Posted by By ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Abuja on
Debating on the floor of the Senate especially when the issues at stake are remotely connected to President Olusegun Obasanjo is usually very dramatic with its attendant divisive tendencies.
Debating on the floor of the Senate especially when the issues at stake are remotely connected to President Olusegun Obasanjo is usually very dramatic with its attendant divisive tendencies.
Like several other debates in the past, last Wednesday's debate on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) was not different, as the debate saw Senators divided along the pro-Obasanjo and anti-Obasanjo lines.
While that was going on, the committee chairman, Victor Ndoma-Egba and Isaiah Balat, another member of the committee, were also busy putting heads together, perhaps planning on how to confront the threat from
the lone ranger, Senator Titus Olupitan, who right from day one has left no one in doubt that he was going to submit a minority report.
As those consultations were going on, Senators Arthur Nzeribe and Tunde Ogbeha were also putting heads together going through the constitution. And as Ndoma-Egba was reading his report, Senator David Mark
met with Victor Oyofo for another round of consultation. As it later turned Mark spear-headed the unsuccessful attempt to stop the Senate from receiving the minority report. Although the Senate may have
began deliberations on the report, one question that has also continued to generate controversy within and outside the National Assembly is whether or not the Senate President, Ken Nnamani erred in sustaining the Order that allowed for the presentation of the minority report on the floor of the Senate.
The Genesis
From the one when the 13- member committee was set up, observers had concluded that President Olusegun Obasanjo's interest was likely to be protected since at least 10 members of the committee all supported the vexatious third term agenda, and therefore there was no way Obasanjo would not come out unscathed at the end of the committee's exercise.
And as it later turned out, while the committee recommended serious sanction against Atiku for abusing his office by aiding and abetting the fraudulent diversion of public funds, Obasanjo was merely asked to be advised to adhere strictly to the Act setting up the PTDF since he approved certain projects outside the mandate of the PTDF through the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
During the course of the committee's assignment, three members of the committee, namely: Senators Nuhu Aliyu, Titus Olupitan (author of the minority report) and Rufa'i Hanga, remained consistent in their opposition to other members of the committee. They were opposed especially to the way and manner the affairs of the committee were being conducted.
Incidentally only Senator Aliyu belonged to the PDP. The other two are members of the Action Congress (AC).
In fact, it is on record that Hanga was the first to tell Nigerians through the Sunday Sun that both the President and his Vice were culpable in the 'monumental financial recklessness" perpetrated in PTDF. He made the disclosure even before the committee began writing the report. He also indicated interest to join others in writing a minority report.
At the end of the day, however, both Senators Aliyu and Hanga backed out, leaving only Olupitan to battle other members of the committee.
Why they backed out, Sunday Sun gathered authoritatively that both Senators may have backed out to protect certain interests that may continue be threatened should they continue to stick their necks for the embattled number two citizen.
A member of the committee quoted Senator Nuhu Aliyu as saying that 'Look, Obasanjo is the owner of PDP; he can do anything with it. I have my ticket already and so I cannot continue to stick my neck out for Atiku."
For Senator Rufa'i Hanga, who hails from Kano State, his major grouse with Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Sunday Sun gathered, was that the AC heavyweight did not come to his aid in his (Hanga) time of need. He wanted the AC governorship ticket of Kano, but was denied. Hanga who never hidden his contempt for the way the Kano AC primaries were conducted would always tell anyone who cares to listen that the AC Kano candidate was imposed on the party.
It was, therefore, not surprising that when the report was ready for submission last Tuesday, Hanga was one of those that appended his signature on the report, thereby aligning with most of the things he had earlier on publicly kicked against in the report.
The controversial Order
He had hardly concluded reading the report when Senator Olupitan raised a point of Order. Quoting Order 102 (1g) copiously from the Senate Standing Rules, which states that 'Every Senator shall be permitted to indicate in a report that he or she dissents from a particular recommendation or comment within the report (and) the committee shall permit a member to express the reasons for such dissent,"
Olupitan said he was at a loss as to why the committee failed to read his own report, adding that 'I want to seek the leave of the Senate to lay it."
Responding, Nnamani said 'Your order is sustained, but it is the chairman of the committee that would read it." He therefore ordered Ndoma-Egba to go ahead and present the minority report. As he rose to read the report, Senator David Mark shouted Order! And the Senate President said Order what? He responded Order 102 (1g&f). While insisting that it was wrong for the Senate to want to receive the Olupitan's report, based on Order 102(1g) cited earlier, Mark relying on Order 102 (1f) which states that 'no minority report may be presented to or received by the Senate," submitted that the Senate would be erring on the part of rules to allow for the presentation of the minority report, since the Senator concerned had been given the opportunity at the committee level to express his dissenting views.
Ruling Mark out of Order, the Senate President said 'What we have is view and not report, so there is no need for any further question. You're therefore ruled out of order" as he hit the gavel, and asked Senator Ndoma-Egba to go ahead and give the summary of the 'dissenting opinion."
In the report, Olupitan who dismissed every detail of the main report, concluded that since the committee had been compromised, the Senate should throw away its report.
From then on, the Senate President declared open the debate on the report, saying that 'You don't have immunity outside this chamber, therefore say whatever you want to say here. The Presidency like I said the other time is not an individual but an institution meant to be preserved. We will behave honourably and decide in a manner that Nigerians will see us as statesmen, just like we did during the Third Term debate. I wish us divine grace as we commence this debate."
The Debate Kicked off
Of all the Senators who spoke last Wednesday, Senator Jonathan Zwingina's contributions perhaps turned out to be the most surprising. However, political observers who have been following the trends of the events say it was expected considering the fact that the Adamawa-born Senator did not gain anything from his passionate support for the aborted third term agenda.
Despite his support for Third Term, observers say Zwingina lost the governorship ticket of his state (and his Asokoro mansion recently demolished by FCT) to the same people he had stuck his neck out for in the past against all odds.
Zwingina had last Wednesday declared that it would appear that the conclusion of the Ndoma-Egba -led committee did not flow from its findings, saying that 'It was either that the committee was in a hurry to conclude its assignment or that it suffered temporary loss of mind or infected by the EFCC syndrome to indict Atiku."
Otherwise, he continued 'The findings in the report show that both of them were culpable. Therefore, if we must pick up individuals to sanction, then we must sanction all of them.
'If Atiku was indicted because of his association with Fasawe, the President too should be culpable, because Fasawe is closer to Baba than Atiku. I know as a fact that Fasawe is the first person to see Obasanjo in the morning and the last person to see him before he (Obasanjo) goes to bed. And to the best of my knowledge, that relationship has not been renounced."
Last line
As the Senate continues with the debate Tuesday, more and more Senators who had queued behind Obasanjo in the past are likely to retrace steps since they have nothing at stake -no ticket. More importantly too, the debate will largely take the pattern of the Third Term debate, where Senators were largely divided along the pro-Obasanjo and the anti-Obasanjo lines.