Senate president, Bukola Saraki |
This provision, which is found in Section 3(iv) of the 2015 Senate
Standing Orders, does not exist in 2011 edition used during the seventh
Senate. This implies that the zones controlled by the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) will chair almost the same number of committees in this
eighth Senate with those controlled by the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC).
This new development is a deviation from the hitherto existing tradition in the Senate in which chairmanships of two committees - Public Accounts and Ethics and Privileges - were the only two committees reserved for the opposition.
But this new development has changed the status quo in which the
opposition existed at the mercy of the majority party. The Senate
president would hitherto give the headships of both committees to his
favourites among the opposition senators.
In the seventh Senate for instance, Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North),
who was one of the senators loyal to Mark, headed the Public Accounts
Committee while Senator Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo North) was given the
chairmanship of Ethics and Privileges’ Committee because of the affinity
of Labour Party (LP) with PDP at the time. Akinyelure was then a member
of LP.
However, Mark deviated a little bit from the norm by conceding three
more committee chairmanships to the opposition. The committees were
Science and Technology, Capital Market and Privatisation chaired by
Senators Ajayi Borrofice (Ondo North), Ayo Adeseun (Oyo Central) and
Gbenga Obadara (Ogun Central) respectively.
There are currently 57 standing committees in the Senate. During the
Seventh Senate when committees were not chaired on the basis of
geo-political zones but at the discretion of the Selection Committee
chaired by the then Senate President, David Mark, the positions were
unevenly distributed as the then PDP caucus proudly made away with about
50 committee chairmanships.
The breakdown as cross-checked monday showed that South-south produced
14 committee chairmen which was the highest among the existing six
zones. This was followed by North-central which produced 10, South-east
(10); North-west (10); North-east (7) and South-west (4).
But going by Section 3(iv) of the 2015 Senate Standing Rules, 57
committee chairmanships equally shared on the basis of six geo-political
zones will imply that each zone will produce nine committee chairmen
which will amount to 54 while the remaining three slots will be allotted
at the Senate President’s discretion.
This development which appears not to be in the consciousness of
members of Senate Unity Forum yet is likely to herald another round of
crisis within the fold of the APC, which is yet to overcome the crisis
caused by the emergence of Saraki as Senate President on June 9 in
contrast to the party’s wish.
Both the party leadership and the Senate Unity Forum, which promoted
the aspiration of Lawan for Senate Presidency, had been more pained that
the opposition PDP produced Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate
President. The party believes the office exclusively belongs to APC
which possesses the majority status in the eight Senate.
Further rejection of Lawan as Senate Leader by his zonal caucus as
opposed to the recommendation of the party leadership has further pitted
both factions of APC in the Senate against each other.
The latest cold war in the Senate was orchestrated by the petition
written by the Unity Forum to the Inspector General of Police (IG),
Solomon Arase, alleging that some sections of the 2015 Senate rules had
been forged by certain senators from the PDP.
The contention was that the Senate Standing Rules 2015 was secretly
produced with an amendment which replaced the provision that provided
for the election of presiding officers of the Senate using open ballot
with secret ballot.
Whereas the dust generated by the petition is yet to settle, the
situation may be aggravated when it dawns on members of the Unity Forum
that the committee chairmanships will be shared equally with their PDP
counterparts on zonal basis.
This is moreso that Lawan’s camp which lost out in the recent power
game which produced Saraki and Ekweremadu had hoped to be compensated by
committee chairmanships when the selection will eventually be done. The
Senate will resume from its three-week break on July 21.
(c) This Day
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