For a change, national interest should drive legislation and oversight of the MDAs by the 10th Assembly, rather than personal gains.
A former minister, Godswill Akpabio, emerged as President of the Senate during the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly last Tuesday. Tajudeen Abbas, in the House of Representatives, was also elected the speaker. They were the anointed candidates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his political party for these positions. The election was devoid of high drama, perhaps due to the arrival of Akpabio's supporters at the Assembly's complex as early as 4 a.m. Apparently, they were in mortal dread of a recrudescence of the 2015 experience, when Senator Bukola Saraki and his supporters arrived at the national parliament earlier than others to elect him as president, against the dictates of their party.
It was a keen contest in the Senate, where Akpabio secured 63 votes to beat Abdul'Aziz Yari, who polled 46 votes. Jibrin Barau, his deputy from Kano State, was elected unopposed. In the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas literally strolled to the speaker's seat with 353 votes, while his two other challengers, Ahmed Wase and Sani Jaji, won a consolatory three votes each. The scenario in the House somehow raises concern about the quality of opposition to expect there, despite priding on being a "Minority-in-the-Majority", with its numerical strength of 182 members from seven political parties, as against the APC's 181 legislators. With this, it is hoped that a virile opposition and robust debates will not be mortgaged in the House.
As smooth as Akpabio's and Abbas' triumphs might have been, the road to those denouements was rough. The contest draws attention once more to the crescent factors of geo-politics and religion in our brand of democracy. President Tinubu had scoffed at concern about the latter, typified in his choice of Kashim Shettima as running mate in the presidential election, in a Muslim-Muslim ticket saga. It drew flaks from within the All Progressives Congress (APC) itself and the larger society. No doubt, Tinubu did not want to pass through that seeming eye of a needle one more time. To him, a Christian must be the Senate President to assuage concerns about the dominance of one faith in the federal government.
President Tinubu, therefore, had to pull all the stops. Governors and ex-governors of bipartisan hues, monarchs and elected lawmakers from across the political divides, were in frenetic meetings in the presidential villa to help in making the sought balancing happen. This elevated the intrigues and splenetic level of jostling for the two coveted parliamentary seats. Senators Orji Kalu and Osita Izunaso from the South-east, along with Yari from the North-west, deprecated the interference of the executive arm of government in the affairs of the parliament. It was indeed an assault on the canons of the separation of powers.
As Akpabio and Abbas mounted the saddle of leadership in the two chambers of the National Assembly, the usual populist preachments and avowals in their inaugural addresses were not in deficit. But we take them with a pinch of salt as a result of serial deceptions in the past. Akpabio harped on integrity, dedication, patriotism, loyalty and devotion to the country in the discharge of his responsibilities and that of the 10th Senate. He said, "The promulgation of laws and enactments for the well-being and security of the country and as a check on the executive arm of government; in our oversight functions" are the task set before the lawmakers. We agree with him. In a truly functional democracy, this would have been an article of faith or social contract with the people, for which he and his colleagues will be held to account. Sadly, serial underperformance and abuse of trust are what each assembly ultimately delivered in the past nine cycles.
One ethical concern props up in Akpabio's elevation. The man is yet to get a clean bill of health in respect of the N108.1 billion allegation of fraud levelled against him, shortly after his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2015, for which the EFCC quizzed him. The case was put in abeyance while he served as a minister under Muhammadu Buhari's government. As the Senate inauguration approached, the EFCC summoned him, for reasons not yet known. If that matter has not gained traction since he earlier defected to the APC and then became a minister, it is doubtful if anything will change now that he has become the President of the Senate.However, if he has a case to answer and the EFCC firms up to prosecute him, we fear that the Abubakar Saraki scenario with the Code of Conduct Tribunal, as President of the Eighth Senate, is likely to be repeated. This will not be good for the image of the Senate and the entire country. Then, in a display of solidarity, senators abandoned plenary sessions to witness court proceedings in the Saraki trial. Worse, the Senate even attempted to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau Act and the CCT Act, to weaken their powers as a result.
This was most sickening. Such vile and devious abuse of power was more pronounced during the Ninth Senate under Ahmad Lawan's leadership. Orji Kalu, one of the recent contestants for the Senate presidency, who is being prosecuted by the EFCC for fraud committed during his governorship in Abia State, sponsored a Bill for the amendment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015. He had earlier served seven months out of a 12-year jail term before the Supreme Court quashed his conviction and ordered a fresh trial on technical grounds. The Senate played along with him in the mala fide act. The Bill sought to whittle down the powers of the EFCC and ICPC by seeking that case files be submitted to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) for approval before prosecution.
At a Public Hearing by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, chaired by Opeyemi Bamidele, the now-suspended EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, opposed the Bill. He cautioned that: "This will constitute undue interference by the AGF, who is a political appointee, in the work of law enforcement agencies". This is absolutely so! Many corruption cases have been killed through this sort of subterfuge, in clear abuse of the powers vested in the AGF by virtue of the provisions in Section 174 (1) (2) (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. If the AGF has powers to take over any criminal proceeding instituted by any authority or discontinue same, it raises eyebrows on why such power should be entrenched in the statutes of these agencies. The AGF's invocation of this constitutional power, "Shall have regard to public interest and the interest of justice," the same Constitution emphasises.
In one of its most recent but ignominious legislations, the Ninth Senate passed a bill that weakened the powers of the ICPC Chairman, sharing these with commissioners to be appointed along geo-political lines. This is crazy! Along with previous efforts, such endeavours constitute a steady legislative ambush against the anti-corruption fight. With about 14 ex-governors and former ministers in the Senate, some of whom have cases with the anti-graft agencies, these ruthless assaults on the agencies will not abate. Since this plot was not consummated by the Bill being assented to, before that parliament was dissolved, it is likely to be exhumed. Premium Times urges the president not to sign it when the Bill lands on his table.
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The National Assembly's failure to perform has put the country in a hell hole. The treasury is routinely and brazenly looted, as epitomised in the revelations about the petrol subsidy scam, unremitting crude oil theft and the unwillingness of individuals and corporate citizens to remit public funds into government coffers. As a result, the country is denied basic infrastructure, healthcare and good education, among other needs. More agencies of government were created as the Oronsanye report on the merger of agencies for effective governance was abandoned.
The rot is imponderable. The abuse of constituency projects, budget-padding, self-assigned obscene emoluments and compromises in the discharge of oversight taint every assembly. For a change, national interest should drive legislation and oversight of the MDAs by the 10th Assembly, rather than personal gains.
At all times, lawmakers should be conscious of the fact that a parliament that trades off its independence and becomes a rubber stamp of the president is like salt that has lost its taste. The Ninth Assembly fitted into this bill, as it helped Buhari to incur Nigeria's current N77 trillion debt burden. Therefore, the 10th Assembly should avoid the craven and absurd acquiescence to every request of the executive arm. The Senate's response to this will be appraised by how diligently it screens ministerial nominees and other appointees to be soon tabled before it.
