The seventh Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Tuesday in Kano began its four-day retreat.

After a previous retreat in Port Harcourt in 2007, a lot has been expected from the Kano retreat. The theme of the retreat is "The Legislature and Sustainable Development in Nigeria".

It was declared open by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who was represented by vice president Goodluck Jonathan. The retreat, expectedly focused on the global financial meltdown.

The Senators, in the Port Harcourt retreat, which ended on November 2, 2007, resolved to adopt the principle of progressive constitutional development, borrowing a leaf from other countries like India and America, starting with the less contentious issues. The theme of the Port Harcourt retreat was 'Enhancing the Capacity of Legislators to Promote Good Governance, Order and Peace in Nigeria'. It was after the Port Harcourt retreat that the senators agreed to rotate the yearly retreat, and the 2008 retreat was zoned to Kano.

Although political analysts and social activists have condemned the senators, accusing them of not taking into cognisance their resolve at the 2007 retreat, they rather look unperturbed, as displayed by the calibre of speakers who delivered lectures at the Kano retreat.

Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, managing director and chief executive of Oceanic Bank Plc, presented a paper on the global financial crises and its impact on the Nigerian economy. Prof. E. U. Essiet of Bayero University, Kano, presented another paper on "Desertification, Climate Change and the Challenge of Poverty," while Prof. Ango Abdullahi, former special adviser on food security to former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, delivered a lecture on "Ensuring Food Security in Nigeria: Boosting the Capacity for Irrigated Farming".

Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim, in the paper entitled: "Constitutional Power of the Legislature and Executive, Legislative Inter-Relationship," said the most dangerous threat to the nation's fledgling democracy was the dichotomy between the legislative and the executive arms of government.

"This mutual suspicion presents itself from various dimensions," Anyim said. He underscored the necessity to reach an understanding towards resolution of the dichotomy in a planned and deliberate bid to bolster good governance.

He said the dichotomy came in different dimensions and presented a major challenge to him when he was in the saddle as senate president from 2000 to 2003.

Anyim said: "One of such dimensions is the dichotomy between state legislatures and their state chief executives and on the other hand, between the National Assembly and the president or the state Assemblies and their governors. I must confess that during my tenure as president of the Senate, this was a major challenge, which constituted a danger to societal development."

He said the practice of the rule of law is the substance of democracy and unless "we achieve this, whatever power anybody or institution may have under the Constitution may not be better than a promise on a toilet paper".

President Musa Yar'Adua admonished the lawmaking body to push through electoral reforms that will shorten the time between the conduct of elections and the resolution of petitions that arise from them.

The Vice-president Goodluck Jonathan on his behalf, said the federal lawmakers should initiate reforms to find constitutional answers to the problems that beset the polity in the area of infrastructural development.

"This Senate Retreat is therefore timely, especially bearing in mind the need to urgently reform our electoral system as the foundation of democracy and good governance. I am not aware of any other country where litigations arising from elections drag on for years after presumed winners have been sworn in. The distractions that these cause for smooth governance and delivery of the dividend of democracy are better imagined. While the electoral law puts a firm seal on the period within which electoral petitions must be filed. The same law does not put a similar seal on when such cases must be concluded. It is reasonable to expect that such litigations should be concluded before elected officials are inaugurated. I therefore invite this distinguished Senate to take a critical look at the relevant laws to amend them accordingly."

He added: "I also observe that the theme of this retreat is germane. It implies a fundamental synergy between the legislative and the executive arms of government, on one hand, and the Nigerian people, society and economy on the other. As elected representatives of the Nigerian people, our distinguished senators have a primary responsibility to evolve ingenious constitutional solutions to our most intractable national problems, such as incipient infrastructural decay, institutional corruption and the ominous culture of impunity, reforming the electoral system and to continually educate the Nigerian people, particularly the younger generation, about the efficacy of the democratic option, as well as the cardinal principles of constitutional rule, such as the separation of powers and the rule of law.

Worried over the perennial disagreement that has often greeted the business of budget preparation and execution, Yar'Adua advocated a means of resolving the conflicts between the legislature and the executive through consultation rather than a resort to open confrontation.

He said "There was a fundamental need for the executive and the legislature to jointly whittle down areas of disagreement between them to avoid waste of time to smoothen the budget implementation process in particular and good governance in general."

He said the two arms can, through consultations, be able to resolve areas of tension and stress in matters such as budgeting, so that proposals from the executive that do not meet the approval of the legislature may not be unilaterally expunged without consultation with the executive.

Senate President David Mark said the lawmakers were brought to Kano to expose them "to the deforested and desert parts of the North; the need to maximise irrigation, the weather and ecological problems and the various challenges that abound and beg for appropriate legislative and budgetary attention."

He added: "We have identified resource persons that are well at home with the issues to be canvassed and I have no doubt in my mind that the discussions will be thorough. We expect our discussants to be frank, open and practical. We accept and look forward to constructive criticisms.

"As usual, this retreat is preceding the presentation of and deliberation on the 2009 budget. Coming at a time when the economic crisis and the probable spillover effect on the world economy is likely to affect the templates, benchmarks and other assumptions that guide the formulation of a realistic budget, this retreat couldn't have been programmed at a better time than now."

Mark said senators would also visit selected areas of interest in Sokoto, Jigawa and Kaduna states to get exposed to existing realities of desert and semi-desert life patterns.

"Kano presents the relics of once flourishing groundnut pyramids and the textile industries, which have become some shadow of the past glorious days."

The senators who visited the industrial areas (Monday) cannot but be depressed by the sheer numbers and volumes of factories that have been abandoned. Thousands of workers have been laid off and the once thriving commercial city of Kano the fast becoming a shadow of itself.

"In a similar vein, those who visited the Tiga Dam would agree with me that the dam is under-utilised. If properly and maximally utilised, we would not only stop the importation of rice, but also be a world exporter of rice. We will farm enough fish to meet all our local consumption," he said.

Presenting a paper at the retreat, the director-general of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu, said the strategic initiatives for infrastructural development in the 2009 budget were in line with the present administration's seven-point agenda and the vision 2020. He said about N1tr had been voted by the federal government for strategic infrastructural projects in the 2009 budget.

According to the budget office chief, the N365bn is in addition to the N288,223bn already appropriated for the IPPs in the 2008 supplementary budget, making N653.2bn.

The remainder of the capital vote is proposed for the completion of infrastructural projects in critical sectors directly linked to the goal of massive growth in the economy.

Okogu said the government placed a greater emphasis on clearly defined and measurable deliverables in the transport, works, health and agriculture sectors.

To boost the power projects, he said the Presidency increased the proposed capital investment in the petroleum and gas sector to N193bn in the 2009 budget. This is to cover various pipelines and distribution projects for domestic supply across the country.

He said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would deliver 1.2 billion cubic square feet of gas to the domestic market to guarantee supply for the projected 6000mega watts of electricity for 2009.

He said the executive had earmarked N105bn for construction and rehabilitation of various highways across the country, out of which an undisclosed amount is to be used for second Onitsha-Asaba Niger bridge.

According to Okogu, provision has been made for the completion of the Ajaokuta-Warri rail line to Delta Steel Company. He also said the government planned to achieve the maintenance and repair of 40,700 kilometres of federal roads in 2009, and to complete 2,821-kiliometre length of bridges across the nation.

The government, he said, seeks to construct and rehabilitate 1,114 kilometres of roads next year.

A key deliverable would be the reduction of crime by 40 per cent under a N5.738bn proposal for security and community policing in the six key cities of Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt and Onitsha.

Projects listed for funding in the budget proposals include the Mambilla hydro-electric power generation project, transmission projects and completion of gas supply to the National Independent Power Projects (NIPPs) at Geregu, Papalanto, Alaoji and Omotosho.

Also speaking at the retreat, the chief economic adviser to the President, Dr. Taminu Yakubu, said the budget was being based on a conservative crude oil and exchange rate benchmarks , following the global financial crisis and oil market slide.

According to him, the situation in the international market has become more complex in the last four months as some non-exporting countries are now selling off crude from their accumulated strategic reserve, thereby flooding the market with products.

But Yakubu assured the Senators that the executive had developed strategies to protect the nation from adverse effects of the global crisis.

It is pertinent to mention that the volume of money and resource persons who delivered several speeches at the retreat accentuates the fact that if the Nigerian Senate can imbibe the tenets of democratic legislation, without interference from the executive, our democracy will quickly deliver the much-talked about dividends of democracy. It is also commendable that the Senate has chosen this time, when the nation is warming up for constitutional amendment.

The president's speech and/or plea on the amendment of the 2006 Electoral Act must be quickly addressed by the Senate. To say that the electoral litigations all over the country have not slowed down development and further encouraged corruption and the culture of impunity is to say a lie.

The act should be reviewed to encourage a speedy dispensation of electoral disputes, even if it is the only thing the Senate will achieve.