The National Assembly will resume today after its vacation amid fears that the crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party may affect the leadership of the Senate as a result of its alleged loyalty to the embattled PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. In this interview, Senate Leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, says the crisis will not in any way affect the leadership of the upper legislative body. He also speaks on the expectations of the people from the Senate and the best way to resolve the PDP crisis. Excerpts:
Expectations of the people
There are a number of bills that impact on strengthening governance that are pending, we will prioritize them and take them. We have the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that is outstanding. We also expect that the budget will be presented during this period; if it is presented early we intend to treat it expeditiously. We also have the constitutional review process to conclude.
You know the Senate passed its own version and the House also passed its own version, so we need to do conference on the two versions to come out with a harmonized position. We also intend to look at the Electoral Act again to see how we can further strengthen the electoral processes in the country.
Electoral processes
We are also expecting as we resume a very important visitor, that is the Speaker of the Chinese Parliament he will be arriving on the day we resume, so, that is 17th, on the 18th he will have a bilateral talk with the Senate President and the Speaker and also pay a visit to the headquarters of the PDP.
Eessentially, in the early part of our resumption, we will be devoted to extending the necessary courtesies to our August visitor, so in summary that is a peep into our activities as we resume.
On controversies trailing Constitutional amendment
I can’t preempt the situation but you know the issue on local government autonomy, people are passionate on both sides.
I remember chairing the South-South zonal public hearing on constitutional amendment November last year, I recall that those in the local government system were very passionate for local government autonomy, but teachers were also passionate against it because from their experience they noticed that usually they are hardly paid each time local government had autonomy, so we had two sides of the divide, each side being as passionate as the other.
For me the question we must ask to determine whether or not to grant autonomy is: are local governments federating units, if they are federating units, then they are entitled to autonomy, but if they are not federating units, then I doubt if the issue of autonomy can arise. I think the Senate position is different from the House position, so at the end of the day we will go for conferencing and we will resolve the issue one way or the other.
PDP crisis and its effect on the leadership of the National Assembly
Well, first let me concede the point that any crisis within the PDP will have repercussions on the polity generally for the simple reason that the PDP is the party in government.
Whatever crisis we have, will certainly have consequences on the polity for better or for worse. But having said so let me also remind us that crisis is the feature of any active political party.
Any party that is active is likely to experience crisis now and then, and it is crisis that indicates that a party is alive which means that different ideas, different tendencies are being generated at every point. So, if you don’t have crisis in a party, it either means that the party is dead or the party is owned by a single individual. But when you see crisis it means that the party is democratic, the party is open and people are free to state their views on every issue.
But having said so, let me also remind us that from its formation in 1998, PDP has always had one crisis or the other.
If we recall, not too long ago, the President and the Vice President were elected on the same ticket, the Vice President defected to another party and remained as Vice President, so we had a situation where people who came in on the same ticket, ended up the President on one ticket and the vice President on the other ticket and the Vice President continued, so I don’t see any crisis that can be more than that scenario and the party not only survived, but still went ahead to win subsequent elections.
I believe that the same way that we have resolved our crisis internally, the current crisis would be resolved. The beauty about the PDP is the strength of its internal dispute resolution mechanism and its strength to survive these crises.
I believe that the strength will also come to play this time around. But whether or not that is going to affect the leadership of the National Assembly, I can speak for the Senate. Like I said earlier on, no matter the crisis we have in the PDP, it is likely to impact on the polity generally.
And the historical role of Senate, not just in Nigeria but all over the world from time immemorial is to stabilize the polity in times of crisis and I believe that this time around, the Senate will once again rise to the occasion of stabilizing the country in spite of the current tensions in PDP.
I don’t see the current tension in the PDP affecting the leadership of the Senate because the Senate is made up of statesmen who appreciate their historic role in stabilizing the polity and they will not do anything that will create instability.
On the chances of the PDP in 2015 elections with the crisis and the registration of APC, PDM
The problem in the PDP does not affect the structures of the party.
We still have our penetration right down to every ward in this country, to every local government, to every state. The fact that we have a crisis does not automatically translate into ward structures for the opposition. The opposition still has to establish itself in every nook and cranny of this country, so, it is like we lawyers say, depending on the weakness of your opponent’s case instead of the strength of your own case.
The fact that we have a crisis has not changed our structure and has not changed the penetration of the opposition, so I don’t see how the opposition will benefit from this crisis that has not effectively altered the fact that we exist in every ward of this country, even in the states that the PDP is not in power.
Best way to resolve the PDP crisis
I believe that concessions will have to be made; both sides, certainly must have minimum positions and maximum positions, so I believe in between these two positions there will be mid-way for both sides.
Advice to PDP leadership
Politics is about inclusiveness and not about exclusion. Politics is like the Biblical good Shepherd that will leave 99 sheep and go after one lost sheep. You must recover every member of your fold that is leaving or threatening to leave, that is what politics is all about.
And I am sure that those currently in the middle of the negotiations appreciate the need to recover everybody and retain everybody under the big and strong umbrella.
On likelihood of aggrieved PDP members , G-7 and their supporters decamping to opposition parties if crisis is not resolved
Well, as far as I am concerned that will be an academic question because I don’t see that happening in the first place. Like I said, one of the strengths of PDP is its ability to internally resolve its disputes and we have had far worse crises than this.
I mentioned a situation where a sitting Vice President defected and it didn’t affect the fortunes of the party, after the President the next highest person is the Vice President and if at that level we have this kind of crisis and it didn’t affect the fortune of the party, even in the unlikely events these governors leave I don’t see it changing the fortunes of the party.
How bothered the National Assembly is about the security situation and how best to tackle it
If you recall, we have had a number of engagements with the security chiefs and our rules obliged us to hold close sessions when matters of internal security are being discussed, but we have had quite a number of engagements in the recent past and the frequency of those engagements is an indication of how concerned we are about the security situations.
Beyond that we, have also looked at the various laws that relate to the security infrastructure and we have tried to strengthen those laws with the relevant amendments.
Even going as far as targeting the financing of security, so what the laws relating to terrorism, money laundering have been re-jigged to strengthen the hands of security agencies in dealing with the situation.
When it became necessary for a state of emergency to be passed in certain states of the country, the National Assembly quickly gave its support, we have been as supportive as possible, and fortunately, our concern that the judiciary which is the critical partner in this fight has not done as much as it should.
I think we are pleased to note that the judiciary is now appreciative that something needs to be done from their own end.
Until we have substantially reduced the rate of youth unemployment, we will still have the challenge of insecurity with us so I think that more attention should be paid on getting the economy working, and fortunately, steps are being taken in that direction. If you look at agriculture, it is being revolutionalized to turn into a business and with the hope that it will generate more opportunities.
