Charles Ajunwa
5 January 2009
analysis
Lagos — Since his election as Senate President in June 2007, Senator David Bonaventure Mark has navigated several troubled waters and emerged unscathed.
The incumbent Senate President, David Mark, during his inauguration in June 2007 promised a vibrant legislative leadership that would ensure the enactment of laws and oversight activities that would champion high level of discipline in the system and streamline focus geared towards the upliftment of the living standard of the ordinary Nigerian.
Mark was first elected to the Nigerian Senate in 1999 at the inception of the current democratic dispensation. His emergence as Senate President in 2007 immediately put critics and political watchers on the lookout. This led to a wave of initial public scepticism on whether the Senate under his leadership would actually deliver the people's mandate especially considering his military background in the face of a civilian system.
Added to that was the already prevailing negative perception of non performance that hung as a garb of dishonour on the previous Senates with many critics maintaining that it was going to be business as usual even in the emerging dispensation.
Before Mark's era, the preceding Senate swarmed in controversies ranging from continuous frictions with the executive to internal wrangling mostly triggered and sustained by partisan and personal pecuniary interests, which resulted in the jettisoning of legislative activities for sustained Machiavellian wars to the detriment of the people.
Nearly two years after, the question is has, the Senate under Mark's leadership changed anything in the upper legislative chamber? Has it charted the way for the overall realization of the true expectation of the people in line with the promise made by the Senate President immediately he assumed office in June, 2007?
While some pro-democracy groups argue that Mark's emergence as the Senate President marks the beginning of democratic leadership in the Nigerian parliament, others still harbour a level of scepticism and had always referred to issues of the past to insist that the present dispensation of government at the legislature and the executive are merely chips from the old blocks from which governments have always been carved out.
The view expressed by the rightist groups critically draws from the events surrounding the emergence of the present leadership in the Senate which they insists signaled the emergence of true democracy and the end of the "nascent democracy" cliché which had turned to become a psycho-social clog in the wheel of the nation's democratic development.
This is because for the first time in the nation's contemporary history, a parliamentary leadership emerged through an open election on the floor as truly envisaged by the constitution and the rules of the legislature.
Mark had in June 2007 defeated Senator George Akume in a keenly contested election with an overwhelming 69 to 39 votes on the floor of the Senate. The Senate President won even after Senators Gbemi Saraki and Nuhu Aliyu stepped down for Akume and for the first time, the Senate chose its President through popular vote by members in an open session.
Before then, successive leaderships in the Senate emerged through selection by the executive and the leadership of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) and imposed on the lawmaking body to the chagrin of the very essence of parliamentary democracy.
Sadly such a process had reduced the past Senate to a mere rubber stamp to the whims and caprices of the executive and the party hierarchy thereby negating the principle of separation of powers and the attendant checks and balances expected in the government circle. The implication was that in the past, the people's will expected to be protected by the legislature was by that process subjected to endless abuses which hinders the people from benefiting from them.
Against this background, parliamentary watchers believe that the emergence of Mark's Senate Presidency marks the beginning of a democratic era of strict adherence to rules in the system. This is because whereas the previous system made the Senate leadership answerable to the executive or the party hierarchy, the present leadership in the Senate drawing from the political play out that midwived it became independent of such controls in tandem with that envisaged by the constitution.
It is remarkable that in the last two years, the Senate has not experienced the walkouts, the partisan divisions, the unnecessary hecklings, infightings and cross government meddlesomeness that characterized the immediate past upper legislative chamber.
It is noteworthy that past Senates have been weighed down by continuous external and internal frictions. Analysts believe that the stability and tranquility experienced in the Senate in the last two years is a product of the process that produced the leadership which had repositioned the lawmaking body for a deeper democratic experience.
Because of the fore going, the Senate President had since his inauguration continued to maintain his stand that the present Senate is only answerable to Nigerians whose mandate had been expressed by their representatives in the election.
The process had in the last two years changed the culture of secrecy in the Senate with the lawmakers now having most of their activities in open session instead of the continuous closed sessions that characterized the legislature in the past. Mark's view has been that the Legislature under him "have a covenant" with the people of Nigeria to ensure that the dividends of democracy is delivered to Nigerians through enactment of "issue based and people oriented laws and effective oversight on the executive branch" to guarantee good governance for the benefit of the ordinary man.
To achieve its set goal, the leadership of the present Senate under Mark has initiated series of institutional and technical innovations to further the constitutional role of the legislature to meet the challenges of the contemporary Nigeria and they have been yielding dividends.
These includes series of periodic technical capacity building programmes for legislators and management of the National Assembly, accelerated consideration and passage of key legislations to enhance the current economic reforms, strategic institutional interventions through widened oversight activities to ensure best practices and adequate provision of essential services and products and a series of system wide probes to ensure accountability and transparency in all sectors of the economy.
Analysts believe that this legislative retooling is a product of long standing experience already garnered by the crop of Senators in the leadership. The Senate President has been in government circle for over two decades in addition to his ten years experience in the Senate giving him the required skills to run a result-oriented parliament.
The disposition of the present leadership in the Senate to reposition the legislature was quickly manifested in the choice of leadership and membership of standing committees of the Senate and the marching order by the Senate President to deliver or be dropped.
Mark, in appointing committee chairmen insisted on merit as against party leaning resulting in the appointment of some senators from opposition parties into key committees. The idea being that the Senate is that of Nigerians and not that of any political party.
The Senate president had also refused to set up a kitchen cabinet which is believed to be part of factors responsible for the undoing of Senate Presidents before him. He runs an open door policy.
Within the last two years, the Senate has redefined legislative oversight to include strategic interventions furthered by dialogue in the settlement of knotty governance issues in the polity.
The present industrial harmony and relative price stability in key sectors in the country is largely attributed to this innovation which has reduced friction experienced between government at all levels and the organized labour.
Immediately it was inaugurated, the Senate leadership focused on areas requiring immediate intervention in the interest of the people.
Such areas having direct impact on the welfare of the people include, the labour issues regarding wages, condition of service and job loss occasioned by the controversial sale of government property and the privatization exercise as well as the effect of the global financial crisis.
Others include issues surrounding the controversial hike in the prices of petroleum products at the time, increase in prices of telecommunication services, collapse of the transport, education and health sectors and the Niger Delta question among others.
While the Senate adopted dialogues with key players in the critical sectors, it also opened system wide probes to unravel the problems militating against productivity in the country.
Few weeks after it commenced plenary in 2007, the Senate had fearlessly beamed its searchlight into the oil and gas sector, a sector past Senate had merely observed with trepidation in the face of allegations of malpractices and fraud by operators to the detriment of the nation's economic survival and the wellbeing of the people.
Worried by the fact that while the nation's earnings from that sector is not accounted for in addition to the biting high prices of domestic fuel even though the nation is one of the largest producers of oil in the world, the Senate ordered a thorough audit in that sector.
This came at the time organized labour across the country had begun a nation-wide strike to protest the increases in prices of petroleum products, Value Added Tax (VAT) from five percent to 15 percent, poor remuneration and sale of government properties by the last administration under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Labour had accused that administration of manipulating the sale of the assets owned by all Nigerians to those on the corridors of power and their cronies far below their market values and demanded a full probe and possible reversal of the sales.
The Senate through its strategic intervention mechanism averted the strike which analysts insist would have paralyzed the nation. Since then, it has sustained the mechanism which included dialogue, probes and review of strategic legislations in the progressive efforts to sanitize the system and to plug all avenues for waste.
This method has continued to yield results in the last two years. While the prices of petroleum products have continued to be checked, Senate had intervened to force down the price of domestic gas, keep the telecommunication tariffs as well as prices of other essential products and services on check. For once Nigerians have witnessed price stability courtesy of the Senate's intervention.
Such intervention has also led to the settlement of the dispute between government and players in the education sector including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) among others to avert a total collapse of the sector.
Senate in the last two years had embarked on audit of the books of all government ministries and agencies including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and have continued to conduct probes on the activities on all sectors of the economy since 1999, in line with its oversight mandate enshrine in section 88 of the constitution.
Such include system wide probe and series of public hearings on the transport sector to unravel the factors responsible for the collapse of the transport infrastructure in the country as well as the oil and gas, education, agriculture, finance, and manufacturing sectors.
While the ministerial audit resulted in the recovery of over N600 billion unspent budget between1999 and 2007 said to have been stashed in private accounts, the probes have continued to unravel startling revelations indicting present and past government functionaries and expositing loopholes exploited to manipulate the system.
It is the view of the Senate leadership that the outcome of the probes would expose corruption and serve as deterrent to corrupt minded government officials. Already some officials indicted are facing prosecution on charges of corruption.
Following its finding, the Senate has commenced an overhaul of legislations guiding the activities of the public sector to ensure efficiency. The executive also is adjusting its policies to sanitize the system and plug loopholes.
Currently, the Senate is employing its interventionist mechanisms to find ways to protect the nation from the adverse effect of the current global financial crisis. Already its committees on Banking and other Financial Institutions and that of Capital Market have initiated series of technical platforms for sustained brainstorming and have been reporting progress on the issue.
Drawing from its interactions and investigative activities, the Senate is currently evolving new budgeting and oversight modalities to enable it proactively track government policies and budget formulation and implementation to ensure fiscal discipline in the polity.
Beginning from 2009, the Senate has worked out strategies to move the budgeting system from the short term annual circle appropriation to mid-term and long term planning system.
This is because the present planning system does not provide the proper platform for economic predictability and adequate linkage between budgeting and medium term considerations such as investment planning and borrowing capacity in the public and private sectors.
This inhibits the needed stability for long term planning required for economic growth and consolidation because while government and the entire nation and its economy are continuums, planners and decision makers, using annual circle fiscal templates ignore dynamic micro economic imperatives, expected revenues, unforeseen spending requirements and long term needs resulting in unmet demands and further frustration in the polity.
Critics believe that achievement of long term planning system as initiated by the Senate is the only way to achieve the seven point agenda and the economic vision 2020 programme for massive infrastructural development in the country.
Political watchers attribute the stance of the present Senate on the series of capacity building programmes embarked by the lawmakers in the last two years, as just realistic.
Chief among the programmes are the yearly Senate retreats, which commence in 2007 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital. Last year, the Senate held another weeklong retreat in Kano, Kano state capital.
The yearly retreat being one of the initiatives of Mark's leadership is designed to create an intellectual platform for lawmakers to brainstorm with experts from key sectors on ways to get the nation out of the political and economic woods.
In the 2007 retreat, senators held sessions with experts and stakeholders on different issues, chief among which included those bordering on budget preparation and implementation, security, infrastructure and the Niger Delta question after which they broke into syndicate groups to visit some states in the Niger Delta where they had on the spot assessment of the situation in the zone and held talks with militants groups on issues agitating their minds.
In the Kano retreat last year, the lawmakers engaged in marathon sessions considering key issues including strategies to protect the nation from the global financial crisis, strategies to ensure performance based budget, preparation and implementation and fiscal discipline in the system.
The senators also held consultative sessions on the solution to the imminent food scarcity in the country as well as ways to tackle the problems of desertification in the northern parts of the country which is currently threatening agricultural activities and food production in the country.
As part of the intervention efforts, senators like they did in Port-Harcourt in 2007 broke into syndicate groups and visited three strategic states in the northwest zone including Sokoto, Jigawa and Kaduna states for on the spot assessment of the economic and ecological challenges facing the area.
Drawing from the outcome of the Port Harcourt retreat, analysts believe that the Kano retreat yielded some level of dividends especially for the benefit of the Northwest in particular and the country in general.
This is because the visit by lawmakers to the Niger Delta creeks while on retreat in Port Harcourt have drawn the attention of the Senate to the plight of the area which is believed to have led to the budgetary increase for the area in the 2008 budget and the recent creation of the Niger Delta ministry.
Last year's retreat In Kano similarly paved way for desired government attention to the challenges of poverty, disease and desertification threatening the north.
Fundamentally speaking, the legislature is the hallmark of the democratic system of government. Without the parliament, democracy loses its integrity and of course its entire essence. It is the arm of government that truly represents the people.
This is because the parliament is instituted to ensure proper checks and balances in governance through effective oversight on the activities of the executive branch to protect the general interest of the people whose mandate it represent in government.
In other words, without the legislature, there is very high probability that the will of the people as expressed in their electoral participations would be subject to vagaries of abuses, which ultimately hinders the people from benefiting from them. Also their true feeling and position may not be appreciated without the intervention of the legislature.
Bye and large in the last two years, the Mark-led Senate has proved doubting Thomases wrong in many respects. It has shown courage and determination to right the wrongs of the past and chart a new and positive course for Nigeria.
It can be argued rationally that Mark's Senate has provided reasonable stability in the National Assembly and by extension the polity. Disaffection, rancour and turbulence which hitherto characterised the past Senate are now becoming things of the past.
Due to Mark's satisfactory performance impeachment, for some senators, is today an alien political jargon in the Senate. The leadership can pride itself that it has built a house where almost everyone, irrespective of different political leanings, feels a sense of belonging, a family united and bound by a common mission and purpose to wit; to make Nigeria, a better place.
A country where all citizens are safe, opportune and able to realize his or her ambition or potential without fear or hindrance.
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