High points of the Eighth Senate

As the Abubakar Bukola Saraki-led Eight Senate prepares the wind down ahead of May 29, 2019 handover date, Assistant Editor, Onyedi Ojiabor, assesses the highpoints of the upper legislative Chamber

How time flies. At the inauguration of the Eighth Senate on June 9th, 2015, it appeared the four year tenure of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Senate Presidency was for perpetuity. The Eighth Senate is gradually drawing to a close. Four years is indeed not eternity.

Controversy may be dubbed the second name of the Eighth Senate. Beginning with its inauguration and the controversial emergence of its presiding officers, it may be safe to conclude that the Eighth Senate began with disagreement and ended with disagreement.

The Eighth Senate may have had its fair share of divergence views on national issues which adversely affected its relationship with the executive arm of government, some areas of unanimity of purpose abound. That may be the nature of politics; the politics of management of controversies. The no love lost relationship between the Senate and the Presidency arising from the emergence of the Senate leadership, did not help matters. Attempts to stitch the crack between the two arms only scratched the surface. If it is cracked, it can never be the same again, observers say. To say that the Presidency was perpetually suspicious of the Senate may be to say the least.

The frosty relationship between the two arms of government created room for deep distrust. Distrust became the harbinger of intrigues, scheming, plots, machinations and conspiracies. Two arms of the same government scarcely agreed on any issue of national importance. Governance became a ding-dong affair.

The Eighth Senate was not only about controversy though. Something good, Senate watchers say, came out of “Nazareth.”

The Saraki Senate Presidency tried to connect with Nigerians through bills, motions, interventions and engagements on nagging national issues.

The engagements may be the high points of the Eight Senate.

The #OpenNASS campaign championed by some civil society organisations paid off when Saraki threw open and removed the lid on the budget of the National Assembly.

It was all about transparency in the management of the National Assembly budget and resources. Observers say for the first time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the detailed budget of the National Assembly was laid on the floor of the Senate plenary, alongside the report of the annual Appropriations Bill.

National Assembly budget was also published online for closer public scrutiny and monitoring.

One of the effective interventions was on fixed and bulk metering of consumers through which electricity generating and distributing companies fleece Nigerian electricity consumers.

“In August 2015, the Senate mandated the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately abolish fixed charges on electricity consumption and bulk metering of villages and communities, as the practice was deemed contrary to the interest of consumers.”

Identified fraud in Treasury Single Account (TSA) Management, was another intervention the Senate made.

“In November 2015, the Senate detected fraudulent activities in the implementation of TSA, raised a resolution to bring such practices to a halt.” The intervention was said to have saved the country N25 billion.

The Senate also intervened to cushion the effect of the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast. “In March 2016, the Senate allocated N10billion in the annual budget to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northeast, to alleviate adverse humanitarian consequences unleashed by insurgents in the region.”

On the fraud in humanitarian crisis management in the Northeast, on October 4, 2016, the upper legislative chamber launched investigation into alleged corruption in the management of the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast. A fact-finding technical team, headed by irrepressible Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, was dispatched to conduct on-the-ground assessment of the situation. This investigation by the team ultimately led to the dismissal of the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, for alleged misappropriation of N200million meant for IDPs in the Northeast.

Another intervention was on fraud in the import duty waivers scheme. In May 2016, a Senate probe uncovered abuse and fraud to the tune of N447 billion in the import duty waivers scheme on rice.

It also fought to end fraud by revenue generating agencies which came through point of order and motions. On November 30, 2016, it resolved to probe revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government for leakages, non-remittance and misuse of generated revenue. The investigation, according to findings, revealed that “majority of MDAs had, over a long period, spent billions of generated funds without the necessary annual appropriation by the legislature.”

Another intervention was on the controversial access to Foreign Exchange (Forex) for businesses. In 2017, “the Senate intervened in the lack of access to Forex for SMEs across the country, owing to Central Bank of Nigeria’s policies at the time. The intervention led to a review of the CBN policy to enable small business owners to access necessary Forex for the import, export and service delivery needs.”

On preventing a telecommunications data price hike, through a point of order and a subsequent motion followed by immediate interventions by Senate leadership on the issue, the Senate on November 30, 2016, stopped a proposed hike in prices of data by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). “A 2019 mobile data price comparison conducted by the UK-based cable group, found that Nigeria has one of the cheapest mobile data subscription rates in Africa.” Nigeria was placed 11th out of 57 countries on the continent, with an average price of $2.22 per gigabyte (1GB).

On humanitarian ground, the Senate took more than passing interest on Queens College and other Unity Schools. On May 2, 2017, following the death of three students of Queens College Lagos, one of the country’s unity schools, the Senate interceded and also held a public hearing on the tragedy. The upper chamber immediately set up a stakeholder summit to look into comprehensive education reform in the country and ensured additional funds were included in the 2017 Appropriations Bill to meet infrastructural challenges at Queens College and other unity schools.

It did same about the closure of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. In July 2017, the Senate intervened in the 2-year closure of LAUTECH. The intervention was seen as a major step in the speedy re-opening of the institution.

The upper chamber also intervened in the illegal recruitment into the Federal Civil Service. In August 2017, the Senate investigated the controversial, secret recruitment into federal civil service agencies and accelerated the passage of the existing vacancies in the Federal Civil Service (Prohibition) Bill, to curb illegal recruitment in government agencies.

Another matter of interest to the senate was addressing massive drug abuse in the country. In December 2017, the Senate held a two-day roundtable on the drug use crisis in Nigeria. Held in Kano, the roundtable was a major pushback against drug abuse in our communities, and helped to galvanise larger public response, including a BBC documentary. It further led the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to move against the unregulated sale and distribution of Tramadol.  The roundtable also led to the initiation of two important bills in the Senate: the National Drug Control Bill and the National Mental Health Bill.

Intervention on fuel scarcity was another. Between December 2017 and January 2018, the upper chamber, through its Committee on Petroleum Downstream, intervened in the lingering fuel scarcity crisis across the country. A public hearing was organised to look into the root causes of the scarcity and proffer short, medium and long term solutions to the problem.

The chamber also took interest in the arbitrary charges by banks. In January 2018, Senate interceded in the often conflicting and vague remedies offered by the CBN to victims of excess and arbitrary bank charges and illegal deductions by commercial banks. The intervention led to a policy revision by the CBN to address the challenge.

The Senate also intervened in the escalating incidence of insecurity across the country by organising a national security summit held in February 2018. The summit provided a platform for heads of military and paramilitary agencies to make submissions to the Senate and put forward 20 recommendations to the executive on strategies for bolstering national security.

In February 2018, the Senate also intervened in the problem of irregular migration and human trafficking of young Nigerians. It held a two-day roundtable in Benin, Edo State. With the participation of the Edo State Government, traditional rulers, government agencies and international partners, the roundtable helped to catalyse a number of strategies and initiatives in Edo State, and the country as a whole, towards curbing the problem.

In May 2018, the upper chamber intervened in the health sector by passing a clause in the 2018 budget to set aside 1 percent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for the provision of primary healthcare in the country. Since the National Health Act was enacted in 2014, the National Assembly had made its provision of an additional N55 billion for primary healthcare a core legislative focus. The implication was that additional funds are now provided for over 180 million Nigerians to have access to health services.

In June 2018, the Senate waded into the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) strike, which had severely affected health services across the country. Saraki met with Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige and JOHESU leaders. As a direct result, the strike was suspended on the 44th day of the industrial unrest.

Following a motion on May 30, 2018, the Senate intervened in the alarming trend of sexual harassment in higher institutions of learning. The case of Miss Monica Osagie, an Obafemi Awolowo University student who had named a lecturer in a ‘sex-for-grades’ allegation, provided the immediate impetus for this particular intervention by the Senate.

The upper chamber intervened to reform the Nigeria Police. These followed consistent calls by Nigerians to improve the activities of the Nigeria Police in order to make it more effective and efficient. Between January and April 2019, the Senate resolved to completely review and amend the Nigeria Police Act. This culminated in the passage of the Police Reform Bill and the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Bill.

The use of the social media comes tops on the innovations of the Eight Senate. The Eight Senate took interactivity to what is described as the next level by televising every Senate plenary session and live tweeting every activity on the floor using twitter and Youtube as platforms, the first of its kind in Nigeria. Before this innovation, Nigerians barely knew what went on during Senate plenary sessions and were unable to give their views on the goings-on at these sessions.

Findings showed that with a daily viewership of approximately 20,000 Nigerians on Youtube and constant interaction on the Nigerian Senate twitter handles with millions of Nigerians commenting on each tweet, “this Senate was able to break a new record for the most interaction with Nigerians and a very high level of transparency.”

On the controversial Electoral Act amendment Bill, in April, 2017, the Senate passed the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2017 into law. The importance of the bill cannot be over-emphasized as it is one of the most pivotal laws in the history of the election process in Nigeria. The electronic voting method was set in place to eradicate electoral malpractices and make for an easier, more transparent and faster electoral process across the nation.

No doubt, the advent of electronic voting is an improvement in the electoral system of the country that will live with Nigerians as one of the best contributions the Eight Senate provided to the country.

It is also on record that the 8th Senate initiated first ever public hearing on the budget in 2016. The hearing, which was considered highly successful, continued to hold in years that followed up until 2019.

In 2018, the Sexual Harassment in tertiary educational institutions (prohibition) bill was passed into law by the 8th Senate.

The bill proposed a jail-term of up to five years but not less than two years for perpetrators.

The “Not-Too-Young-To-Run bill,” was also passed by the 8th Senate. The bill was passed with the primary focus of empowering youths and giving them the chance to run for office at leadership levels.

The Eight Senate passed a total number of 293 bills as at May 7th, 2019 compared to 128 bills passed by the Seventh Senate, 72 bills by the sixth Senate and 129 bills by the fifth Senate.

Some of the key bills President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent included Electoral Amendment Bill. The Electoral Amendment Bill was rejected four times.

The last reason President Buhari gave for his refusal to sign the bill was that “if signed into law, it was going to be injurious to the recently concluded general elections.”

According to the President, “some of the proposed amendments may adversely affect the operation of elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

The President also said the bill had the unintended consequence of leaving INEC with only nine days to collate and compile lists of candidates and political parties as well as manage the primaries of the 91 political parties for the various elections.

The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) was another bill that was declined assent.

President Buhari cited “legislative drafting concerns and ambiguity. For the President, “expanding the scope of Petroleum Equalisation Fund was in divergence from his administration’s policy.” He also frowned at the provision that permits the Petroleum Regulatory Commission to retain as much as 10 percent of the revenue generated, which he said would put a burden on the three tiers of government.

The bill seeking to amend the constitution for an annual State of the Nation Address by the President was also rejected.

Buhari said section 7 of the bill might need to be redrafted to clearly indicate that it is Section 109 (1) (e) of the Constitution that was being amended.

Ajaokuta Steel Company completion Fund Bill was also turned down.

Buhari said that appropriating $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account for funding the project as stipulated in the bill was not the best strategic option for Nigeria at this time of budgetary constraints. He stressed that Nigeria could not afford to commit such an amount in the midst of competing priorities with long term social and economic impact that the funds can be attentively deployed towards.

For all intents and purposes, the Eighth Senate could be described as interesting in the history of the country’s parliamentary democracy. A Senate that witnessed 66 casualties out of 109 senators in an election cannot be forgotten in hurry. Only 43 senators survived the elections to return as members of the Ninth Senate. Even at that, series of litigations are hanging on the necks of most of those who managed to scale through the 2019 election.

The upper chamber has scheduled its valedictory session next week as part of its winding down. It will be a session of chest beating. There may be bashing by Nigerians but the Eighth Senate no doubt has some good tales to tell.