2014 was an eventful year in the Upper House.The Senate was characterized by so many breaks, especially with 2014 being the preceding year to the 2015 general elections. What is more, primary elections across all political parties changed the fate of many senators. This report takes a look at the good, bad and ugly developments in the Senate in 2014.
Defection Drama
Early in the year the tension in the Upper House was so thick, it could have been cut with a knife . This was because some senators, after months of speculation, decided to defect from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Nigerians watched with deep anticipation, the defection drama that was set to play out in the Senate.Some lawmakers in the House of Representatives had earlier defected from the PDP to the APC with no hassles from the leadership of the House, but it was a different scenario at the Senate. House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal has been accused, in several quarters, of being sympathetic to opposition parties in the country, a position the speaker vehemently denied, claiming he is speaker for all Nigerians and not for the PDP alone.
Part one of the drama started when 11 senators, in a joint letter to the Senate president,David Mark, signaled their intention to defect from the PDP to the APC. The senators are Bukola Saraki, Abdulahi Adamu, Shaba Lafiaji, Ibrahim Gobir, Aisha Al-Hassan, Magnus Abe, Wilson Ake, Mohammed Jibrilla, Danjuma Goje, Ali Ndume and Umar Dahiru.
However, the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary that day, refused to read the letter, citing the absence of Mark as reason.
The second part of the drama unfolded when the Senate, in a bid to avoid washing its dirty linen in public, in an executive session, tried to persuade the aggrieved senators but to no avail. Senate spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, had earlier told newsmen that senators could not defect jointly as they were all elected individually. After trying unsuccessfully to persuade the senators from defecting in the closed-door session, a drama played out in plenary .
Five out of the 11 senators tried to defect individually, coming through the chamber’s facility of point of order. Senator Bukola Saraki opened the floor when he raised a point of order and cited Section 15 of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), and announced that his privilege as a senator was breached.
He informed the Senate president that he and 10 other senators had written a letter of defection which the Senate leadership had refused to read on the floor. He added that Mark literally and legally foreclosed any further attempt by the 11 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Though five out of the 11 PDP senators at plenary made spirited efforts to invoke their order of privilege, Mark pointedly told them that since the matter was already before a court, they would have to wait until the judicial process was over.
Senator David Mark, relying on Order 53(5) of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), successively deflected their planned defection to the APC.
Responding, Mark referred him to Order 53(5) which reads: “Reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending, in such a way as might in the opinion of the president of the Senate prejudice the interest of the parties thereto.”
Mark said: “It cannot be a matter of privilege to you because the matter is in court and no mention should be made of it. Therefore, I rule you out of order.”
Efforts by some PDP senators to declare the seats of the intending defectors vacant were also thwarted as Mark rebuffed the attempt, also ruling them out of order.
Undeterred, some of the aggrieved senators said they were already in the APC and that the Senate president was on his own.
David-Mark 2
Alleged Missing $49 Billion And Senate’s Clearance Of NNPC
Senate’s investigation of funds allegedly not remitted to the nation’s coffers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) took another dimension when the Senate Committee on Finance led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi submitted its report to the Senate.
Curiously, the committee revealed that no money was missing, contrary to former Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s bombshell that many believed may have led to his untimely removal from the apex bank.
Last year, Sanusi had written to President Goodluck Jonathan, alleging that $49 billion was still not remitted by the NNPC to the federation account. This revelation sparked outcry among Nigerians who demanded for a probe.
Curiously, by the time the Senate committee commenced full-blown investigation into the matter, Sanusi, the whistle blower, turned around on the said amount when he dramatically claimed that it was $10 billion and not $49.8b that was missing. To the chagrin of all and sundry, including his sympathisers, the Kano-born prince later pegged the missing amount at $20 billion.
Taking advantage of Sanusi’s blunders, The minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, suggested to the Senate committee that a forensic audit of the NNPC needed to be carried out. This was just as the presidency hinted that President Goodluck Jonathan had also ordered that a forensic audit should be conducted on the NNPC.
Addressing Senate correspondents on the sidelines during the oil money probe, NNPC’s group managing director, Andrew Yakubu, insisted that the fact that the money did not go into the federation account does not mean it didn’t go to other beneficiaries.
Accordingly, he cautioned the media against misinterpreting facts about the missing money, saying it will send wrong signal to the international community about the country. He added that the country needed foreign investment to reach its economic potentials, but lamented that issues like the controversy trailing the missing oil form were capable of discouraging prospective investors.
The Committee’s final report stated that Sanusi was too hasty and got his figures wrong. However, the committee ordered the NNPC to refund and remit to the federation account, the sum of $262 million, being expenses it could not satisfactorily defend in respect of holding strategic stock reserve, pipeline maintenance and management cost and capital expenditure.
According to the report, Sanusi lied over the missing money and they could not see how the figure of 49.8b was arrived at by the former CBN governor in the first instance.
“That the CBN governor, at the first hearing, had put forward the figure of $12 billion as monies to be reconciled and changed his position to 20 at subsequent hearing. At the conclusion of his written submission, he posited it could be 20,12, 19.8 or anything in between.”
“That the CBN governor orally or in writing never outrightly submitted that monies were missing but that monies were not remitted to federation account by the NNPC. That there was poor record keeping and non- challenges work attitude by the NNPC by not rendering returns on subsidy claims on monthly basis from January 2012 to date which contributed largely to creation of the problem in hand.
It seems that the NNPC may have been vindicated in its quest to clear it’s name regarding the missing money which has put the corporation under intense public scrutiny since the allegations was made public by Sanusi.
The Rumpus Over 2014 Budget
The 2014 Appropriation Bill which was laid before the National Assembly in mid December of 2013 raised a lot of dust in both chambers of the National Assembly.
Trouble started from the adoption of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), with the oil benchmark as the major point of controversy. The executive submitted the proposed MTEF document to the National Assembly with a projected $74 per barrel crude oil benchmark.
However, following series of debates, consultations and lobbying, both the executive and the legislature agreed to $76.5 as the benchmark for crude oil. However, in a twist of event, while the Senate adopted the agreed benchmark of $76.5, majority of members in the House of Representatives disagreed on the ground that there was no concrete reason to reduce the projected price of crude oil in 2014 since nothing has altered in 2013 to call for it. They were insisting on $79 which was the amount passed for a barrel of crude oil in 2013 budget.
After weeks of internal strife and incongruity, the conference committee of the National Assembly finally agreed on $77.5 as the benchmark crude price for the 2014 budget which paved way for the presentation of the budget.
The 2014 Appropriation Bill has seen one of the most heated debate in the history of budgeting in the 7th Assembly, characterised by disparagement, vilifications, criticisms and counter criticisms for and against the general principle of the fiscal document.
Debates on the budget sharply divided the Senate and even the House of Representatives along party lines as lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) extraction faulted the budget proposal in its entirety, labelling it an anti people budget with the worst deal for the nation. This, of course, did not go down well with PDP lawmakers who threw their entire weight behind the budget.
However, after all the filibustering and delays, the apex legislature adopted and passed a harmonised figure of N4.6 trillion. The Senate’s version was passed on April 9, while that of the House of Representatives was passed on April 10 2014.
The 2014 Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly was transmitted to the presidency, Tuesday April 22.
The president has submitted the 2015 budget and MTEF with oil benchmark pegged at $65 due to fall in the price of oil worldwide.
Ekweremadu
Senate Passes Pension Bill
Pensioners in the country are known to go through hardship. It is a well-known fact that after working for 35 years, most Nigerian workers have nothing to show for it. Pictures of old men waiting in line for verification exercise are pitiful sights.
Non-payment of entitlements, omission of pensioners’ names from payroll, under-payment of pensioners, delayed pension payment and non-payment of arrears and gratuities are the orders of the day in the life of pensioners in Nigeria.
In other parts of the world, workers usually look forward to their retirement but the opposite is the case in Nigeria as workers usually dread retirement and in most cases, some civil servants usually falsify their ages to stay longer in service as life after retirement is not something to look forward to.
In most developed countries, monies gotten from pension, which runs into millions and billions, are used to develop sectors of the economy of the country. Pension fund administration has been rocked with fraud and embezzlement in recent times in the country.
In view of all these, the Senate, after many months of foot-dragging, finally passed the Pension Reform Act 2014.
The controversial clause of the post- qualifications years of experience of the director-general of Pension Commission was lowered to 15 years from the previous 20 years experience.
With the passage of this clause, the acting PenCom DG, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, may be appointed in substantive capacity as under the former Act, she was not qualified to hold the position as she did not possess the 20 years experience required.
The bill also prescribed a 10-year jail term for anyone who misappropriates pension fund. apart from refunding three times the amount embezzled by him or her.
It also stipulates that whoever attempts to misappropriate the fund, on conviction, will be liable to the same punishment as prescribed for the full offence in the Act.
One of the clauses stipulates that all monies received as penalty by the Pension Commission shall be paid into the Pension Protection Fund which would had been established under Section 82 of the Act.
Also, Federal Capital Territory, states or local government and private sector individual will benefit from this new law as they will receive pension benefits as and when due and the scheme covers private organisations with at least three or more employees.
The Act also mandates anyone who misappropriates pension fund to forfeit to the federal government, any property, asset or fund with accrued interest on the stolen money.
Also, a fine of N10m will be imposed on any pension fund administrator who fails to meet the obligations of the contributors while each of the directors of the firm would pay N5m each as fines.
Explaining further, chairman, Senate Committee on Pensions and Establishment, Senator Alloysius Etuk, said history was made with the passage of the law as it will lead to a better pension service.
He said:”Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the commission may, in addition to the penalties stipulated under this Act, impose additional sanctions on the board, any director, management, manger or officer of a pension fund administrator.
On why the committee decided to lower the post qualification years of the director general, he said: “When the committee report got to the chamber on the first day of presentation of the report, the committee’s recommendation of a fit and proper person was rejected and 15 years of post qualification was adopted. So the post qualification experience for the one who would be director general of PENCOM is 15 years.
“In Nigeria, professional pension administration would be about 10 because we are talking about cognate experience not post qualification experience. Because if you are talking about post qualification experience, what about somebody who has 30-years post qualification experience with two years cognate pension experience? Is he better than someone with 10 years cognate experience in pension administration?
“So having realised that we have slightly below 10-years professional pension administration experience possessed by anybody in this country, we decided that the person must have had 5 years somewhere else and then have additional 10 years cognate experience in professional pension management. That would be a fit and proper person to serve as DG. So, the current situation as contained and accepted is 15 years post qualification experience for the post of DG PENCOM.”
On penalty for defaulters, he said; “The head of service and heads of different departments have now directed all the accounting departments to make sure that whatever is pension deduction should be treated as a sacred one and immediately transmitted to the receiving authority.
“The problem which PENCOM has continuously explained to us is there are people who have failed to provide genuine and credible data on themselves including their PFAs. There are some who have not even appointed PFAs and therefore once such funds are deducted they kept in accounts pending when they have the data to transfer them. We have like buffer stock funds pending in different places. “
Emergency Rule Extension
The emergency rule in Adamawa ,Yobe and Borno States was a major highlight this year.
The situation on ground is looking worse off than when the emergency rule was put in place in May as the insurgents have increased their activities, resulting in over 5000 deaths since May.They were fears by the opposition that another extension of the emergency rule will roll over to next year’s general elections and elections may not hold in the three states which are regarded as strongholds of the opposition. But after failure of the state of emergency to control the rising violence in the region, the president’s letter for extension of the state of emergency was met with stiff opposition, particularly from the northern senators.
In November this year, most lawmakers decided they were done with the extension. After several closed door meetings among themselves and service chiefs, the Senate did not approve the extension before it expired in November.
Ammendments To The Constitution
The National Assembly, in passing the amendments to the constitution , strengthened the administration of local governments in Nigeria by providing for their funding, tenure, elections and clearly delineating their powers and responsibilities.
The Senate had earlier voted on 63 clauses while the House of Representatives voted on 71 clauses. The removal of immunity clause from governors and the controversial Clause 9 which gives the president powers to initiate a new constitution did not make it to the final harmonised version.
Sections 134 and 179 to extend the time for conducting presidential or governorship re-run elections to 21 days instead of seven days for both presidential and gubernatorial elections scaled through.
They also gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to deregister political parties for non-fulfilment of certain conditions such as breach of registration requirements and failure to win either a presidential, governorship, local government chairmanship or a seat in the national or state assembly.
The contentious state of the nation address which makes it mandatory for the president to attend a joint meeting of the National Assembly once a year was also approved.
Immunity was conferred on legislators in respect of words spoken or written in the exercise of their legislative duties while Section 59 authorises the Senate president to convene a joint meeting of the National Assembly to reconsider a money bill where the president withholds his assent.
On failure of a president or governor to assent to a bill within 30 days, Sections 58 and 100 resolved the impasse where the president or governor of a state neglects to signify his assent or withholds such assent. This will strengthen the legislature’s authority and enable timely passage of laws for good governance.
It also approves the establishment of the office of the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and attorney-general of a state respectively to be distinct from that of the minister of justice and commissioner of justice.
The proposed new constitution also enhances the sovereignty of the citizens through their elected representatives by removing the need for presidential assent in constitution alteration exercise.
The report also, in one of its clauses, reduces the period within which the president or the governor of a state may authorise the withdrawal of moneys from the consolidated revenue funds in the absence of an Appropriation Act from six to three months and also creates office of the accountant-general for the federal government.
The recent trend of government officials ignoring summons from the National Assembly was also taken care of by empowering the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly respectively to prescribe sanctions, civil or criminal, or both, for failure, refusal or neglect to obey summons issued by a legislative house or any of its committees.
It also engenders accountability and efficient service delivery by providing for the funding of the state Houses of Assembly, auditor-general of the state and the attorney-general of a state directly from the state’s consolidated revenue fund and the consequential provisions of the making of the local government a full third tier of government by creating the office of the auditor-general of the local government as well as the state local government service commission and deleting the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).
Section 228 confers powers on the National Assembly to make laws for the procedures, guidelines and qualifications for access to the ballot by political parties and independent candidates, and it also provides that a court or tribunal shall not stay any proceedings on account of any interlocutory appeal.
It also approves the conferment of exclusive jurisdiction on the federal high court for trial of electoral offences and provides for time for determination of pre-election matters, establishment of local governments election tribunal and time for determination of election petitions.
In particular, it provides that where a force majeure occurs, the period of the force majeure shall not be counted in the computation of the 180 days for the purpose of determining election petitions.
On exclusive executive powers, the report said such powers under Part 1 to the schedule of the constitution are “congested, cumbersome and unwieldy. There is therefore the need to decongest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of uttermost to the federation as a whole and transferring some items to the concurrent list.
“The committee therefore substituted post and telegraphs with post and telecommunications, included national security agencies and removed pensions, railways, stamp duties and wages from the exclusive list. The following items were transferred and included in the concurrent list: arbitration, environment, health, housing, railways, road safety, stamp duties, wages, land and agriculture, youths.”
enyinaya abaribe
Jonathan’s Impeachment Saga
What began as a rumour gradually gained grounds as some members of the National Assembly, in both chambers, promised to make their threat to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan a reaality. According to the arrowheads of the impeachment plot, 50 impeachable offences have been listed against President Jonathan.
The impeachment rumour started when some Peoples Democratic Party senators lost out in their wards congresses. Feeling betrayed by the president, they threatened to shut down all legislative activities until the party cancels the ward congresses. Some senators mooted the idea of impeachment against the president to drive home their point .The impeachment threat is being used by the senators was widely reported to be a negotiating tool with the party to grant them automatic tickets.
LEADERSHIP checks reveal that the police invasion of the National Assembly on November 20 was aimed at achieving two targets. The first plot was to stop the speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal from entering the House while PDP members present in the House could go ahead and impeach him.
On the other hand the speaker and his loyalists were also armed with their own agenda – to start impeachment processes against the president. Both plans were eventually thwarted as the police tear-gassed members of the National Assembly, prompting the senate president to shut down the National Assembly on that eventful day.
The arrowheads of the impeachment saga have listed President Jonathan’s poor handling of the economy, political affairs, poor implementation of the national budget since 2011, high level of corruption and “gross disregard” for the legislature at both the federal and state levels as some of the grounds for Jonathan’s impeachment.
63 Senators with some members of the House of Representatives (reportedly 200) have already allegedly set the ball rolling. An opposition senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity disclosed that the impeachment plot has the backing of their colleagues in the PDP.
Senate Passes National Health Bill
The National Health bill, regarded as the Nigerian version of the Obamacare, was finally passed in the Senate early this year after some delays and controversies surrounding some clauses in the bill.One of the cardinal points of any government is to provide basic health care for all its citizens. Nigeria is ranked among one of the lowest in the world by the World Health Organization (WHO) simply because the country allocates less than 5 % its annual budget to the health sector and as such, leads to a very weak health system.
The country still has one of the highest rate of infant mortality and is in no way nearer to achieving it’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in health by 2015 as majority of people in the country still do not have easy access to quality medical care and where they are available in some cases, it is out of the reach of the ordinary citizens. In view of this and to correct this anomaly, medical experts called for a robust encompassing health Bill to safeguard the health of the nation.
The health bill is akin to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) of the oil sector. After months of speculations and deferment of debates on the bill, the Senate finally did the needful by passing the National Health Bill to provide a framework for the regulation, development and management of a National Health system and set standards for rendering health services in the federation.
The Bill was initially passed by the sixth Senate but the president did not assent to it. 