Nigeria needs a performing Senate President like Saraki, by Golu Timothy

My attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Special Assistant to the Governor of Lagos State on Drainage and Water Resources, Mr. Joe Igbokwe published in your publication, PoliticsNigeria.com in which he claimed that they (meaning APC partisans) “do not want another Saraki and co that will want President Asiwaju to waste four years”. He continued that “We want someone that understands our needs”.

Let me state clearly from the onset of this response that the problem with people like Igbokwe is that every issue is viewed from the prism of partisanship and not based on patriotism, facts, and national or public interest.

It is glaring that since 1999, there has not been a Senate that is as vibrant, productive, people-oriented, creative, and forward-looking as the Eighth Senate led by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki. I can claim so because I was a member of the House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019 when Saraki was Senate President and chairman of the National Assembly. That Senate despite the war of attrition waged against it by the Buhari administration from inception till the end of its tenure achieved many firsts and brought about many initiatives aimed at making the legislature have a direct, positive impact on the lives of the people. In terms of law-making, oversight, representation, and advocacy, the 8th Senate under Saraki raised the bar.

The Saraki-led Senate passed the most bills in the history of that institution – 319. Its Committee on Public Petition treated 192 petitions which helped resolve issues involving ordinary Nigerians who felt wronged by government agencies and had no money to fund litigation in Courts. This was also the highest ever handled by any legislative session in the history of the country. What better serves the needs of the people than that? The Senate under Saraki made Nigeria proud as it had fruitful engagement on a parity basis with parliaments across the globe, particularly advanced countries. And Nigeria benefitted tremendously from these international engagements.

Also, look at the quality of the bills that the Saraki-led Senate passed. You will understand why a Senate leadership we had in that era is what we need today in Nigeria. The Police Reforms Bill, Police Trust Fund Bill, North East Development Commission Bill, and the Abduction, Wrongful Restraints, and Confinement for Ransom Bill,  are the draft laws initiated to tackle the security menace. That is apart from initiating a security summit that came out with far-reaching recommendations for the executive to adopt. This idea of holding summits, public hearings, and stakeholder meetings outside the National Assembly Complex and mostly in areas affected by the issue being addressed is an innovation.

The 8th Senate also made conscious efforts to promote Made in Nigeria products as a way of helping the economy to grow. It, therefore, moved to amend the Public Procurement Act to favour Nigerian suppliers and manufacturers. It initiated the NASSBER which was a cooperation between the National Assembly, the private sector, the academia, and professional bodies like the Nigeria Bar Association. The work of the body led to over 50 economic bills, many of which are still being considered, passed, and held out as achievements of the present Senate.
Bills like the Petroleum Industry Bill, Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), Investment and Securities Act (ISA), Federal Competition Bill, Warehouse Receipts Act (Amendment) Bill, Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority Act (Amendment) Bill and many others that were eventually passed by the current Senate were introduced by the Saraki led Senate.

There are many life-changing, relevant, people-oriented, and progressive laws, initiatives, and innovations made by the Saraki-led 8th Senate which time and space will not permit me to reel out here. One of them is the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill which was sent to the President for assent four times and denied assent on each occasion, only to be passed in the same form and manner in 2022, four years later. I challenge Igbokwe to go and read various publications on the period of the 8th Senate and get educated.

When people like Igbokwe write about the 8th Senate under Saraki making Buhari waste four years, I wonder what they mean. For example, what constitutional or legal proposal did Buhari bring before the Senate that was rejected to warrant that accusation? In the whole four years, the Buhari government, apart from the normal appropriation Bills, introduced only three other bills to the National Assembly between 2015 and 2019. It even withdrew one of them, an anti-graft Bill due to in-fighting between its Attorney General and the EFCC chairman. All the progressives Bills and Constitutional amendment proposals that Buhari frustrated were initiated by the National Assembly.

In the same vein, all its loan requests brought before the 8th Senate got through once the executive could justifiably explain the purpose of the loan and for what projects they were meant. Even when the President committed an impeachable offence of paying money for the Turcano jets first before bringing a proposal before the parliament for approval, the gaffe was overlooked in the national interest.

Today, Buhari lists assent to Bills like CAMA, NEDC, and co as achievements and I wonder what role his government played in the conception, initiation, and passage of the bills other than to fulfill the constitutional duty of appending a signature to them. Yet, he refused to assent to many crucial and useful bills passed by the 8th National Assembly, just to frustrate the legislature. On occasions, mere clerical errors which could be quickly worked on between both the Presidency and the legislature were exaggerated as the reason for refusing assent.

Let me again ask the question: What appointment did Buhari make and forwarded the name to the Senate under Saraki but was rejected? Except for that of Ibrahim Magu whose nomination was frustrated by the duplicitous security recommendations from the Presidency, the answer is none. Over 90 percent of Buhari’s appointees got Senate confirmation under Saraki’s leadership.

Recent development in the case of Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commission of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Adamawa State whose action almost rubbished the entire 2023 polls and threw the state into a chaos of unimaginable dimensions justified why we need the Senate to be firm, inquisitive, probing and honest when confirming presidential nominations. The ‘bow and go system’ which the 9th Senate elevated to an art by placing national interest below the desire to please the president has always worked against Nigeria. Yunusa-Ari was among the 14 new REC and five renominated ones whose names were forwarded by Buhari to the 9th Senate last July. Due diligence was not done because of the need to satisfy the President. Now, we can all see the consequence of such sycophancy.

Thus, it is important for people who do not know to be properly educated that a thorough, firm, progressive, independent, assertive, and idea-oriented Senate which seeks to hold the executive accountable and act in the best interest of Nigerians instead of protecting the interest of the chief executive is what Nigerians need. Nigerians do not need a rubber stamp legislature. Nigerians need a Senate President independently elected by the senators and not a lackey imposed by the president.

It is the Buhari administration that insisted that since its candidate for Senate President was not elected by the Senators in 2015, it would frustrate the efforts of the 8th Senate that should be blamed for any “wasted years” recorded under Muhammadu Buhari as admitted by Igbokwe. Buhari used politics to deny Nigeria the gains that the passage of many bills and other initiatives of the 8th Senate would have given the country.

Again, after Saraki left the Senate four years ago, how come the preferred Senate leadership has not worked with Buhari to solve the problem of insecurity, economic crisis, social disorder, infrastructural decay, acute disunity, fuel and naira scarcity, oil theft, indiscipline within the highest ranks of government and thriving corruption at the highest levels that have continued to plague Nigeria?

Let me at this point State that the next two Senate sessions in this country will continue to struggle to match the accomplishments of the 8th Senate as the 9th Senate under Ahmed Ahmed Lawan did. They will be wise to also dust up some of the bills initiated by the 8th Senate, polish them, and represent them for presidential assent as the 9th Senate did. If Igbokwe is in doubt of all the facts stated here, he should conduct an honest opinion poll for people to decide which is preferable between the Saraki-led Senate and the one that succeeded it. He will see that Nigerians do not want a ‘Yes sir’ Senate, ‘Rubber-stamp’ Senate, and ‘Anything Goes’ Senate. Rather, they want a Senate that will hold the executive accountable, responsible and responsive. That is what the Saraki-led Senate symbolized. Nigerians want a Senate leadership that will work to preserve the independence and integrity of the institution as an arm of government. That is what Nigerians need at this point in her development.

Hon. Timothy was a member of the House of Representatives and Plateau State House of Assembly