Issues that confronted the Senate in 2014 Many watchers of events in the Nigerian Senate were not disappointed in their expectation that the resumption of the Senate on January 21, 2014 after the three week yuletide break would come with trouble, especially between it and the executive. The expectation was hinged on the ground that before the upper legislative chamber embarked on break on December 19, 2013; it had rejected President Jonathan’s oil benchmark of $74 per barrel as contained in the 2014 to 2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF. Instead, it raised the benchmark to $76.50 per barrel. The upper legislative chamber also directed that details of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, projects expected for execution in the 2014 budget be attached as addendum to the annual budget estimates for approval by the National Assembly, a development seen as a departure from the past. The legislators also resumed to meet unfinished legislative businesses that demanded immediate and prompt consideration just like the 2014 Appropriation Bill. Among them were the Petroleum Industry Bill, Customs (Amendment) Bill, Pensions Reforms (Amendment) Bill, further review of the Electoral Act, the harmonization of the Senate and House positions on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) among several other bills. The disagreement arising from MTEF presentation, led to the delay in the treatment of the 2014 budget. But after months of delay, the Senate on April 9, 2014, passed the 2014 Appropriation Bill, thus authorizing the Federal Government to implement the N4.695 trillion budget. Shortly, after the passage of the 2014 Appropriation Bill, the Senate shifted its attention to the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, designed mainly to reform the petroleum sector. The bill before passage split the 109 senators along ethnic, regional and religious lines. The Northern senators were staunchly opposed to it while their counterparts drawn from the south fully stood in defence of the bill. Hot verbal arguments ensued among the senators in the course of the debate on the bill, but the camel’s neck was broken when in his contribution, Senator Ita Enang, representing Akwa Ibom North West, openly accused the North of controlling 83 percent of the oil blocs all of which are found in the south, and called for total cancellation and reallocation of the oil wells. While the PIB was still under consideration, 22 senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presented notice of defection to the then newly formed All Progressives Congress, APC. Their action was in spite of the Senate President, David Mark’s plea and words of advice to them to ensure that members don’t transfer their differences in party lines. Mark had said: “Here in the Senate, how we ride the challenge, and not let it deflect our focus from our constitutional responsibilities and our duty to our nation, will be a measure of our maturity as elder statesmen and women, democrats and patriots. “We are the members of an institution deliberately designed by our Constitution to balance the nation and to stabilize our polity. We live true to this creed, and to this constitutional responsibility, only when we rise above narrow and parochial considerations not only in our thoughts and words but also in our actions.” No longer had he presented his speech than the gale of defections that plagued the House of Representatives reared its ugly head in the Senate, and thus, disrupted the peace that the Upper House was initially known for. Indeed, the Senate was nearly torn apart when 22 Senators in the ruling PDP signified their intention to defect to the APC. Nigerians watched the defection drama with keen eyes and curiosity because the leadership had made subtle statements of declaring seats of defectors vacant. Eleven senators, in a joint letter to the Senate President, signalled their intention to defect from the PDP to the APC. Their repeated persuasions on Senator Mark and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu to read their letter were persistently rebuffed. Senate spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe told newsmen that senators could not defect jointly as they were all elected individually. After trying unsuccessfully to persuade the senators from defecting in the closed-door sessions, the drama played out in plenary. Five out of the 11 senators tried to defect individually. Senator Bukola Saraki opened the floor when he raised a point of order upon Order 15 of the Senate Standing Rules 2011 (as amended), and announced that his privilege as a senator was breached. Senate leadership He informed the Senate President that he and 10 other senators had written a letter of defection which the Senate leadership had refused to read on the floor. Mark literally foreclosed any further attempt by the 11 PDP senators to defect to the APC. Although five out of the 11 PDP senators at plenary made spirited efforts to invoke their order of privilege, Mark pointedly told them that since the matter was already before a court, they would have to wait until the judicial process was over. Senator David Mark, relying on Order 53(5) of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended) successively deflected their planned defection to the APC. Mark referred Saraki to Order 53(5) which reads: “Reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending, in such a way as might in the opinion of the president of the Senate prejudice the interest of the parties thereto.” He added that “It cannot be a matter of privilege to you because the matter is in court and no mention should be made of it. Therefore, I rule you out of order.” Efforts by some PDP senators to declare the seats of the intending defectors vacant were also thwarted as Mark rebuffed the attempt, also ruling them out of order. Undeterred, some of the aggrieved senators said they were already in the APC and that the Senate president was on his own. However, as the year 2014 drew to an end, the senators remained in the ranks of the PDP even though all of them are card carrying members of the APC. President Goodluck Jonathan’s letter to the Senate requesting for an extension of the state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states caused some rumble in the Senate as some Northern senators vowed to resist it. The President had said the extension was necessary because of the continuing activities of the insurgents in the North East region. However, Northern Senators resolved to vote against the extension. Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Senator Umaru Dahiru hinged their opposition on grounds that the extension of the emergency rule was not the best way to combat the insurgency which had paralyzed social and economic activities in the affected areas. “We believe a lot of things ought to be addressed in order to conquer the issue of insurgency. So, our own position is that we are not going to support extension of the emergency rule in the area”, he said. 20 billion missing money, confirmation of CBN governor, APC budget blockade directive The Senate probed an allegation by the former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, failed to remit $20 billion into the Federation Account. The Senate probe absolved the NNPC of any wrongdoing even as President Jonathan fired Sanusi and instead, replaced him with the former Zenith Bank Managing Director, Godwin Emefiele. The opposition APC directed all its members in the National Assembly to block all executive bills which involved the budget and the confirmation of Service Chiefs. The Senate finished the process of amending the 1999 constitution, started by the National Assembly, received the conference report of the constitution review transmitted same to the 36 state Houses of Assembly for concurrence. The document, which required 24 state assemblies to vote “yes”, for the amendment to stand, has since been returned to the Senate for final adoption.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:06:41 +0000
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