Senator Gbemisola Saraki-Fowora, representing Kwara Central Senatorial District in Nigeria’s Upper Legislative Chamber, is not a greenhorn in the politics of the National Assembly. She has cognate experience as far as the legislature and its businesses are concerned, having spent four years (1999 to 2003) in the House of Representatives. To that extent, she is qualified to aspire to and hold any office in the Senate, which was why she expressed interest in the position of Deputy Senate President ahead of the June 3, 2003 inauguration of the Senate. She had to sink her ambition in deference to the position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership at the national and the North Central zonal level, which decided that Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu should be allowed to continue in office. That arrangement had also resulted in the decision by Senator Isa Mohammed from Niger State to withdraw from the race.
But Saraki-Fowora’s grandiloquent and strategic positioning for the office of Deputy Senate President on the platform of gender parity and her membership as well as achievements in the Lower House were bound to sway significant support for her if she had been allowed to go the whole hog in the quest for it. Today, she is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption.
She belongs to the female tripod in the Senate that is typified by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development, Senator Daisy Danjuma (Edo South), Chairman of the Senate Committee on States and Local Government Administration, Senator Iyabo Anisulowo (Ogun West) and herself (Saraki-Fowora) on whom the vast female folk depend and look up to for representation and examples. Indeed, she has been making her moves, since moving up to the prestigious Upper House at the age of 38, pushing herself hard to leave behind some legacies for future generations of lawmakers and Nigerians to see. This is manifesting in the number of bills that she is trying to push through.
She has adopted both collaborative and solo approaches to legislative business, particularly in the area of formulation, presentation and consideration of bills. Like a surgeon in a hurry to save a dying patient, she has packaged about five bills that are germane to the anti-corruption campaign of the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the observance of the Federal Character principle and transparency in the public service. Consider the Bill for an Act to protect persons making disclosures for the public interest and others from reprisals, which she jointly packaged with nine other Senators, among them Mamman Bello Ali (Yobe South), Dalha Danzomo (Jigawa North-West). It appears in its entire ramification to bolster and complement the Freedom of Information Bill that is currently receiving attention in the House of Representatives. The bill, which when passed, may be cited as the Public Interest Disclosure Act, 2004, seeks to encourage and facilitate the disclosures of improper conduct by public officers and public bodies, protect persons making those disclosures and others from reprisals, and provide for the matters disclosed to be properly investigated and dealt with and for other purposes related therewith. Part 111 of the bill on Protection of the Whistleblowers applies only to a protected disclosure, which is made in accordance with Part 11 of the bill.
This spells out who can make a disclosure about improper conduct, to whom the disclosure can be made, whether a person can make anonymous disclosure, whether it is necessary to know who has engaged in the conduct about which the disclosure is made; and, whether a disclosure can be about past conduct. For instance, Section 10 (1) of Part 111 on immunity from liability says, “A person who makes a protected disclosure is not subject to any civil or criminal liability or any liability arising by way of administrative process (including disciplinary action) for making the protected disclosure””.
“Any provision in an agreement to which this part applies is void so far as it purports to preclude the worker from making a protected disclosure…… Without limiting Section 10, in proceedings for defamation, there is a defence of absolute privilege in respect of the making of a protected disclosure... Despite anything to the contrary in this Part, a person’s liability for his or her own conduct are not affected by the person’s disclosure of that conduct under this Act… A disclosure of information is not a protected disclosure if the person making the disclosure commits an offence by making it… person who takes detrimental action against a person in reprisal for a protected disclosure commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Three Hundred Thousand Naira (N300, 000) or to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years or to both… A person takes detrimental action in reprisal for a protected disclosure if: the person takes or threatens to take the action because a person has made, or intends to make a protected disclosure; or, the person believes that a person has made or intends to make the protected disclosure; or the person incites or permits another person to take or threaten to take the action for either of those reasons””. These are some of the provisions of the bill, which Saraki-Fowora is leading others to push through in the Senate. Details of the bill will be unfolded as work begins full-blown on it in the house.
Closely related to this is another Bill for an Act Requiring Publication of Existing Vacant Positions in Government Offices to ensure Transparency and Equal Opportunities in the Recruitment of New personnel. But this has got to do with promotion of transparency, another singsong of the Obasanjo administration. The same group of senators is also jointly pushing the Bill with Saraki-Fowora leading the pack. Significantly, the Bill makes provision for “requiring regular publication of existing vacant positions in Government offices to ensure transparency and equal opportunities in the recruitment of new personnel and for matters connected therewith”.
When passed into an Act, it shall be the policy of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to “promote efficiency in the allocation of personnel in the Civil Service, as well as transparency and equal opportunities in the recruitment and hiring of new personnel”. The Bill also provides: “It shall be the duty of all, heads of ministries, parastatals, corporations, government departments, institutions, commissions, agencies, or nay government establishment of any government whether Federal, State or Local Government to: post in three conspicuous places of their offices for a period of one month a complete list of all existing vacant positions in their respective offices which are billed to be filled; and, to transmit a copy of such list and the corresponding qualification standards to the Civil Service Commission not later than the tenth day of every month.
The Chairman and members of the Civil Service Commission shall once every quarter compile and publish a complete list of all the existing vacant positions in the government throughout the country including the qualification standards required for each position.”
The bill further provides: “Copies of such publication shall be published in at least three National Dailies with wide coverage; copies of such publication shall be pasted in the various personnel offices of the government establishments where they shall be available for inspection by the public; provided also that the Commission shall cause the said publication to be posted in at least three public and conspicuous places in all States and Local Government areas of the Federation; No vacant position shall be filled unless the same has been reported to and published by the Commission”. And, of course, there are punishments for breach of these procedures: ““the Public Complaints Commission, according to the bill, shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction to investigate and recommend for prosecution all cases of violations of this Act””.
There are three other bills that are solely being pushed by the Senator. They are: A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigerian Tourism Development Act No. 81 of 1992; A Bill for an Act to Amend the Legal Aid Act Cap 205 Laws of the Federation 1990 to Expand its Membership and to Increase the Poverty Income Level of Beneficiaries of the Legal Aid Scheme and to Provide for other matters Relating Thereto; and, A Bill for an Act to make it Mandatory for Motorcycle Riders and passengers to Wear Protective Helmets, and for Matters Connected Therewith. The first of the solo bills is aimed at bolstering the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) in its regulatory functions and make it more effective.
By the proposed amendments, a new Section 2 (1) is being introduced, which provides that the Corporation shall now consist of a Chairman, a representative each of the Nigerian Hotel Association, the National Association of Travel Agency and the Tourism Practitioners Association of Nigeria. Other bodies to be represented on the Corporation are Foreign Affairs, Culture and Tourism, Information and National Orientation Ministries, the Immigration Service, Custom and Excise, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, the Director General of the NTDC and two persons with cognate requisite experience in matters of tourism to represent public interest.
Another significant amendment in the works is that the Corporation will appoint Inspector empowered to carry out such objectives of the Act as: entering, inspecting and examining by day or by night any premises being used as a hotel or allied hospitality establishment; by notice requiring the proprietor of such hotel or allied hospitality establishment to furnish in such form as he may direct any information on such matters as may be specified by him in the notice. Other functions include: to make such examination and inquiry as may be necessary to ascertain whether or not the provisions of this Decree or nay regulations made there under are being complied with; and to take with him a police officer if he has reasonable cause to apprehend any serious obstruction in the execution of his duty.
The bill empowers the inspection officer to serve improvement notice on any hotel or allied hospitality establishment if it is not up to prescribed standard to rectify any defect within such a period as he shall specify, adding that he shall serve a prohibition notice and rendering inoperative the hotel if it fails to comply within the stipulated time until such a time as the prescribed standards are met.
However, the bill gives opportunity to any person aggrieved by a notice so issued by an Inspection Officer to, within thirty days from the date of issue of the notice, appeal to the Corporation, who “may after considering the appeal, by order in writing confirm, revoke or vary the notice”. Also significant is the establishment and maintenance of a fund by the Corporation, which shall be applied towards the discharge of its functions under the Act.
For the bill for an Act to amend the Legal Aid Act Cap 205 Laws of the Federation 1990 to expand its membership and to increase the poverty income level of beneficiaries of the Legal Aid Scheme. One of the amendments is that henceforth service in the Commission shall be approved service for the purpose of the Pension Act. According to the bill, “The officers and other persons employed in the Commission shall be entitled to pension, gratuities and other retirement benefits as are enjoyed by persons holding equivalent grades as appropriate. Nothing in subsections 1 and 2 of this section shall prevent the appointment of a person to any office on terms, which preclude the grant of pension and gratuity in respect of that office. For the purpose of the application of the Pensions Act, any power exercisable there under by the Minister or other authority of the government of the Federation, other than the power to make regulations under Section 23 thereof, is hereby vested in and shall be exercisable by the Council (National Council of State), and not any other person or authority””.
And for love of the masses, particularly the motorcycle riders many of whom have died with their passengers in road crashes, a law making the wearing of protective helmets mandatory for motorcycle riders and passengers is underway in the Senate, courtesy of the Senator. Contravention of the provisions of Section 5 of the bill makes the offender liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N500,000:00 or an imprisonment term of not more than one year or both. The Section states: “It shall be unlawful to sell, offer for sale or distribute any protective helmets for use by the operators of motorcycles unless they are consistent with the specifications made by the Government agency charged with maintaining standards.” It also makes it unlawful for a person to “ride a motorcycle on a public road without wearing a protective helmet, which is specially designed for use in connection with the motorcycle and which fits him or her properly and of which the chinstrap is properly fastened under the chin”.
According to the bill, “the rider of every motorcycle shall ensure that every passenger on such motorcycle complies with the provisions of Section 4”. Section 4 states: “It shall be unlawful for a person to be a passenger on a motorcycle on a public road, unless he or she is wearing a protective helmet, which fits him or her properly and of which the chinstrap is properly fastened under the chin”.
The bill prescribes fine and/or imprisonment term for offenders. For instance, Section 6 (1a) and (1b) says “ A person who contravenes the provisions of Section 2, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N2,000:00 or to imprisonment for a term not more than three months or to both. “A person who contravenes the provisions of Section 4, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N1, 000: 00 or to imprisonment for a term not more than one month or to both”. The bill, when passed into law, will empower the Federal Road Safety Commission to make regulations relating to protective helmets, subject to the approval of the President.
Looking at all the bills, it can never, ever be contradictory to observe and conclude that with the way, speed and focus that Senator Gemisola Saraki-Fowora is going about her legislative business, she certainly is aiming for a political bull’s eye. But time and chance will tell whether she has been foresighted enough, whether she had acted correctly, politically in her moves and calculations; and whether she has been sharply focused as to the direction of her future politics for which she is working very hard to lay a foundation of achievements for judgement.
