How do you handle a bullying senate?

The National Assembly has a gift for manufacturing absurdities. Its team-lead, the Senate, takes the cake in throwing up legislative horrors every  now and again.  And so the nation’s consciousness of democratic governance, suffered another shocking  assault recently, when thugs invaded the Senate and made away with the mace. The Senate was in session, and […]

The National Assembly has a gift for manufacturing absurdities. Its team-lead, the Senate, takes the cake in throwing up legislative horrors every  now and again.  And so the nation’s consciousness of democratic governance, suffered another shocking  assault recently, when thugs invaded the Senate and made away with the mace. The Senate was in session, and had indeed in the chambers, Ghanaian legislators, who were observing our own process, presumably, for information and experience. In the event, they got full lessons on exactly how not to do it.

A surprise presence in the Senate on that fateful day also, was Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. His presence was an element of surprise, because, earlier on,  he had been controversially suspended by the Senate.  Needless to say, popular accounts, particularly, accounts from Senate sources, now insist that the invaders were brought in by Senator Omo-Agege. Senator Omo-Agege has of course denied the allegation. Patriots will be concerned that we get to the bottom of this matter. However, while it is proper to condemn the invasion, we must be left wondering why a similar serial abuse of people’s elementary rights,  even in the Senate, manages to pass unnoticed.

Senator Omo Agege had been controversially suspended for ninety legislative  days,  for among other things, taking the Senate to court over a disciplinary matter. As the invasion of the Senate is an observable physical event, it was easy for it to create spectacle and produce shock amongst a broad spectrum of Nigerians. However, Senator Omo-Agege’s violation in the hands of the Senate has been more insidious. No chairs were thrown; there was no sense of public alarm; nor has there been  any elite disquiet that a political temple was collapsing.  But the controversial ninety legislative day suspension of Omo-Agege, contained a silent attack on an ethnic nation in despair; an ethnic Urhobo nation, resource-filled, which sometimes ranks itself as the fifth largest in the country,  which now seemed threatened with the loss of its representational  leverage.

In his own account of the suspension, Senator President Bukola Saraki has said that Senator Omo-Agege was sanctioned because he had taken the Senate to court over its attempt to sanction the legislator. Saraki went further to explain that the sanctity of the Senate was paramount and that members must be careful enough not to impugn it. Senator Omo Agege’s sin, is that he made comments on the floor of the house on the Senate’s amendment of the sequence of the General Elections. Senator Omo-Agege had observed that the intervention of the Senate on the matter,  could give the impression that it was anti-Buhari. This observation was seized upon by the mandarins in the Senate as being offensive and therefore punishable. A rushed apology from Senator Omo-Agege was deemed inadequate. The ninety legislative day suspension was made to look like an  act of benevolence. According to Saraki, if the full weight of sanctions had been applied, Omo Agege would have been shut out for 180 days.

Now, Saraki’s elaborate narration also contains some other interesting matters. Notably, he says the Parliamentary support Group, a pro-Buhari advocacy group , to which Omo-Agege subscribes, has been banned not only because it dishonours the Senate, but because its members want to give the impression that they support Buhari more than the rest of the herd! This twisted logic leaves everyone baffled. Only  Bukola Saraki himself can unravel the conflicting emotions of jealousy,  sibling rivalry and corporate malice contained in this unpersuasive justification for Omo Agege’s suspension. Many will be surprised at Saraki’s empty invocation of honour for the Senate, given how routinely some lawmakers have oscillated between  the dock at courts of law and the hallowed chambers. Often, it has seemed that criminality can open windows for a career in lawmaking.

What seems to be emerging in the Nigerian Senate is an imperial syndrome, already much decried in African politics. By this token, decision making devolves in the hands of a few. These members of the magic circle determine, what is a crime what is not,; it determines levies and prescribes punishment. Their will is law. In Nigeria, we have spoken copiously about the existence of a cabal. It is thought to be located somewhere in the Presidency. Now we know we have been  looking in the wrong direction. It is in the Senate and it seeks to control all it surveys. Even areas In which it lacks competence.

The Senate lacks the competence to suspend any Senator as it has done in the instance of Senator Omo-Agege. A Senator can  vacate his seat only by reason of death or a recall by its constituents. Just why the Senate has continued to insist on the perversity of illegally hounding out lawmakers is difficult to understand.  On the 29th of March 2017 Senator Ndume was suspended for six months for demanding an investigation into media reports that Saraki imported a bullet proof Range Rover using fake documents. Senate decided that it was inappropriate to raise the matter on the floor of the House. The  Senator sought relief from our courts which determined in his favour. The current state of the law is that a lawmaker cannot be suspended or removed by a legislative house. It is unconstitutional so to do.

It is often said that the reputation of the Senate is in tatters. It is difficult to disagree. Much of its activities have been driven by the epiphany of its leadership. Before its arrival, its leadership was impaired in its womb by the smear of treachery. The events of July 9 2015, when it took its first breadth have driven its policies till date. Those who talk glibly today about honour and sanctity, saw nothing wrong in colluding with the adversary to snatch away political leadership. The political hermaphrodite in the Senate’s leadership today was not born free. It is the product of a disloyal cohabitation and rankles forever.  It is something of a miracle that in spite of the interim outlook of the Bukola Senate Presidency, he has remained in the saddle till this day.

Perhaps what this circumstance recommends is for Saraki to deploy the advantage of his grace, as well as the munificence of his political life in expanding happiness and doing political good to others. However the Senate seems to have been used as a blunt instrument for dealing hammer blows on opponents. How can the subscription by Senators to a pressure group be considered offensive? How does the airing of contrary views by a Senator be said to bring dishonour to the Senate. The tension produced by this level of intolerance in the Senate will continue to produce convulsions .  The victims of the prevailing highhandedness are also Nigerians; they have people who will  ask questions and who must demand answers. It is important that we establish a regime of fairness, whether it is at the executive level or in the legislature or wherever else. The violence on the floor of the Senate is primitive and dishonours us all. But the rising convention of high-handedness in the leadership of the Senate also mocks our claims to democracy and good order. How really do you handle a bullying Senate? Omo-Agege’s vision of resistance may not be entirely pointless.

Olowu wrote in from Abuja.