By Simbo Olorunfemi
It is difficult to tell
exactly what to make of the Nigerian Senate. It is that redundant contraption,
an after-thought, mindlessly foisted on the Nigerian system by the drafters of
the 1979 constitution in a bid to blindly copy the American system. Unfortunately,
neither the 1990 nor the 1999 constitution corrected this anomaly, leaving us
with a sore that has continued to fester, since then. The Green Chamber, that
ant-infested arm of a bloated legislature, might yet be the greatest undoing of
the present democratic dispensation.
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| *Senate President Bukola Saraki |
Under the parliamentary system of the first
republic, there was the Upper chamber or “House of Chiefs” fashioned after the
largely-ceremonial British “House of Lords”. Its task was as ceremonial as it
was institutionally redundant. But rather than for our Fathers to learn from
that misadventure and embrace a nimble and manageable unicameral parliamentary
system, they opted to embrace an expansive and expensive Presidential system.
The Senate personifies everything that is wrong with the present system. It symbolises
the waste, insensitivity, inefficiency that have come to define the system,
over the years. The Senate is a symbol of disconnect between those charged with
making laws and the people they purport to represent. Nothing in their words or
action indicates that they understand where we are coming from or an
understanding of the change of paradigm being witnessed in other arms of
government.
The
Senate has always struggled for relevance, no doubt. The
Enwerem-Okadigbo-Wabara era was one for internal schism over the spoils of
office. The dust settled only for the chamber to transit into the pocket of a
cabal, who for 8 years, turned it to a mere rubber-stamp for legislating
acquiescence to anti-people policies and pronouncements. The Mark of the
just-ended era was the military precision with which opposition was silenced in
the chambers. ‘Bow and Go’ was institutionalised, as the serious assignment of
screening and confirmation of nomination to high offices was reduced to a
tragicomedy, played out to the full glare of the world.
With the
exit of the first set of state Governors from office in 2007, the Senate soon
became the favourite retirement pad for former Chief Executives of states.
Those ones, standing on the ruins left behind in their states, simply picked
Senatorial seats, transitioned to new offices and continued the life in Abuja. Some are Governors-emeritus, running the states
from the Senate. Many are godfathers, dispensing favours at will - appointing,
disappointing, nominating, engaging in all manner of shenanigans, while
pretending to be Senators. The only use of the Senate being the perks, fat
allowance and the opportunity for ‘oversight’, as many are known to be
perpetual absentees from sittings. Those who show up hardly bother to make any
contribution, spending time mostly for banter and inanities, when they are able
to manage to stay awake.
Ordinarily, the Senate would do well to avoid
media or public attention, as much as possible. There is hardly anything about
it that commends it to us. From its filthy car-park to the disorderly face it
presents to the public, the Senate should be content to be silent, while at
‘work’. But the Senate operates only in accordance with its own rules when it
comes to the matter of shame. This is not even about the interesting
circumstances under which the present leadership of the Senate emerged. It is
not about the treachery, so alleged. Not about the Leader having to sit in the
car park, hours before sitting, to be able to make it inside the chambers while
other party members are at a meeting called by the party. This is not
about refusing to tow the party line and teaming up with the opposition to
up-stage the position of the party, simply for the sake of personal ambition.
It is not about all that, for integrity is not in high supply, when it comes to
politics and struggle for power. It is not even about the budget.
