Senate and the great showdown over money

TIJANI ADEYEMI relays the drama on the Senate floor last Wednesday on the distribution of loans by a development bank and how the affair was put under control to prevent it from pushing some senators into fights .< /p>

Noting the importance of money in politics in his article "Money is Politics", Jonathan Kirshner wrote: "...the management of money is always and everywhere political: for every political choice, there is an alternative that some actors would prefer."

The perspective of the professor of political science and international studies at Boston College, United States of America, as illustrated above, provides some kind of context to the altercation on the court of the Senate that almost ended in fistfights last week.

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The Senate leadership had promised Nigerians that the 10th Senate would be markedly different from what had been achieved in the past. But less than a month after the inauguration of the National Assembly, the floor of the upper legislative chamber almost turned into a boxing ring on Wednesday.

The mild drama and the exchange of hot words were caused by a decision to reopen a case on which legislative actions had been concluded during the Ninth Senate.

The matter had been brought through a controversial motion titled “Improper Disbursement of Half a Trillion Naira Loan to Six Geopolitical Zones by Development Bank of Nigeria” sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno State), now the Senate Chief Whip.

The problems started when Ndume, at the start of the plenary, drew the attention of the Upper House to a motion he had sponsored on the same problem of imbalance in the distribution of the loan last year, adding that the result of this motion was not concluded before the expiration of the Ninth Senate.

He requested permission from the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, to move the motion to debate the matter again. But before Akpabio could rule on it, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun State) rose to counter Ndume's stance that the last Senate failed to close the deal. Adeola reported that following his discussion with the chair of the ad hoc committee set up to investigate the matter, a report was drafted on the motion and sent to the presidency for implementation.

Infuriated by Adeola's submission, Senator Aliu Ahmed Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa State) jumped out of his seat shouting "Point of order! Order!"

After being recognized by the President of the Senate, Wadada said his rights as a legislator had been violated. He said he objected to the noticeable imbalance in the distribution of money, adding that his senatorial constituency, his state and the entire North had been grossly cheated.

Senator Wadada became more enraged when the President of the Senate tried to rule him out of order on the grounds that he invoked an improper order.

Based on the strength of Adeola's submission, the President of the Senate suspended further debate on the motion. But the suspension of debate on the motion was not well received by the Ndume, who intervened again and insisted that it was morally wrong that all of the North had received only 11%, while Lagos State alone obtained 47% of the loans. He added that his state, Borno, only got one percent.

Ndume said, "Former Senate Speaker [Ahmad Lawan] insisted that I be a member of the committee because I was the mover of the motion.

"However, I wasn't always there when they called the meeting. I don't want to believe it was deliberate. I swear by God, I haven't seen a copy of the report.

“I am a senator. I made the motion because my people were wronged. This is a serious matter. N500bn was distributed. Other geopolitical areas got 11%, while my region only got than 1%.

"When you say you submitted the report and you ambush people to sign the report only when those who are interested aren't there.

"I did not sign any report. I insisted that I am not a young man. You should have given me the report. I did not see the report. It is a privilege for me.

"What are you talking about? I haven't seen the report that was even submitted at the end of the 9th Senate."

Akpabio then invited Senator Musa to clarify the situation in order to settle the matter.

In his explanation, the Senator for Eastern Niger said, "I submitted the report after due consultation with all agencies such as the Bank of Industry, the Agricultural Development Bank, the Minister of Finance, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency, and other bodies that are involved in the p...