Bound On Ego Trip
From John-Abba Ogbodo, Abuja
PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, through proxy, has laid the 2010 budget proposal before the Senate and House of Representatives separately, but that has not laid to rest the feud and acrimony between the two chambers of the National Assembly over the venue for a joint presentation. Not even the intervention of the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which controls over two-third of the national legislature, could thaw the long bottled up impasse. It all started, ostensibly, in January this year in Minna, when the House members on the joint constitution review committee decided to go solo over a disagreement on co-chairmanship of the meeting.
WHAT started like a parliamentary joke last March in Minna, the capital of Niger State, when the joint committee of the National Assembly on the review of the 1999 Constitution went on retreat, has become a full blown altercation, with the potential of holding the entire nation to ransom.
The joint committee went to Minna to map out strategies for the review of the constitution, but along the line, the 44-man team from the House of Representatives withdrew from the exercise, because Deputy Speaker Usman Bayero Nafada, who is the chairman of the House committee on the review, was reduced to number Two by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.
The expectation of the House was that both Ekweremadu and Nafada would share roles as equals on the committee, but the Senate committee preferred Nafada to play the second fiddle.
In the process, the committee from the House withdrew from the retreat and returned to Abuja, opting to embark on an independent exercise.
This is not the first time the issue of ego is raising dust in the National Assembly. In 2006, when an attempt was made to alter the constitution, the same problem arose between then Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu and House Deputy Speaker Austin Opara. It took the rage of members of the constitution review committee from the House for the decision to be reversed. So, both Mantu and Opara jointly chaired the committee.
Similarly, when the joint committee later broke into zonal sittings, principal officers from both chambers co-chaired at the sittings until they reconvened in Port Harcourt to write the final report, where tenure elongation for former President Olusegun Obasanjo was surreptitiously brought in.
But both chambers came together in one spirit to reject the review, which was done then.
Some people have argued that their disagreement was over the issue of funds, with rumours that the two chambers had different formulae for sharing the N1billion earmarked for the exercise.
But Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Eseme Eyibo, said it had nothing to do with money. "What the House is saying is that the proper thing should be done. The two chambers constituted two different committees and nominated their chairmen. All they need to do is accord each other respect and not to begin to look down on the other person, because someone feels he is the senior. The two chambers are distinct and the constitution recognises that. That is why, unless a bill goes through both chambers, it cannot be passed into law," he argued.
The disagreement has created bad blood between both chambers, as they have since then continued to look at each other with suspicion.
The House sees the disagreement over presentation of the 2010 Budget as an attempt by the Senate to retaliate against the House's decision to carry out an independent review of the 1999 Constitution.
Sources told The Guardian that the major reason for the current face-off, which has made their leaders poles apart, has to do with the forces behind their emergence. Quite unlike what used to be the situation in the National Assembly, where former Senate Presidents and Speakers of the Red and Green chambers, respectively, exchanged visits and even had meals together, Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Dimeji Bankole have maintained a distance.
It has been said that Mark and House immediate past Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, were installed by Obasanjo and there would have been a synergy between the House and the Senate if Etteh had remained.
But forces in the House that brought Bankole to power have an axe to grind with the former president. This ostensibly explains all efforts by the Ahmadu Ali-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to intervene during the plot to remove Etteh failed.
Bankole is perceived to have emerged from the rank of the radicals in the House and should not be allowed to dine with the 'elders,' but he seems to be in perfect charge of affairs in the House.
Also, many members of the House are not comfortable with the way some senators refer to them as "those boys" and therefore, have always looked for an opportunity to show the Senate that they are not boys but men or that the boys have grown up, having spent almost 10 years in the National Assembly, while some senators are barely three years.
So, when the Senate resolved not to go to the Green Chamber for the presentation of the 2010 Budget by the President, it was a way for them to show that they have come of age.
There has also been the question of which of the chambers is senior in the legislative functions. Since the return of democracy in 1999, there has never been a period where this issue of seniority received such attention as in this dispensation.
Former Senate Presidents Chuba Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara and Ken Nnamani had robust relationships with past Speakers of the House, as well as interactions that saved many dangerous situations in the National Assembly.
In some instances, they would use their personal relationships to quell crises in both chambers. One particular instance that readily comes to mind was the great march from the Green Chamber to the Red Chamber, which some analysts would describe as the 'Crossing of the Red Sea' during the era of the late Okadigbo and former Speaker Umar Ghali Na'Abba.
There was a rumour that the senators were going to unseat Okadigbo and on account of that, Na'Abba went very early to Okadigbo's office to find out whether the rumour had any substance. After listening to Okadigbo, who confirmed that there had been meetings the previous night by some senators that wanted him out, the former Speaker went and held another meeting with principal officers of the House, where it was agreed that if there was any attempt to remove Okadigbo that day, the Speaker should lead the entire House to the Senate chamber and appeal to them not to do the bidding of the executive that was then believed to be sponsoring Okadigbo's ouster.
When the Senate plenary session began and words reached Na'Abba that the senators were trying to make good the threat to remove Okadigbo, the House Speaker caused a motion to be moved on the floor of the House to allow members march to the Senate chamber to halt what he described as "a planted instability."
He immediately led the members to the Senate chamber, where most of the senators expressed shock. Okadigbo sought the leave of the Senate to allow Na'Abba deliver his message, in which he appealed to the senators to set aside emotions and listen to their conscience and the sanctity of the legislature.
That message assuaged the senators and the move to remove Okadigbo was put on hold.
After the great march to the Red Chamber, the leadership of the House thought the then Presidential Liaison Officer in the National Assembly, Dr. Esther Uduehi, was the person being used by Obasanjo to create disharmony in both chambers and passed a motion barring her from the premises of the legislature.
The House directed the Sergeant-at-Arm to arrest her if sighted in the National Assembly.
Even during the era of Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari as Speaker of the House, Nnamani played some intervention role. On one occasion, when the former Masari was out of the country and some members who wanted him removed caused to be published an allegation of certificate forgery, the former Senate President had to call some of the members he suspected to be involved and told them the implication of their action. And that partly helped the matter do die.
In the current crisis of confidence between the two chambers, the ruling PDP, whose members are in the majority in the National Assembly, has waded in by inviting the leadership of both chambers and appealed to them not to rock the boat, because "it is our government."
However, the party has blamed the opposition parties in the country for the rift. Addressing a press conference during the week, its National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, said it was the opposition that caused the crisis and appealed to members of PDP to soft-pedal.
"It is our belief that these relentless attacks on our party through fifth columnists in the media will remain futile. No amount of desperation by the opposition will coerce and cajole the Nigerian people to choose any other party than the People Democratic Party (PDP). Nigerians love our party," he said.
He added: "Some vested interests in our midst, working in tandem with the opposition, are stoking these fires in the party," with the ultimate plot to frustrate the ongoing electoral reforms.
He stated: "We hereby assure all our loyal and committed members that we will soon smoke out those hobnobbing with the opposition under the guise of names as 'founding members, elders of the party, stakeholders, party leaders.' Their activities shall be investigated and culprits will be penalised in accordance with our party constitution.
"As we had always suspected and discovered in the past, the opposition is currently acting out a script aimed at frustrating ongoing electoral reforms through precipitating fear, violence and disharmony to invalidate coming elections.
"While the constitution is very clear on who presides at joint meetings, the issue over venue of the budget presentation is conventional. It is a tradition that we have held for about 10 years in the life of our democracy. It is in line with our democratic principles, as a means by the President to address both houses, the nation and the entire world at the same time.
"For the avoidance of doubt, Section 81(1) of the constitution says: 'The President shall cause to be prepared and lay before each house of the National Assembly, at any time, in each financial year, estimates of the revenue and expenditure of the federation for the next following financial year."
According to the party's scribe: "Flowing from the above, it is very clear to all and sundry what the constitution has stipulated. In the event, however, that a disagreement arises over where the President shall present the budget, the constitution does not mandate a venue.
"Rather, what it makes mandatory is that the President 'shall lay before each House of the national Assembly,' the budget."
In the same vein, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, reiterated that since a tradition had been established, it was the wish of the party that it should be followed.
"I will say, first and foremost, that there have been regular consultations with the leadership of the National Assembly. This is not the first time that the party has reason to call them or they have reason to come to the secretariat to brief us on the progress in the National Assembly and matters arising thereof.
"Therefore, it is a routine thing and the responsibility of the party to maintain close collaboration with them and we had a very useful discussions with them and they have already gone back," he said.
He explained the reason for inviting the leadership of both chambers: "The party invited them because the President was scheduled for the formal presentation of the budget and for one reason or the other, it could not hold.
"We were also expected to appear in the National Assembly to witness the presentation and since we learnt that it had been cancelled, we had to call them to know what was happening and they told us that it was still in progress.
"They have briefed us and we have asked them to go and put all those things in order, so that the President can now present his budget.'' But that was not to be, after all.
On the position of the party, he stated: "All I know is that all of us are students of history and politics and what you are saying is something that is not new, because traditionally, what happens is that budget presentation is often done in the House of Representatives, because it is a larger place and then the Senate President presides over. After the entire occasion, the Speaker gives a vote of thanks. This is a thing that is known by the Nigerian constitution.
"So, I don't think this should now take us back. The simple thing is that there is a tradition, which is backed by the constitution and which members of the National Assembly are well knowledgeable about, and we are going to work on that line."
There have been claims and counter -claims on the matter of seniority by both chambers of the National Assembly. Section 47 of the 1999 Constitution simply says: "There shall be a National Assembly for the federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.''
However, because of the job of confirmation of some appointees by the Senate and the size of their allowances and salaries, some have come to argue that the Red Chamber is senior to the House of Representatives.
Some people also argue that the House has the power of appropriation, because it has 360 members, while the Senate has 109 senators.
What it means is that if there is a disagreement over anything in the appropriation, the House can use its numerical strength to sway the votes to its side.
The caution, which has been severally conveyed to the legislators, is that they were voted not on the basis of personality or ego clash, but for the quality of legislation they could enact to make the project called Nigeria work.
So long as such face-off continues to reoccur, it is the electorate that will continue to beg for good roads, water and other infrastructure necessary to make Nigeria one of the 20 top countries in the world by 2020, as envisaged by the President.
