The moment his mobile phone rang on the Senate floor last Wednesday and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai nervously pleaded: ‘‘I am sorry, I apologise sir,’’ evoking laughter from Senators and members of the public may well have defined the reversal in roles between the Senate and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. It was not really as much as the musical ringing of the phone that provoked the laughter, but the rather supplicating and jerky earnestness to apologise for the error of having his phone on in the Senate chambers. Criticized now and again for its helplessness in checking the administration, the Senate, it seemed, was about asserting itself and that against one of the administration’s sharpest vocal shooters. Senators reflecting on the crisis, have claimed the latest el-Rufai affair as another testimonial to the Senate’s independence of the executive arm of government.
Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), breaking off from an interview session ahead of his investiture as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) today, was adamant that the Wabara Senate as presently directed, could not be said to be a rubber stamp of the executive. While expressing his pains at the continued use of such phrases as legislative rubber stamp by the press, Senator Ndoma-Egba recalled the Senate’s stance on the insertion of oversight clauses into the 2004 appropriation bill, the Senate report on the loans to Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe, the Senate rejection of most of the fundamental amendments in the trade union amendment bill and lately, the el-Rufai crisis to assert his case that the Wabara Senate was indeed not a rubber stamp. He was almost convincing.
No matter the arguments of the respected senior advocate, his advocacy came under question the day after Mallam el-Rufai appeared at the Senate. Deliberating on the Committee report of the amendment bill to the trade union act, Senate President, Adolphus Wabara and Senate leader, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida acted a duet that all but rubbished the gains of the el-Rufai crisis. With not more than 34 Senators out of 109 Senators present on Thursday, the resolute determination by the twosome of Wabara and Tafida to pass the bill despite the clear lack of a quorum, the deliberate refusal to recognize opponents of the bill and the shrill encounter between the Senate President and Senator Uche Chukwumerije, a one-time comrade, easily gave away any pretence to independence on the issue. Their frantic efforts were further questioned by the absence of the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour at the final deliberation of the bill.
The two leading Committee members and most of the Committee members were away to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for a regional meeting of African leaders which also involved President Olusegun Obasanjo. The passage of the amendment bill was immediately trailed by controversy as some senators criticized the deliberation of such an important bill without the needed quorum of members present to concur. Senator Wabara, who presided at the session dismissed objections raised by Senator Uche Chukwumerije (PDP, Abia North) warning him that ‘‘enough is enough" during one of the flash points that shadowed the passage of the bill. In the first place, it seemed as if Senator Wabara for obvious reasons, did not want Chukwumerije to comment on the bill as the latter’s requests to speak were for most of the period, ignored.
When the bill was passed and Chukwumerije finally had an opportunity to comment, he noted that “this is one of the fastest passed bills in history and I hope that history will justify us.” That comment immediately drew the ire of the Senate President who charged at the former labour leader, warning him that 'enough is enough.' High points of the bill passed are the removal of the Nigerian Labour Congress as the country’s central labour organization, voluntary membership of unions, an obligation on employers to only remit union dues from workers who expressly permit so in writing. Besides, the Senate following the submission of Senator Daniel Saror, added a sanction of N10,000 or six months imprisonment for violations of the act. The implication of the sanction was being interpreted that labour activists who disregard some of the restrictive labour clauses in the new proposal, could find themselves going to jail.
The Senate, however, adopted the Committee’s recommendation striking down the administration’s insertion of a no strike clause in the bill. Responding to the passage of the bill, one senator told Vanguard that the rushed passage of the bill amounted to deceit saying that majority of the senators were taken unawares by the leadership’s determination in passing through the bill in the absence of a quorum. “This action is bound to generate ripples and it would be untoward for all those in the leadership who masterminded this coup against senators.” "It is even more annoying that the chairman, the vice-chairman and members of the Committee were not available to comment on the report that was passed through,” the senator who was away on official assignment said.
Another senator in the chamber told Vanguard that efforts to alert the Senate President of the absence of a quorum was bluffed by Senator Wabara, whom he charged with unnecessarily trying to please the PDP leadership on the issue. The surprising collaboration of the ANPP leadership in giving concurrence to the bill inevitably raised questions as to the reliability of the ANPP giving strong opposition or acting as a check on the PDP administration. During the debate on the bill, some ANPP senators were indeed gloating against the Nigeria Labour Congress, rejoicing that the NLC or its leader, Adams Oshiomhole, collaborated to give legitimacy to the 2003 elections won by the PDP. 'Serves them right,' the ANPP leader, Senator Usman Al-Bashir inferred during the debate.
By so cavalierly discarding the opinions of their colleagues on the labour bill, the Senate leadership inevitably questioned its own capacity to manage the camaraderie spirit arising from the misfortunes of the FCT minister. Senator Wabara barking at Senator Chukwumerije, “enough is enough,” for the latter’s insistence on airing his own objections to the labour amendment bill, would in no way sustain the gains of the past days. As one senator told Vanguard, the leadership’s insistence on abrasively having its way on the labour bill could one day be ominous. With Senator Kassim Isa Oyofo, the former Senate chief whip yet to pick a seat after his recent removal due in part to alleged arrogance, it is indeed surprising that the Senate President and the Senate leader could so shortly after that episode, roughshod over their colleagues on such sensitive issue as the labour bill. One Senate correspondent reviewing the development at the weekend, sent out some caution to the Senate President that there were many more senators who were willing to do Obasanjo’s bidding, but doing so in more tactful ways than brashly riding over their colleagues. Postscript on the el-Rufai affair: Mallam el-Rufai had accused the Senate of habouring bribe takers, nesting an ‘‘axis of evil’’ and dereliction of duty amongst other charges.
The senators kept quiet to those charges until he called them fools and then the distinguished men and women of the Senate united in unison to fight back. The Senate's response to the minister’s ‘‘silence is the best answer to a fool,’’ has clearly demonstrated the capacity of the Senate when stirred, to exert its influence on the polity. After all, how many expected President Olusegun Obasanjo to so soon tender the rare words of apology within three hours of the initial Senate resolution seeking the immediate dismissal of the minister? The rather quick response of the President to the first resolution seeking the dismissal of the minister was indeed surprising to several. “Everything should be done to maintain the very cordial and amicable relationship now existing between the Executive and the Legislature. Therefore, if any offence has been caused, I apologise on behalf of the minister,” President Obasanjo declared before souring the letter with a caution to the lawmakers to stop all acts of blackmail against his ministers. If the President could be coaxed into offering an unusual apology, then the Senate could in reality, nudge the President into the path it could so desire.
Regrettably for those bureaucrats in the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory and land merchants in Abuja who had been prayerfully wishing that the Senate stand on its resolution seeking the sack of the minister, the fourteen minutes appearance of last Wednesday may well have drawn a curtain to the whole crisis. Senator Ike Ekweremadu, chairman of the Senate ad-hoc Committee on the el-Rufai crisis, even while insistent on the irrevocability of the resolution, however, found it difficult explaining the Senate’s abandonment of executive bills when the Senate last Wednesday and Thursday considered executive communications. “We listened to him and on behalf of the Senate, I want to say that we have heard him, we have not considered his apology, because it is prejudicial to the decision of the President,” Senator Ekweremadu told newsmen at the end of the minister’s appearance.
He spoke in reference to President Obasanjo’s second letter pleading for time to consider the weight of the Senate resolution and the implications of the alleged misdemanours of the minister. “We are waiting for the President’s response and any deliberation on the apology of the honourable minister will be prejudicial to that expectation. So, we will wait for the President’s response and then we will consider the President’s response together with the apology of the honourable minister,” Senator Ekweremadu who has distinguished himself with his articulate presentation of the Senate position since the beginning of the crisis, declared that Wednesday. For all the attack directed against him for his inappropriate use of language against the lawmakers, it was as Senator Wabara noted, an act of courage for the minister to come before the Senate and tender his apology. Indeed, until the eve of the apology before the Senate, emotions against the minister, Vanguard learnt, was as yet running high among a considerable proportion of senators.
When the issue was raised at the executive session of last Tuesday, a considerable number of senators were said to have argued for the Senate to press ahead with its resolution seeking the sack of the minister. This feeling was especially so among Northern senators who felt that the minister’s attitude was a crass disrespect for northern tradition of respect for elders. It is indeed telling that some of the minister’s closest friends in the Senate are indeed Southerners, chief among whom are the cerebral Senators Ima Iwuagwu and Udoma Udo Udoma, the new chief whip of the Senate. In the end, it was common reason adduced at the closed door session of last Tuesday that saved the minister.
Senators, especially some from the South feared that the continued issue of el-Rufai was wasting the time of the Senate and denying it the opportunity to face the issues of governance and law-making. Some of them especially felt that after extracting the apology from the President, the party, and the man himself, that there was nothing else they could do and thus pleaded that the Senate should not overstretch its own capacity. “Yes the man has apologized, after the apology of the President and that of the party, there is nothing else we can do, especially as we do not have the power to hire and fire,” one Senator told me of the feeling that swayed the Senate last Tuesday. The minister’s apology and the deliberate effort of the Senate President during the drilling session, at making the minister publicly declare not to have given any money to the senators, may have been done to show the incorruptibility of the Wabara Senate.
