Tokunbo Adedoja Lagos and Sufuyan Ojeifo
2 September 2008
Abuja — The delays experienced by the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration in getting its budget passed by the National Assembly could worsen in the months ahead, THISDAY can report today.
There is a cold war between Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Dimeji Bankole - although neither party is ready to confirm nor deny the development which may effectively stall the passage of the amended 2008 budget.
The cold war, which has affected the relationship between the Senate and the House of Representatives, is affecting the regular joint leadership meeting between the two chambers.
THISDAY was informed yesterday by a very competent source that the last time the meeting was held was in March 2008, despite the crucial nature of the meeting to the passage of bills by the legislature.
Several reasons have been advanced for the frosty relationship, key among which was the alleged comment made by some Senators to House members that Bankole was scheming to "corner" certain funds meant for the House members' welfare.
Bankole reportedly demanded an apology from the Senators who were said to have made the allegation at the leadership meeting.
"The Speaker said at the meeting that if those Senators did not come up with an unreserved apology, he would not attend the meeting again. Since then, we have not seen him at the meeting," a Senator told THISDAY.
It was believed in Bankole's camp that the allegation was meant to create disaffection between the Speaker and House members because of the perceived "overzealousness" on the part of the House in its relationship with the President.
The House had seemed to take the shine off the Senate since the advent of this administration with a series of probes and its discovery of over N400 billion unspent funds by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government last year.
But some Senators believe the House has been playing to the gallery for "cheap publicity".
"They claim to be more active and more anti-corruption," a National Assembly source said of the lower chamber. "They are always the first to pass bills from the Executive. They claim to be working according to a vision. They also claim to be more intellectual and painstaking in passage of bills. The impression being created of the Senate in the process is not the best."
THISDAY was told last night by a Senate insider that the cold war was started by the members of the House of Representatives.
"Irrespective of whatever you might have been told, the cold war, to the best of my knowledge, started with the demand by the House members that their pay should be at par with Senators'," the source said. "They advanced this position while working on the 2008 budget last year. They said they are not inferior to Senators and should earn the same allowances and salaries and all the benefits due to Senators. Can you imagine that a Senator may have more than seven House members from his constituency? So why should they collect the same entitlements?"
However, a member of the House told THISDAY the impression of the Senate is in bad faith.
"The truth is that many of the Senators supported the third term project of the former president (Olusegun Obasanjo) and so are naturally loyal to him," he said. "So they are naturally against the probes. And they think they can get back at the president by delaying the budget."
A legislator, who spoke with THISDAY in confidence, stated that he was aware that Bankole had not been attending the joint leadership meetings of the National Assembly.
He pointed out that the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Usman Bayero Nafada, had been leading the delegation of the leadership of the House of Representatives to the meetings in recent times.
But another member of the National Assembly said he was aware that the issue (the non-attendance of the leadership meetings by Bankole) had been a subject of discussions among his colleagues.
They, however, could not confirm the point of departure between the Senate President and the Speaker.
However, sundry sources said the Speaker had been condescending in his official relationship with the Senate President, preferring to relate directly and singly with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.
The views are still rife that Mark's ascendancy to the position of the Senate President was made possible by Obasanjo.
There is no love lost between Obasanjo and Bankole's political family under the suzerainty of Speaker's father, Chief Alani Bankole, who is a member of the G-21, which is fighting to ensure that the position of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, currently occupied by Obasanjo is not monopolised/privatised by the former president.
This has created the impression in National Assembly circles that he (Bankole) is pro-Yar'Adua and therefore the House is more likely to be pro-Yar'Adua while the loyalty of the Senate President is said to lie elsewhere.
A legislator said yesterday night: "I do not subscribe to the suggestion that there is a cold war between the Senate President and the Speaker because of their loyalty to different power bases.
"It is also wrong to say that because Bankole is pro-Yar'Adua, the entire House of Representatives is pro-Yar'Adua. In fact, there are many people in the House of Representatives who are not supporting Yar'Adua on the basis of differences in political party platforms."
He added: "I also believe that it is wrong to say that the Senate President is anti-Yar'Adua and pro-Obasanjo because the business of the Senate does not revolve around an individual.
"The business of the Senate revolves and focuses on the nation and its interests. It is therefore not correct to say that the Senate and its leadership are anti-Yar'Adua. A majority of the members of the Senate are of the same party (PDP) with the President."
Attempts to reach some members of the body of principal officers of the National Assembly to confirm or deny the issue yesterday proved futile.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, could not be reached for comments on the issue.
But the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Anthony Manzo, who spoke with THISDAY on the issue, dismissed insinuations of a cold war between the leaderships of Mark and Bankole, saying "their relationship could not have been better".
Meanwhile, the amended budget may not be passed by October, THISDAY learnt. This will mean that MDAs may have to return unspent capital votes to the treasury in line with the administration's policy which it adopted last year.
"In a way, the Senate is holding the country, the economy, not the House or the President, to ransom," a House member said.
Fears are already being expressed that the 2009 budget may suffer a similar fate.
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