Sufuyan Ojeifo
27 September 2008
analysis
Sufuyan Ojeifo writes on the politicking in the Senate over the planned reshuffle of standing committee membership by the Senate leadership under Senator David Mark
Last week, the Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin hinted, for the umpteenth time, that the leadership of the Senate would reconstitute the standing committees of the upper chamber. He first dropped the hint a day or two after the Court of Appeal sitting in Jos validated the election of the Senate President, Senator David Mark as senator representing Benue South Senatorial District
Folarin's announcement was then interpreted as a deliberate political gambit aimed at putting the pressure on senators who were opposed to the leadership of Mark and who were involved in secret meetings where they fine-tuned succession strategies and plans in the event of Mark losing at the appellate court. In between then and now, the reconstitution of the committees has provoked frenzy in the Upper Chamber.
This is understandably expected. The chairmanship of standing committees and even ad-hoc committees in the Senate is 'juicy' and rewarding. This is why committee composition has been a delicate issue that requires balancing of the various political interests that shape the character and define the temperament of the Senate.
For failing to ensure that all the disparate elements in the Senate were accommodated in the juicy and strategic committees, former Senate President, the late Chuba Okadigbo cultivates a number of enemies for himself. It was one of the banana peels on which he stepped. The political sin, in the estimation of his colleagues, had conspired with other mistakes to produce the right tension that brought about his ouster.
His successor in office, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim was wiser. He did not embark on a wholesale reconstitution of the committees. The process was insidious. A few political opponents were dealt with on installments; and, by so doing, Anyim succeeded in breaking the ranks of and isolating members of the opposition. He carried a majority of his colleagues along in the matters of Senate funds, thus containing what would have been the opposition elements' gambits.
When in the fifth session, Senator Adolphus Wabara resigned his position as Senate President on April 5, 2005, in the peak of the N55-million-bribe-for-budget scandal and Senator Kene Nnamani stepped in the saddle, he (Nnamani) did not dismantle the committees he inherited from Wabara's leadership; rather, he took steps to strengthen them by occasionally carrying out one or two movements of committee chairmen.
The incumbent Senate President, Mark, has been in the Senate since 1999 and he knows how the committee structure works. While announcing the constitution of the 54 standing committees of the Senate in July last year, he had said that there would be periodic review of the performance of the committees with a view to taking steps to reinforce them for effective, efficient and optimal performance.
After about two months since the Senate Leader, Senator Folarin, first provoked anxiety in the Senate over the impending reshuffle of committees, the coast now appears clear for the implementation of the action plan. Already, the Senate leadership last week asked members to raise memoranda to the Selection Committee on what they consider to be lapses in the constitution and operations of the various committees in which they have served in the last fourteen months.
The Selection Committee, under the chairmanship of the Senate President, is the only committee that will not be touched. The Committee comprises principal officers of majority and minority (opposition) parties. Last Tuesday, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary in the absence of Mark, said under announcement about the end of the session, that members should send their observations and comments on the committees to the Selection Committee.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze said during his weekly media briefing at the end of plenary that the directive was a prelude to the refocusing of the standing committees by the Senate Leadership for better performance in the second year of the Upper House. Hear him: "I want to confirm to you that there is a decision on the part of the leadership to refocus the Committees."
He said further: "The question that was put by the presiding officer was that those who felt that they weren't comfortable with the Committees where they serve and needed to opt out or to go to other Committees were free to do so. Those who are supposed to be in three Committees but are in two have also drawn the attention of the selection Committees to it. Yes, there is a decision by the selection Committee to take another look at the Committees with a view to positioning them to work more effectively."
He however, explained that this might not necessarily result in wholesale dissolution of the standing committees, as according to him, "It doesn't mean that they are going to dissolve the Committees; but, it is just like reorganisation and moving few people around to areas of interest or areas of observed competence." Eze explained that the standing committees had been slated to submit their sessional reports, pointing out that these reports would serve as input and guide to the selection Committee in taking appropriate decisions in respect to movement of individual members.
THISDAY gathered that senators have directly and indirectly intensified lobby of the Selection Committee to either retain their chairmanship or move on to other strategic beats. Loyalists of the Mark leadership are exuding confidence that there is no way they would be shortchanged in whatever political calculations that would define the new committee structure.
Although, it was learnt that complaints that many chairmen of the committees are behaving like executive chairmen, acting most times without consulting with their members, have inundated the office of the Senate President, there were no indications last week that the committee reshuffle would be sweeping. Pieces of information strung together point in the direction of minimal or minor changes that would not upset the applecart of a granite stable leadership for Mark.
Nevertheless, according to feelers, there may be some changes in the leadership of the Appropriation Committee. Many senators have been complaining about the continued retention of Senator Iyiola Omisore as Chairman of the Committee. Before the Senate proceeded on its two-month recess on July 9, this year, the alleged suitability of Omisore had been raised in the Senate closed sessions of that day and the previous day (July 8).
THISDAY gathered that Senator Uche Chukwumerije led the onslaught against Omisore. The complaint was that the committee was incompetently run and that had manifested in the shoddy handling of the budget, which is still going through a rigmarole of forward and backward movements between the Executive and the National Assembly.
The amended N2.64 trillion-budget was as at last week in the domain of the National Assembly where the Conference Committee of both chambers was taking it through the harmonisation mills in order to reconcile and harmonise some details of the budget along the lines of reasons and priorities. Omisore was at the head of the Senate Conference Committee.
As a result of the huge controversy over the 2008 budget, his counterpart in the House with whom he started the processing of the 2008 budget, Hon. Festus Adegoke, had since been removed by the leadership of the House under Hon. Dimeji Bankole. There were suggestions of alleged incompetence. Adegoke had in a riposte claimed that he was removed as House Appropriation Committee Chairman because of his loyalty to the former Speaker, Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh.
Although, Mark was said to have saved Omisore at the closed session where he (Omisore) was made to apologise to his colleagues for the shoddiness in the processing of the budget, it was learnt last week that the protection of Omisore against removal at the point in time was a temporary reprieve. A senator said he did not believe that the leadership would allow a repeat of the drudgery which the processing of the 2008 budget represented in the main.
It was learnt that the Senate Leadership might have searched for a better substitute from the Southwest zone. The likely removal of Omisore and the injection of a new chairman ahead of the presentation of the 2009 budget to the National Assembly for expeditious consideration would signpost the readiness by the Senate to do things differently this time round.
There are feelers that the leadership of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream Sector) under Senator Lee Ledogo Maeba may be changed. Members of the Committee, as learnt, had complained to the Senate leadership that Maeba was wont to act unilaterally in the running of the committee. But Maeba, as learnt, is digging in his feet and deploying his cordial relationship with the Senate President to confidently keep hope alive.
The Chairmanship of the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee currently in the kitty of Senator Omar Hambagda (ANPP, Borno State) may, as learnt, move to another opposition senator. If Hambagda loses his seat, it might not be unconnected with his alleged compromise in the handling of the investigation of the allegations that Mark awarded N400 million contract for the renovation of his official Apo Mansion; that he unilaterally smuggled N2.5 billion into the 2007 supplementary budget for the procurement of furniture for the offices in the new senate building and that N500 million was paid for the live telecast and broadcast of ministerial screening.
The allegations were believed to have been instigated and sponsored by Senator George Akume. Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu had pointed finger of guilt at Akume on the floor when the matter was brought up before it was referred to the Ethics Committee. However, the Hambagda Committee, after some dissension by Maeba and co, had presented a report that did not tally with the expectation of the Senate leadership. The expectation was that the committee should recommend Akume for suspension, but the report had given both Mark and Akume clean bills of health.
But the Mark leadership, as believed, is still holding it against Hambagda. Recently in the floor when the Chairman of the Committee on Communication, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu presented a report on the epileptic GSM operations in the country and the report appeared shy, there was indecision among members prompting Mark to have jocularly remarked that the report was like the Hambagda committee report. There was laughter by members.
THISDAY gathered that virtually all the committees are at the receiving ends of one complaint or the other; but, the senate leadership is said to be exercising caution and is disposed to tread softly lest it commits an irredeemable political sin. A senator from the Southeast and another one from the Northeast who are loyalists of Mark said they would take it upon themselves to impress it on him not to effect a wholesale reshuffle of the committees.
However, as Mark's power base continues to admit more loyalists, the pressure is on him to give them strategic accommodation in the scheme of things. It was learnt that the number of standing committees might be increased by three or four and the positions of chairman of the committees would be given to some new members who have fully aligned with his leadership.
It was gathered that a standing Committee on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is in the works while one or two existing committees which are supposedly overloaded might be split into two in a bid to devolve oversight functions. Many loyal senators, as gathered, are doing one or two things- like constantly touching base with Mark in his office and home as a proof or mark of loyalty. The pressure is at the end of the day on Mark, who will have to demonstrate that he is a good "marksman".
In fact, the process will prove tricky and delicate. The end will certainly justify the means, nay the strategy, by which Mark's Selection Committee accomplishes the reorganisation of the committees. Will the exercise conduce to more cohesion in the Senate or fracture the seemingly fragile peace? Time will tell.
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