From Fred Itua, Abuja
Senators elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) have technically abandoned activities on the floor of the Senate, investigations by Daily Sun have revealed.
There are 109 senators, elected every four years during general elections. According to laws governing activities of the Senate vis-a-vis the National Assembly, lawmakers are expected to sit at least 180-181 days in a year. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the Senate has failed to meet this constitutional requirement. Besides shutting the National Assembly for months in 2020, it has also reduced the number of sittings in a week.
It now holds plenary on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10.30 or 11am and ends before 2pm. Thursdays, which were hitherto sitting days have been jettisoned.
Similarly, attendance during plenary has plummeted since 2020. Many senators who barely turn up, register and abandon the chamber half way into the day’s legislative business.
But the Senate spokesman, Bashir Ajibola, has attributed the development to other busy schedules of lawmakers. He claimed that lawmakers were busy with other legislative functions, hence they can’t attend plenary regularly.
“Many Senators are busy with committee works on appropriation and oversight functions as well as seeing to the implementation of capital and Zonal Intervention projects in their constituencies,” he claimed.
Some senators however disagree. Senator Smart Adeyemi, who represents Kogi West, attributed the apathy to last year’s outbreak of COVID-19. He also listed other factors that maybe responsible.
The former national president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), urged newsmen to look at the register of the Senate and tell Nigerians those who fail to attend plenary.
Though he conceded that it was not in a position to castigate his colleagues, he, however stated that lawmakers elected by the people must attend plenary, as that remains your first responsibility.
He said: “I always attend plenary. I contribute well on the floor of the Senate and no one can fault that. But there are some lawmakers I can’t recall the last time I saw in plenary. I don’t know why they don’t come. The media can help us find out.
“The primary responsibility of a senator is to attend plenary. It also depends on the senatorial district you represent. Some people consider certain factors. Some maybe sick or may have traveled outside Nigeria. Those are possibilities and I can speak for others.
“This apathy started last year during COVID-19. There maybe other reasons which I can’t tell because I don’t know.”
A prominent senator from the North, said attending plenary was becoming an exercise in futility, since 2019, when Ahmad Lawan assumed office as President of the Senate.
He said lawmakers were micromanaged and not allowed to speak freely on important national issues unlike in the past. The senator complained that whenever any issue pertaining to President Muhammadu Buhari is discussed, Lawan seldom allows it.
“We can’t discuss anything freely about Buhari,” he complained. “Lawan doesn’t permit it. If you go too deep, he will turn off your microphone and that ends it. I don’t see any reason why I should sit there and be caged. Avoiding it is the best option for me.”
Another senator from the South East who chairs a sensitive committee, said it was unnecessary to attend plenary since every request from President Buhari is seldom subjected to any serious debate by Lawan.
He lamented that loan requests, confirmations and budgets, can’t be tampered with by the Senate, claiming that Lawan will never permit. He said until the Senate is serious to perform its duties of checking the excesses of the Executive, attending plenary was unnecessary.
He decried the practice by the Senate where lawmakers were not allowed to speak for more than three minutes on any given issue no matter its importance. He said the practice abroad was different.