Ahead of inauguration of the 9th National Assembly next month and the scramble for the Presidency of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North), along with 18 other serving senators, visited the corporate headquarters of Blueprint Newspapers Limited, Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday, where he declared that his support base for the race cuts across party lines. Senator Lawan, who is running for the number one position in the Senate, further spoke on burning national issues. TAIYE ODEWALE covered the event.
Mission to Blueprint, aspiration
Thank you very much the publisher and the entire top management team of Blueprint newspapers. Introduction is very significant and as you can all see the calibre of serving senators and senators-elect in this team, it tells Nigerians, the spread of our support base. Almost all the 65 senators-elect on the platform of our great party, the All progressives Congress (APC) are in this project and also majority of senators-elect on the platform of other political parties, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are on the same page with us in having a Senate in the 9th National Assembly that will provide the required legislative intervention in making governance better in Nigeria through constructive engagements with other arms of government , particularly the executive arm of government .
Media, being an essential ingredient and important component of government of which Blueprint is one, we are here to use it in further getting across to Nigerians that the 9th National Assembly will be one in which senators along with Honourable members of the House of Representatives, will work together for good governance, effective and efficient service delivery to Nigerians.
In doing these, we shall of course be on the same page with the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government in its fight against corruption, insecurity and improvement of the welfare and wellbeing of Nigerians through required legislative interventions from time to time.
As a team, we are envisioning a National Assembly that works for Nigeria by being there individually and collectively to represent Nigerians and not ourselves.
It is very important for me to categorically state here that rubber stamp National Assembly being insinuated under my leadership as President of the 9th Senate if elected should be discountenanced as there can be any rubber stamp Presiding officer at both chambers. This is so because as Senate president or speaker of the House of Representatives, the primary duty is to coordinate whatever session held and ratify resolutions taken which cannot in anyway give room for rubber stamp leadership.
Yes, I am close to the president, but that does not mean that my emergence as President of the 9th Senate, if elected, will lead to a rubber stamp Senate or by extension, rubber stamp National Assembly. Where ever the executive needs legislative supports, we shall surely give and where ever we feel there is need for correction to be made or contrary advice given, we give as well in a very constructive and collaborative way and not unnecessary confrontation or antagonism.
I also need to stress here that the 9th Senate under my Presidency if elected, will be an all- inclusive one where all senators regardless of party affiliation will be accommodated in the entire legislative processes – a Senate that is bi-partisan, motivated by national interest and driven by patriotism.
What is your take on the need for special courts to tackle corruption-related cases in the country?
If there is need for special courts for expeditious prosecution and trial of corruption related cases, so be it, but before getting to that stage, we must quickly identify and solve the problems afflicting the normal or conventional court in speedy dispensation of justice.
This is an area the 9th National Assembly will take very seriously in collaborating with the anti- corruption war of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government. The media too need to join in the fight with more public advocacy and above all, the entire Nigerians because we need the Nation behind the leaders for anti corruption fight to succeed.
Yearly budget delays have more or less become a national problem between the Executive and Legislature, what would the 9th National Assembly do under your leadership if elected, in getting out of the problem ?
It is rather sad that the budget process has not produced the kind of time outcome in this country. Let me remind you that our economy is largely dependent on public expenditure, and if the budget is not passed, Nigerians will complain of budget delay everywhere you go.
That means the budget touches every life in this country. We have had discussions amongst ourselves in this group, and most of the senators we have met on how to solve this problem of this budget process so that we can produce a budget document at the that is required of it, and our conclusion are that we need to have a proper and timely engagement and consultations with the executive arm of government, so that we are able to have the budget proposal presented by Mr President in September or October of a year.
We believe we should have maximum of three months to pass the budget and wait for Mr President to assent to it. I believe that we should tell ourselves the truth in the National Assembly that the budget is the most essential legislation, and the single most important document that we can produce, and make life better for Nigerians; so, why can’t we for example find a time frame, and say this time is only for processing the budget.
For instance, if the budget is presented in September, why can’t we take the next four weeks from the day it was presented to do budget defence, no plenary until we are able to present something critical that requires our attention or intervention. No senator or member of the House of Representatives should travel out of the country without defending the budget. And we engage the presidency on the same thing; that no minister must travel outside the country without defending his or her budget.
After that one month window is concluded, anyone who does not defend his budget should forget it. The National Assembly should be able to just work on what it thinks is right on the budget. I believe with this approach that will be worked out with the executive, the problem of yearly budget delays will be a thing of the past in the 9th National Assembly in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
There will be 16 former governors as elected senators in the 9th Senate you are aspiring to lead, but none of them is physically in your team now. Are they supporting you and have you reached out to Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje being from the same zone?
I am still working the process of meeting with my brothers, Senators Nduma and Goje, but it is a work in progress. I can tell you, almost all the former governors elected as senators for the 9th Senate are in this project.
They are the movers and shakers of this project. They work tirelessly, because they believe we can achieve the desired development- driven synergy between the legislature and the executive.
We must achieve unity, they hold sway in their states, and they know how important it is to have a legislature, working in collaboration, in tandem with unity and cooperation with the executive arm of government, so almost all of them are on this project.
How will you ensure fairness and equity in the sharing of leadership positions in the 9th Senate under your presidency if elected?
This question seems to be beyond me because apart from the two presiding officers’ positions that will be decided by the 109 senators through election, the remaining eight principalship positions are to be decided by party caucuses within the ruling and the opposition parties.
However, since six leadership positions will be available for federal lawmakers-elect on the platform of our party, the All Progressives Congress at both chambers, I am very sure that the leadership of the party will ensure the said equity in their sharing across the six geo-political zones. The party leadership will surely meet very soon to zone all the positions.
In your earlier submission, you said the 9th Senate under your leadership will be one that will accommodate all elected senators in the entire gamut of legislative business. Does it include chairmanship of standing committees?
Yes, but accommodation is not only by being giving chairmanship of a committee. In any case, not all senators will be chairmen of committees because senators are more in number than the number of committees available.
What I mean by accommodating all senators is that the 9th Senate under my presidency, if elected, will be an all-inclusive one in the mode of getting everybody involved in areas of their competence at committee level aside contributions made in plenary sessions.
Over the years, the National Assembly has always been accused of padding budget estimates presented to it by the executive, but as Senate leader within the last two years, what efforts did you make in stopping that?
The word padding you used, to us in the National Assembly, does not exist as far as budget consideration is concerned because constitutionally it is legislature that has the right to review any appropriation or estimates presented by the executive.
Executive can in budget planning, inadvertently lump projects together in an area, which by constitutional right, can be spread by the legislature in line with the principles of federal character, equity and justice. That to us is not padding and cannot be said or described to be so.
Also, the zonal intervention projects members of the National Assembly are entitled to in every year budget cannot be described as padding because as representatives of the people, they are in the best position to know what and what projects are needed in their various constituencies.
Funnily, if an assistant director in a Ministry is inserting projects into national budget without being called padding, why should constitutional inclusion of such projects into national budget by federal lawmakers be called padding? We don’t pad budget in the National Assembly, we review or restructured it as constitutionally empowered and may I state it clearly that the N100 billion zonal intervention projects federal lawmakers input into national budgets on yearly basis stops at the stage of recommendation. No lawmaker collects any money for execution of the projects as always wrongly insinuated.
Ahead of the election for presiding officers of the 9th National Assembly, what system of voting is your group supporting between secret balloting and open voting?
Open voting being used globally for elections in the parliament is what majority of the federal lawmakers- elect are canvassing for and should be adopted .
In 2007 and 2011, at the inauguration of the 6th and 7th Senate, that was the mode of election adopted where all elected senators, answered their fathers’ names and that is what is expected to be adopted. Open and transparent voting process in parliaments is the practice globally and Nigeria should not be an exception. We started with it from the beginning and we should continue with it.
What will the 9th Senate, and by extension the National Assembly, by way of legislative intervention, do in tackling the problem of insecurity in the country?
Clearly, going by realities on ground as regards problem of insecurity in the country, particularly in the northern axis, we have issues with our security architecture which requires urgent attention.
In recent past, the major security problem was that of Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east which had been degraded and almost completely defeated by the present government. But unfortunately, as the government is eliminating Boko Haram insurgents, other forms of crimes sprang up in form of armed banditry and kidnapping in other zones, particularly in the North-west that is now competing with the North-east on problem of insecurity.
We have to ensure that we change the security architecture particularly the command and structure of the present day police that is not working. This does not mean that I am calling for state police because I am yet to be convinced on the need for it.
We need to have a security outfit that will be better trained and equipped than the police, but less trained than the Army to complement the Police on crime prevention and control.
On our part as lawmakers, legislations that will facilitate attention on the sources of the problems would surely be worked upon because if sources of problems are not targeted, army of criminals will increase.
