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Barring any unforeseen circumstances Senate will resume from Easter break on Tuesday, April 10 as governance will be relegated to the back stage while politics occupies centre stage.
Consequently, senators in the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus who are loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari and are bent on defending him on the controversial amendment to the Electoral Act, will spoil for war with Pro-Saraki lawmakers.
Attention will shift to the Samuel Anyanwu-led Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, which is expected to submit four reports on various allegations levelled against Pro-Buhari senators. These include: alleged defamation of the Red Chamber by Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta State), plot by the sacked Chairman, Northern Senators Forum, Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa State) and other Pro-Buhari senators to destabilize the Senate leadership, alleged attempts to compromise lawmakers to abandon plans to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and another probe into the activities of Parliamentary Support Group for President Buhari (Senate).
However, feelers from the National Assembly indicate that the panel may not be in a hurry to submit its report after all. For the Saraki-led Senate, referring the cases to the committee was strategic, as it was meant to weaken and reduce the support base of the Pro-Buhari senators and portray them in bad light.
For Saraki, this is a battle for political survival. Should Pro-Buhari senators succeed in galvanising support amongst their colleagues to stop moves to override the president’s veto, then he should kiss the nation’s Number Three position goodbye as this would serve as a launch pad to impeach him.
Meanwhile, death has not been kind to the Pro-Buhari senators. This followed the demise of yet another of their member, Bukar Mustapha, last week, barely two weeks after the Chairman Senate Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Welfare, Ali Wakili, passed on.
The 63-year-old All Progressives Congress (APC) senator who represented President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senatorial District of Katsina North, died after a brief illness.
Until his demise, he chaired the Senate Committee on Capital Market. Coincidentally, his predecessor, Isiaka Adeleke, also died in the same capacity last year.
The development brings to four the number of lawmakers that have passed on in the Eighth Senate; the first being Ahmed Zanna. Again, they were all elected under the platform of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
In line with parliamentary practice, the upper legislative chamber is expected to suspend plenary on Tuesday, April 10, and hold a valedictory session in Mustapha’s honour on Wednesday April 11.
Another issue that will top agenda is President Buhari’s approval for the release of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight the rising spate of insecurity across the country.
Recall that in December 2017 when the National Economic Council (NEC) authorized the Federal Government to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to tackle security challenges in the country, Saraki had assured that the money would not be withdrawn without National Assembly approval. He also promised that the issue would be treated as a matter of priority upon resumption in January 2018. But that did not happen, as the issue was swept under the carpet.
“Our party will not spend money that did not follow due process. I am assuring you that the money will not be spent until we come here and debate on it,” Saraki told the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who observed that deliberation on the matter was not listed on the Order Paper.
As they resume, lawmakers, especially those elected on the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are expected to bring the issue to the front burner. They will use their numerical strength of 41 members (representing 38 percent) in the Senate to make their position known.
On its part, the party has urged the National Assembly to commence appropriate constitutional legislative actions against the government for unilaterally approving the release of the fund without allowing application of legislative instrument. It also called on Nigerians to reject the approval, saying it was a renewed attempt to use the money to finance the All Progressives Congress’s national convention and 2019 campaigns.
While calling for an independent investigation into the processes of release and utilisation of all special funds for war against insurgency in the last three years, it expressed concerns that the same administration that claimed to have technically defeated the insurgents still approved such amount to fight insurgency.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
