The senator representing Kano South, Kawu Sumaila (NNPP) has described the recent amendment to the senate standing rule, which barred ranking members from the House of representatives and first term members from seeking election as president of the Senate or deputy president of the Senate as a monumental blunder.
He said the action would consume the leadership of the 10th senate.
Barely two weeks after the 10th Senate suffered an impeachment scare, the Senate amended its standing rules and barred first term members from seeking to be elected as president of the Senate or deputy president of the Senate.
Adopting a motion sponsored by senate majority leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate amended section three of its standing rule and specifically stated that to vie for the position of president of the Senate or deputy president of the Senate, a senator must have spent one term or four years in the upper legislative chamber.
Senator Sumaila, who himself is a ranking member from the House of representatives, said the senate had excluded members of the House of Representatives from the ranking arrangements in the Senate with the way the amendments was done.
“We are practising bi-camera legislation. From the arrangements we met on ground, for you to be a ranking member of the Senate, you must spend one or more terms in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. There was no exclusion of the House of Representatives members. Now it is a game of numbers. “
He said the new rule had created a dichotomy between the red and the green chamber. It is making the members of the House to be inferior to their colleagues in the Senate. The House is made of 360 members while the Senate has 109.
“With the latest development definitely we are calling for anarchy as somebody who has the experience of the House of Representatives, I think it is not a healthy situation.
“At the end of the day, it is the executive arm of government that suffers. Definitely, the House of Representatives that I know for almost 20 years will surely strike, and the Senate will be at the receiving end.
“I don’t think it should be an issue if a first-time senator decides to contest the presiding officers’ positions. It happened in 2007 when Senator George Akume contested the Senate Presidency as a first-time member in the Senate against David Mark. He went to court and called them to contest.
“For the senators to start thinking that way, they lack something, they need to understand what National Assembly is all about.
“In 2015, when Akpabio had no legislative experience but he became minority leader. Recently, Umahi became a deputy leader without legislative experience.
“We have three stages in our book. Senators who are re-elected are automatically referred to as ranking, also members from the House of Reps who migrated to the senate are ranking members.
“These two stages are ranking senators, and we copied this system from the US. We need to ask ourselves how they are doing it. You cannot make a sister chamber to be inferior and think that you are not stoking controversy.
“If there is constitution ammendment, Senate has its own version, and the reps have their own. We will constitute a conference committee. The conference committee cannot alter any thing; it is either to accept Senate version or Reps version.
“Then we will come up with a uniformed version, but if for any reason Senate disagrees with the House or House disagrees with the Senate, it must be resolved by votes.
“If for any reason they refuse to adopt the senate’s position, definitely there will be a joint session, though it is the Senate President who will preside over the joint session, they are 360 while the senate members are 109. “This is the silent question they need to ask before they arrived at the decision. Somebody like Aminu Waziri Tambuwal you are referring to him as non ranking when he spent more than 12 years in the House of Representatives, a former speaker and now you are calling him a non ranking senator in this chamber? “People need to understand the implication of this kind of legislation.
He said the opposition senators ignored it because they knew it would consume those behind it.
“For instance when we ammend our rules we do it with simple majority not two third, therefore any day we do it once we form a quorum and there is an ammendment this particular clause can be ammendment it.
“If for any reason today we decide to remove our presiding officers, we can remove them appoint speaker or Senate President Protempo, while we are sitting we will suspend that clause, elect a new senate President who may not be ranking.
“That legislation can not hold water, it cannot stand. I was laughing when I see them thinking this way
“Most of the members need to be educated on the working of the Bicameral legislature.”
He said the Senate only had the upper hand when “it comes to confirmation of appointments, but real legislation the House of Reps has the upper hand because it is a game of numbers, constitutional representation.”
“Therefore, being constitutional representation, equality doesn’t can’t. The Senate representation is based on equality. The House is based on constitutional representation.
“Because in my case I have 16 local Government, 171 polical wards with over 5m people and I am the same with somebody who came from Bayelsa, Ekiti and Zamfara that have fewer Local Governments, some have 3 Local Government but Kano and Lagos have 20 Local Government.
“It is because of equality.
“But for House of Reps, Kano has 24, and Lagos has 24, but if you go to Bayesa, how many are they? But in the Senate, there is equality. Equality doest count In constitutional representation in the House.
The current Senate President Godswill Akpabio was a first-timer when he became minority leader when they suspended the rules.
“Senator Dave Umahi is the current case in the 10th Senate; we suspended the rules without mentioning it, and we allowed him to become deputy leader.”
According to him “in the current Senate, House of Reps members that migrated to the senate are about 30; in the leadership 6 persons came from there, Rafai Sani Hanga in the minority, we have Ali Ndume in the majority and we have the House Leader Opeyemi Bamidele; he also is from the House of Reps about five of them.
“When you start from the grade A committees, Bamidele is from the House; Tambuwal is from the House; Ahmad Lawan is from the House; Yayi is from the House.
“Over 30 senators started from the House of Reps. Some of the senate members were once in the House. How do you think our colleagues from the House will view us?”
He said they in the minority did not raise issues because their concerns at the moment were the current challenges that the country was facing, economically and politically.
“We need to bridge the gap between the leadership and the followers.” [National Update]
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