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Senate Presidency: Overlooking Ranking Rule For The Best of South-South To Emerge
By Sufuyan Ojeifo
The race for the position of President of the Nigerian Senate is daily assuming dimensions that evidently exemplify and validate its primacy in the balancing of political powers in Nigeria. At the innermost of the concentric power circles, position occupation is hinged on, or linked to the headships of the trinity of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Whereas, the president is the head of the executive arm of government, the senate president, as the chairman of the National Assembly, is the head of the legislative arm, while the Chief Justice of Nigeria is the head of the judiciary at the national level.
Power satellites around forces who feel entitled to the senate presidency are staking their claims in determined bids that have raised the political temperature and tilted the barometer in the routinised enterprise to define and redefine the mix of the atmospherics and the nuances that have underscored the contestation for the senate plum position.
Although, the trajectory has remained somewhat tentative, there are projections and prognoses, based on precedents, that favour the southern region. From 1999 to 2007, both the president and the five senate presidents that the southeast zone produced came from the southern region; from 2007 to May 2010, when he died, President Umaru Yar’Adua and the Senate President at that intersection, David Mark, were both from the northern region. The only exception to the arrangement was foisted on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by an act of God. The party did not bother to tinker with the “President-Senate President” collocation in the same region from 2010 to 2015 when Goodluck Jonathan, who succeeded the late Yar’Adua, was in the saddle.
From 2015 until now, President Muhammadu Buhari and the two senate presidents-Bukola Saraki and Ahmad Lawan-emerged, as it were, from the northern region. This settles the calculation that contemplates ceding of the senate president position to the southern region, the same regional ecosystem with the incoming president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose position had been settled based on the INEC-validated outcome of the February 25 presidential poll.
Rationally, both the South-South and Southeast zones are on the same footing to jostle for the position and that is exactly what is being done. But all indicators favour the South-South over and above the southeast in consideration for the senate presidency. I had interrogated the indicators in my recent piece entitled: “Senate Presidency: South-South zone lo kan” in which I argued that it was the turn of the zone to produce the senate president.
The leitmotif of this editorial intervention focusses on the choice of candidate to make from the zone. It is my proposition that the zone should present its best candidate for the position taking into consideration horizontal equity that places all senators-elect from the zone on an equal footing. The justness of this equity undergirds the position of the senate president only as primus inter pares (first among equals) and not as inter stellas luna minores (a moon among lesser stars). The equality of members of the Senate (and the same thing applies to members of the House of Representatives) finds anchorage in Section 50 (1a & b), which states inter alia (i) “There shall be (a) a President and Deputy President of the Senate who shall be elected by members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House f Representatives who shall be elected by members of that House from among themselves.”
The signification of this constitutional clarity evidently discounts the rule of ranking, which is a post-hoc arrangement or resolution by both chambers of the National Assembly to circumscribe and/ or streamline the jostle for, or participation in the race for the leadership of the legislature. But then, the arrangement has always faltered in the face of the constitution because it has been seen as a parochial convention that aids the selfishness of some legislators-elect who are privileged to have been in the legislature previously at the intersection of inauguration of a new assembly and election of presiding officers.
Whereas, it is conventionally convenient for old members of the legislature who had been elected to be members of the 10th National Assembly to promote this requirement in aid of their leadership ambition, it is constitutionally malapropos to validate it in support of their proclivity to “horizontal equity” that tends to recognize them as stellas luna minores in contradistinction to the pristine nature of the legislature as the conclave of equals.
The legislature cannot afford to sustain the episodic predilection to approbate and reprobate on the equality of membership during inauguration and election of presiding officers, which is why I posit that the provision of ranking in the Senate Standing Orders 2022 as amended and as expressly captured in Order 2 with respect to the election of presiding and other officers should kowtow to the provisions of Section 50 (1a and b) of our grundnorm-the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria quoted supra in aid of constitutional due process.
To be sure, Order 2 of the Senate Standing Orders 2022 as amended provides: “Nomination of senators to serve as Presiding officers and appointments of Principal Officers and other Officers of the Senate or on any Parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators. In determining ranking, the following Order shall apply- (i) Senators returning based on number of times re-elected; (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives; (iii) Senators elected as senators for the First time; (iv) The appointment of Senators as Chairmen and Members of Committee shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geo-political zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of Senators from a few geo-political zones.” This rule is like that of the House of Representative, which emphasizes cognate experience. The rule is egregious. It has the potential to subjugate a new member to the background for four years even if he or she is more competent than, clearheaded and result-oriented than a ranking member. A progressive government cannot afford to ride on the wheel of this retrogressive rule.
Expectedly, the ranking rule or the rule of cognate experience is what some legislators-elect have been harping on to selfishly narrow the race and/or consideration for the position of presiding officers of the National Assembly. I posit that it will be against the natural rule of fairness to exclude new senators from exercising their right of aspiring to be presiding officers of the legislature. This also places a burden of responsibility on the leadership of the ruling party in the Senate, for the purpose of this intervention, to ensure that consideration is given to all in recognition of merit, competence, records of achievements in public office, political pedigree, commitment to national interest and fidelity to the party.
In fact, the choice of who becomes the senate president, in June this year, has been clearly located in and predicated on Section 50 (1a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The leadership of the ruling party (that will be guided by the President) is protected and strengthened to move in a surefooted manner to determine who can work independently and interdependently with the executive arm in aid of executive-legislature harmony with eyes on synergy for national interest as against personal partisan interest.
The ruling party must be intentional about what it wants and who can deliver on its mandate(s). Once that person is known and chosen, the leadership should set machinery in motion to push the candidate through in a process that is seamless. Again, in doing so, the fundamental consideration must be compliance with the provisions of the constitution over and above other extant rules. The ranking rule is liable to be challenged for its inconsistency with the constitutional provision for electing presiding officers. There are precedents: in 2007, Senator George Akume, fresh from his eight-year governorship voyage in Benue, made his bid for the senate presidency, challenging as it were, a ranking Senator David Mark. That was despite spirited moves to ensure that Akume was not nominated on the floor of the Senate. For a senator to be considered for the race (the same thing applies to the Speaker and their deputies), he must be nominated and the nomination must be seconded. Once that is done, it does not matter whether the senator is ranking or not, he becomes a candidate in the election of the presiding officer. It would now be left to senators-elect, under the guidance of the Clerk to the National Assembly, to decide who to saddle with the responsibility of presiding over the affairs of the Senate.
Another precedent: in 2015, Godswill Akpabio, who was then fresh from his eight-year governorship of Akwa Ibom state happened in the Senate and landed the position of Senate Minority Leader-without legislative experience, over and above ranking PDP senators. Akume and Akpabio acted within the contemplation and protection of the Nigerian Constitution.
At the risk of being described as devil’s advocate, I ask: whereas, Akpabio is qualified to be senate president and is jostling for it, who says, for instance, that a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), former governor of Edo State and former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, is not eminently qualified to be senate president? The magnitude of his track records as NLC president, his achievements as Edo governor and his contribution as national chairman to the development of the APC— in somewhat moving to devolve the structure of the party to the people in the states, promoting party supremacy and fostering business unusual while in the saddle of national chair, some of the reasons his leadership was upended by opposition elements within acting in concert with forces outside the party—is writ large.
Oshiomhole’s commitment to the APC— its progressive ideology that dates to the Action Congress (AC) years, on which platform he upstaged the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo governorship poll in 2007 (a result that the Appeal Court validated on November 12, 2008), through the party’s transformation into Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the birth and sustenance of the legacy APC—cannot be discounted. While some others enjoyed the best of the PDP before gravitating to the APC, Oshiomhole and the community of leaders in the AC held the ramparts in resistance of the PDP’s onslaught to neutralize the fulcrum of the progressive movement. This is a most opportune time for consolidation of shared values, principles and faith in Nigeria by the APC leadership in government.
In rounding off, I am not saying that Akpabio is not qualified to be senate president. Not at all. He is one of the best from the South-South zone. What I am saying is that, sans ranking rule which basis is tenuous in the face of the constitution, and in light of other factors adumbrated supra (which I will elucidate when it becomes necessary to do so in furtherance of my proposition), Oshiomhole looks the best for the position of senate president looking at the emerging shape, texture, content and temperament of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. What are the ruling party apparatchiks thinking? Or, let me put it more pointedly: what is on the mind of Tinubu?
▪︎Mr Ojeifo contributed this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com
By Kassim Omomia
The House of Representatives Committee on Steel has assured that it will effectively oversight all subsidiaries, agencies, especially research and development centres conneted to Ajaoukuta steel company and Steel development in the country, in order fulfil the long dream of making Nigeria a global steel producer
Chairman of the House Steel Sub- Committee on National Metallurgical Development Centre, NMDC , Hon Abdulmaleek Danga, stated in Jos during an oversight and investigation of petitions of contracts allegedlly awarded, paid- for, but not completed
He stated that the current Committee on Steel in the National Assembly was committed to ensuring proper oversight of steel devevelopment related agencies and research institutions so as to make Ajaokuta work this time around
Hon Danga told staff and top management cadre led by the Director General of the National Metallurgiical Develoomemt Centre, Professor Linus Asuquo, that the Committee was at the Centre in Jos, to carry out a thorough oversight and investigation , following a petition
He reminded the management , staff and Unions of the NMCD of the importance of the establishment of the Centre as a critical support base to sustain Ajaokuta Steel company
“We are here. We will do a thorough job here to sustain Ajaojuta and make it work. This place, (NMDC) must work first before we go to Ajaokuta”
Adressing the petition, Hon Danga pointed that with the avalanche of petitions against the NMDC, the place cannot work
He noted that petitions without facts and figures are retrogresive and create backwardness and stunt growth of any organisation
He noted that even though petitions have become the order of the day in our public life, they are undesirable, create backwardness ,stunt growth and as well create impressions that government agencies are wasting resources, especially when the petitions are without facts and figures
He added that the House was set to ensure the sustenance of NMCD and other ancillary steel agencies. so that Ajaokuta which is so dear to the current government can come on full stream
The subcomittee oversighting NMCD,Jos, which also included Honourable Ayuba Danba, Hon Domimic Okafor,embarked on a facility tour of the massive centre after a thorough session with management, top Staff, contractors, visiting the various departments, laboratories and workshops and projects executed by contractors especially those disputed in the petitions currently investigated by the sub-committee.
The Committee also addressed some aggrieved union leaders, who laid siege on the committee members in one of the sections of the Centre to express their grievances and alleged mismanagement of the Institute by the Prof Asuquo management
Hon Danga, however, appealed to both sides to work harmoniuosly , so that the current efforts of reviving Ajaokuta are achieved by the House of Representatives Committee on Steel and the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
According to the lawmaker, there is a noticeable lack of communication between the management and some critical stakeholders in the institute, which can result to misunderstanding, misconception about the Centre ,and thus, the avalanche of petitions
“Please work together, so that the current administration can revive Ajaokuta and make Nigeria a steel producing country, which is a dream long sought” he, advised
About 1000 Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, under the auspices of Coalition Of Civil Society Organisations, CCSOs, on Saturday Faults President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Economic Team and called for immediate reconstitution.
Expressing deep concern and worry over the state of the economy and escalating fuel prices compounding the hardship of Nigerians despite the recent protest, the groups said Tinubu must act now to avert disintegration.
The groups said the current situation across the country has cast doubt on the competence of the Tinubu economic team and called for urgent review.
The CCSOs in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mallam Ibrahim Mohammed, pointed out that the plight of Nigerians is sinking low and their patience is wearing off following the deteriorating economy.
The statement reads in part, “The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) is deeply concerned about the deteriorating state of the Nigerian economy, which is becoming increasingly unbearable for millions of citizens.
“It is evident that the recent hike in fuel prices and the unstable exchange rate are the direct results of economic mismanagement by those responsible for overseeing our nation’s financial policies. The ripple effects of these failures are being felt in every household across the country, worsening poverty and crippling economic activity.
“The floating of the Naira, which was initially sold to Nigerians as a means of stabilizing our currency, has done little to prevent the continued devaluation of the Naira. In fact, the exchange rate disparity has widened significantly, with the Naira losing value daily, impacting the cost of living, basic commodities, and inflation.
“While this policy was expected to ease foreign exchange pressure, it has instead deepened economic challenges due to poor implementation and lack of strategic foresight.”
The coalition also expressed concern over what it described as death trap of indebtedness of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, which also they claimed had slowed down importation of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, hence the current shortage of PMS across the country.
“Of equal concern is the precarious position of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which finds itself in a debt trap, with global suppliers of petroleum products losing confidence in Nigeria’s ability to honour its obligations.
“Reports have shown that NNPCL has accrued debts totalling over $6 billion, causing petrol supply shortages. International suppliers are now reluctant to continue providing fuel on credit, exacerbating supply chain issues and pushing up the price of petrol at the pump”, they claimed.
The CSOs also asserted that, “We hold the managers of the Nigerian economy responsible for these disturbing developments. Their inability to provide sound policies and long-term solutions has left the nation in this predicament.
“It is clear that there is no cohesive strategy to address the rising debt, the growing imbalance in the foreign exchange market, or the country’s heavy reliance on importation for petrol supply. The recent hike in fuel prices reflects the collapse of responsible economic management and accountability.
“Nigerians are left to bear the brunt of these failures. Businesses are shutting down, transportation costs have skyrocketed, and citizens are spending an increasingly larger percentage of their income on basic necessities. This state of affairs is unacceptable.”
The group therefore placed some demands; Immediate intervention from the government: There needs to be a comprehensive and transparent plan to stabilize the Naira, restore confidence in the petroleum supply chain, and negotiate a restructuring of NNPC’s debts to ensure continuous fuel supply.
“Accountability for economic mismanagement: Those responsible for the reckless management of our foreign exchange policies and NNPC’s debts must be held accountable. The government must also disclose its plan to mitigate the rising fuel costs and economic burden on Nigerians.
“A return to sound financial policy: The floating of the Naira has proven ineffective under current conditions. We call for a re-evaluation of monetary and fiscal policies to stabilize the economy, reduce inflation, and attract foreign investment.
“In conclusion, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations reiterates that without immediate corrective measures, the economic situation will continue to deteriorate, leading to further hardship for the average Nigerian. The government must act decisively and responsibly to reverse this downward spiral”, they added.
…..Says They ‘re Bunch of Hypocrites,
By Sim Omo
A group known as Patriots of Nigerian Democracy has lambasted the 2023 Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and other leaders of the party for saying they will take over Lagos State in 2027.
It will be recalled that Rhodes-Vivour while speaking to journalists in Umuahia, Abia State capital at the end of LP’s extended stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday said that they will take over Lagos.
“LP is now well structured, not just to win but to take power in 2027. What we have come to do here in Umuahia is to bring everybody on the same page. We are set for new victories in 2027.
“I believe Labour Party will win Lagos State more convincingly in 2027. Since after the 2023 elections, work has not stopped; we have not gone quiet. Every day, we are getting stronger and stronger.
“So, we are not just going to win but stand up and take power”, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour had said in Umuahia.
Reacting to the statement, the group said that LP leaders are a bunch of hypocrites who pretend to be on the side of the people but neck deep in their selfish interests.
The statement jointly signed by the President of the group, Comrade Olaolu Esan and the Secretary, Engr. Abdullahi Rabiu recalled that LP and its supporters recently attacked the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu for urging the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti to rejoin the All Progressives Congress (APC), vowing that the ruling party will win the State in 2027 in a viral video.
“All hell was let loose recently when the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu in a video that went viral called on the Governor of his own Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti to rejoin APC.
“Kalu came under heavy criticism and attacks by LP and its supporters. They criticized him for speaking his mind. They made Nigerians to see him in bad light as if what he said was a taboo.
“But here we are. Just about one or two weeks afterwards, the same LP leaders assembled in Umuahia, the Abia State capital to issue a quit notice to APC in Lagos.
“So, where is their nobility? Where is their shame? They abandoned governance for politics of 2027. How does that make them the “Saints” of the Nigerian politics? Are they for the people or against the people?
“We had thought that the LP leaders gathered in Umuahia to discuss the biting economy and the solution. We had thought they gathered to tell Nigerians how they will entrench good governance in Abia State but didn’t know their meeting was about strategies to take over Lagos, an APC controlled State. We have waited for Abia Governor, Dr. Alex Otti to call Rhodes-Vivour to order or to at least tell him, it is not yet time for politics but more than 24 hours, none of the LP’s leaders has done that.
“We want to say that this is very unfortunate. It simply means that politicians irrespective of their political parties and leanings are all one and same. They always think about the next election and not about good governance. They are always after their personal agenda and selfish interests.
“If this will be tolerated, it simply means that the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Kalu is vindicated. Labour Party supporters owe the Deputy Speaker a collective apology for attacking what he said and saying what they attacked. This is hypocrisy.
“Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s comment indicates and gives a feeling that the media attacks on Kalu were actually sponsored even though it was highly unnecessary. LP leaders can’t be a bunch of hypocrites.
“Our concerns are good governance and the welfare of the Nigerian people. While we are not saying that politicians should not “battle” themselves over 2027, they must ensure that Nigerians get the dividends of democracy. Good governance should not be sacrificed on the altar of politics. Nigerians should not be shortchanged in anyway rather their lives should be improved by every means possible. That is our position”, the statement stated.
