something like school debate”, says Albishir.
