“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty’ – Theodore Roosevelt
The 9th Senate under Senator Ahmad Lawan has a lot of work on its hand to escape from the warning of the British Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow that a “A legislature cannot be effective while suffering from public scorn”.
The indicator light coming out of the current Senate is not showing that the Nigerian public is going to see a robust parliament this time. Even as they may likely win award in the area of Legislative-Executive harmony, what would be conspicuously missing is going to be that vital ingredients that make parliament seen as the soul and mind of the people and democracy.
When a parliament loses its essence in the guise of maintaining good working relationship with the executive, it would have a lot of struggling to do to impress the populace that it’s delivering in its primary responsibilities of making laws for the good governance of the country as well as standing as a check on the excesses of the Executive arm. No parliament gets accolade for being a butt of the executive.
The proper rating of a democratic system anywhere in the world is based on its parliamentary duties and the electoral process. Where and when these two features are deficient or absent, democracy cannot be said to have been standing on a good foundation. Back in the month of June this year when the executive and the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), were making frantic efforts to impose leadership on the two chambers of the 9th Assembly, parliamentary watchers had forewarned of the far reaching implications, and how such was going to deny the nation of a vibrant legislation. I think the hand writing is beginning to show.
It appears that what we are going to see with the 9th Senate will be garbage-in garbage-out. Whatever the Executive brings goes back to it unscathed. To try to scrutinize any Executive document could be misconstrued as disloyalty and a breach of rules of engagement of the promised Executive/Legislative harmony.
When a parliament especially a major chamber like the Senate carries the apparel of a rubber stamp legislature, everybody is a loser. The Executive will miss the critical and necessary evaluation of its policies that could help stimulate Executive functions. In its absence, the legislature will be biddable, spineless and boring to the public. When an invertebrate parliament exists in a nation, the ultimate loser will be the people.
The first sign of the kind of Senate in offing in this dispensation was seen during the screening of ministers where no serious effort was made to examine the nominees despite the glaring debility in their backgrounds. Added to that is the rush to approve taxes and loan requests from the Executives at federal and states without much interrogations or consideration of its consequences to the already overwhelmed citizens.
The embattled National Chairman of the ruling party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole last week curiously celebrated the non-return of some Senators of the 8th Senate. He claimed that the Senators they stopped were the problems of the 8th Senate and were indeed saboteurs to President Muhammadu Buhari’s humdrum first term.
But not a few are in agreement with Oshiomhole on his groundless assertions. Rather pundits believe that these characters on record contributed significantly in the enviable image of the 8th Senate despite the orchestrated distractions from the Executive that included the prosecution and trial of the then Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Let us just envision the image of the 9th Senate without Senators Dino Melaye and Shehu Sani. The drama that usually comes from Dino that often lightens and recharges the chamber will be missed, ditto the comics from activist Senator Sani with his witty words. Some of Senator Dino’s behaviour outside the Chamber may not be befitting of a distinguished lawmaker but it does not diminish his outstanding contributions in the chamber and to his constituency for which he would be greatly missed.
Already from July to date what we have seen coming out of the red chamber has been a boring near rubber stamp deliberative body that is clearly incapable of galvanizing the Executive and acting as the conscience of the people.
Oshiomhole celebrating exit of these senators forgets the impelling atmosphere and intellectual inputs these characters brought to the last Senate. In this 9th Senate except of course the insightful and intuitive contributions of the native boy and minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, it has been a drearily and a near lifeless legislature. The hot heads that made it a robust parliament in the last Senate are conspicuously missing. The Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who acted like an encyclopaedia to the 8th Senate although still in the 9th has been AWOL this time for obvious reasons, descending from number two man in the red chamber to just a floor member, naturally comes with some psychological issues and that is perhaps worsened by the senseless and needless act of insubordination by some Biafra agitators at the ill-fated new yam festival in Germany in August this year.
That Dino was forced out of the Senate not for non-performance or constituent’s rejection but just for standing up to the Executive says a much about the democracy we are running. That Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State with an undisputed report of being the worst governor in the country in the last four years was forced on the people in the same election that Dino was forced out, also speaks a lot about our own definition of democracy in this part of the globe. Even more voluminous a concern is the fact that blood was spilled to achieve this by a government that is a huge beneficiary of a rare disposition from President Goodluck Jonathan who left government because he does not believe his ambition is worth the spilling of blood of any Nigerian.
Even as we continue to pretend that all is well with our democracy, truth remains that unless those blood wasted are that of sheep or chicken, all cannot be said to be alright with our polity.
In a country where a President relinquished power because he did not feel his ambition is worth the blood of a single citizen, and the beneficiaries of such gesture wastes human blood in the process of grabbing power, it then means no lesson was picked from that enormous sacrifice.
Even as the ruling party and the Executive arm of government appear to be in a state of thrill over the non-availability of certain Senators in the 9th Senate, the huge task for Senator Lawan-led red chamber is to try and meet up with the expectations of the people as well as captured by the British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that: “It is the right of a democratically elected parliament to act in defence of our traditional liberties, and everything should be done to keep it that way.”
May it not be the portion of this 9th Senate that in 2023, their image will not be such as the American Senate at a time that the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt had to poke that: “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty. God help us.
Culled from newtelegraphng.com