Leadership burden in the Nigerian Senate, by GBENGA ADEMOLA

The 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is in dire need of popular confi dence. It is a Senate that has inadvertently exuded the aura of insincerity, dishonesty and selfishness. All these may not be true, but the Red Chamber may have placed itself in such a position that makes it appear so. At the inception of the Senate, a leadership tussle ensued which was never amicably resolved. The All Progressives Congress (APC) that won in the 2015 general elections had wanted to have a Senate President out of some consensual political distribution, but Mr. Bukola Saraki, taking advantage of the naivety of the party stalwarts, schemed his way into the Senate leadership, and has held unto it so fi rmly. Within the party ranks, that was the beginning of mutual distrust between the executive arm of government and the party leadership on one hand, and the Saraki-led Senate, on the other. The relationship between them started on a frosty note, and has remained ever so. Across board, because the new executive enjoyed the lavish goodwill of the populace at the beginning of the administration, Saraki (and by implication, the Senate, the majority of which supported him) was seen as the enemy within. Unfortunately for the Upper Chamber, Saraki has not been a politician with clean records. He has not come across as a person with a history of positive achievements both in private and public services. As a director of the defunct Societe Generale Bank, he was alleged to have contributed immensely to the demise of the bank, hurting the economic fortunes of a lot of its customers. As a two-term governor in Kwara state from 2003 to 2011, he was alleged to have fi ltered to personal foreign accounts a huge chunk of the state money. While presiding over the Senate of the Federal Republic, Saraki has been dogged by series of travails that have brought some sort of disrepute to the revered Upper Chamber. For instance, he was the first Senate President to be issued a Warrant of Arrest in 2015 by any judicial institution. He was also alleged to have been involved in the laundering of N3.5 billion from the Paris Club Loan Refund. He used a large part of the year 2016 and 2017 to shuttle between the Senate chamber and the Code of Conduct Tribunal in prosecution of false asset declaration charges brought against him by the federal government. Although discharged and acquitted at the end, and the case is now at the Supreme Court, it has none the less thrown up a lot of questions about his eightyear stewardship as governor in Kwara state. Coupled with the tension between him and the presidency, which many see as inhibitive of progressive and purposeful policy thrives, Saraki is seen in many quarters as politically over-charged for selfish gains, giving the impression that the Senate, except for a few members, is one entity that is programmed to promote his personal desires. This may account for the unmatched unpopularity of the 8th Senate under him. Without doubt, there is every need to turn around the image of the Nigerian Senate, first by placing more widely acceptable people in its leadership; people with better socio-moral, educational and political qualifi cations, people who do not carry the burden of corrupt charges around like perfumes, people who do not come across as being concerned more with their personal ambitions than they are with national interest. Certainly, these kinds of people are available in the Red Chamber. Now, the Senate must do some soul-searching to unravel the secret of throwing up the best among them to lead them. Senators must be conscious of the fact that a respectable Senate President is a recipe for a respected Senate, a Senate that will command the trust of the populace and be seen as having the interest of the nation at heart. The process of having a change in the leadership of the Senate should begin with the re-alignment of interests, and the time for that to begin is now. Nigerians are fed up with a Senate that carries a toga of un-seriousness and selfishness. The nation is so desirous of the type of Senate that takes every national issue with all the weightiness they deserve, a Senate that the majority will love, cherish, respect and have trust in; a Senate that will speak or act and the first reaction of the people would be faith that their representatives have acted in the interest of the populace. I know of a number of senators who can champion this cause, the same way I know of a number who can be worthy leaders. It is pertinent for our senators to be reminded that the Senate is as good (or bad) as its leaders. There is no amount of branding or re-branding that would make people trust a Senate whose head is untrusted. Ademola writes from Lagos