As the 9th Senate inaugurated four years ago, precisely, Tuesday, June 11, 2019, adjourns Sinedie today, the toga of ‘rubber stamp’ has refused to leave it. TAIYE ODEWALE reports
The 9th Senate
The 9th Senate is the 6th of its kind since the 4th republic began on May 29, 1999. The first of the Senate in the 4th republic, was the 4th Senate (1999- 2003), the second was the 5th Senate (2003-2007), the third was the 6th Senate (2007- 2011), the fourth was the 7th Senate (2011- 2015), the fifth was the 8th Senate (2015- 2019) the sixth was the 9th Senate (2019- 2023).
Like the saying that “anything that has a beginning, must have an end”, the 9th Senate which began with 107 Senators out of the 109 seats in the Senate, will be ending in tomorrow with 104 Senators out of 109 serving Senators it later paraded after inauguration in June 2019.
At inauguration on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, two out of the three senatorial seats of Imo state, were not occupied either due to non – issuance of Certificate of Return (CoR) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the winner or the inconclusiveness of election.
Specifically, Senator Rochas Okorocha (APC Imo West), was not issued CoR by INEC as at the time of inauguration of the 9th Senate, while Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu (APC Imo North), was as at the time, not declared winner yet.
However, weeks after inauguration, both Okorocha and Uwajumogu were at different times, issued certificate of returns by INEC and joined the 9th Senate by making its membership to be 109, provided for, by the 1999 constitution on the basis of three Senators per each of the 36 states of the Federation and one for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja).
Inaugural speech by Lawan
At inauguration and with emergence of Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (APC Yobe North), as President of Senate, agenda – setting inaugural speech was made by him, which reads thus: “Today’s epochal event is symbolic in many respects. It marks the beginning of another decade in the annals of the country’s federal legislature, recognizing that the Fourth Republic National Assembly was first inaugurated twenty years ago (now 24 years ago), on June 4, 1999.
“Our determination is to evolve a well-resourced Senate with a vision and a great sense of commitment to securing a prosperous future for our great nation. I strongly believe that for the 9th Senate to live up to this declaration, it must be operated as an institution that is largely accountable, participatory, collaborative and responsive to the needs, aspirations, rights and liberties of the masses whose mandate we hold in trust.
“In the 9th Senate no dream is too big to imagine, no challenge is too great to surmount. We will pursue our goal of a better and brighter future, we will no longer settle for anything less than the best.
“We will work with and collaborate with other arms of government to reclaim our country and restore our values. We will dream big, aim high and take bold initiatives. To this end, I will work with my colleagues to build actionable consensus around a robust legislative agenda that serves the best interest of majority of our people.
“We are going to work collaboratively with the executive arm of government to strengthen our planning and budget linkage that ensures effective service delivery and fulfilment of essential government obligations to the citizens, while taking care of the perennial delays in our annual appropriation bill passage and implementation.
“We will embark upon a sustained pursuit of national ethical renewal, through legislative and political support for the fight against corruption and other major security challenges that Nigeria faces today, namely; rural and highway banditry; inter-ethnic conflicts; herdsmen and farmer conflicts, cattle rustling; kidnapping and all other forms of criminality in the country.
“We have a plan to make Nigeria an economic growth hub and the most sought after business destination in Africa. This is to be achieved through legislative and policy coordination with the Executive Arm of Government to put in place the necessary reforms and legal instruments that promote the diversification and investment in the critical (real and service) sectors of the Nigerian economy.
“We will frontally address the current high level of youth unemployment, underemployment and high use of illicit drugs as well as depression and high rate of suicide.
“At the same time, we will collaborate with the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly, with a view to having legislative partnerships that address the existential challenges of corruption, insecurity, emerging criminal gangs, kidnaping, poverty, decayed educational system that has left Nigeria with an embarrassing reported figure of 14 million out of school children.
“I want to seize this opportunity to tell the entire nation, particularly those that are in doubt, that the Senate and indeed the legislature is going to operate independently in accordance with its own rules, procedures and time honoured norms and best practices. While working closely with the executive arm to deliver the dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people.
“Our legislative agenda must focus on enacting laws and strengthening existing laws to facilitate the reforms required to truly take our nation, our people and our economy to the next level.
“Within us as a Senate, our leadership will commit to partnership rather than partisanship and between us and the executive arm of Government, we will choose unity of purpose over conflict and discord while also working towards further strengthening and guaranteeing our independence and that of the judiciary.
“We will sustain and strengthen our institutional working relationship with critical stakeholders especially the civil society organisations, the media and development partners within and outside Nigeria.
“In conclusion, let it be said that we have come to this chamber conscious of the trust our constituents have reposed on us. Dear colleagues, we must not betray that trust. To this extent, in the next four years, we must drive a transformative Senate dedicated to serving the people with confidence, courage and patriotism. Indeed, the urgent task towards socio-economic reforms and transformation through legislative intervention has begun.
“In so doing, we are convinced that our past was only a story told while our future can yet be written in gold.”
Self assessment four years after
In what can be described as self assessment by the 9th Senate four years after, its President, Ahmad Lawan, at induction organized for federal lawmakers – elect for the 10th National Assembly, gave a speech which reeled out achievements of the 9th Senate under his leadership.
Ahmad Lawan in the speech said: “In line with our well-articulated Legislative Agenda, the 9th Senate prioritised the return of the Federal Budget to predictable January-December cycle, concerns of security, corruption, youth employment, poverty alleviation, education, health care provision, gender, economic growth and diversification, and oil and gas, among others.
“The 9th National Assembly has broken many ‘jinxes’ and done many ‘firsts’, overcoming traditional obstacles through consensus building and clever political brinkmanship.
“As of July 2023, a total of 874 bills were introduced in the Senate, out of which 162 were passed. Remarkably, 104 Bills of the 9th Senate have been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, making this significantly higher than those of previous assemblies, which recorded 31 for the 4th Assembly, 98 for the 5th Assembly, 52 for the 6th Assembly, 60 for the 7th Assembly, and 74 for the 8th Assembly.
“In the area of appropriation, the 9th Assembly has successfully pushed for a return to the January-December budget cycle. This has introduced a new consistency in the Budget cycle and increased Budget implementation, which has enhanced the predictability of macroeconomic policies.
“This assembly has passed landmark legislations targeted at various sectors with the potential to enhance the productivity of our economy and national life by encouraging investment, facilitating the ease of doing business, boosting investors’ confidence, and providing a legal and regulatory framework to safeguard the rule of law.
“The Finance Bills 2020 has accompanied the Appropriation Bills since 2020. This is an innovation because the appropriation Bill provides the planned expenditure outlay. At the same time, the finance Bills provide a legislative framework for how the government intends to raise additional revenue within the fiscal year to help fund the budget.
“While the 2020 Finance Act successfully amended 17 critical aspects of the extant laws, including seven existing tax laws, the 2023 Finance Act amends 11 legislations, including the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA); Customs, Excise, Tariff, etc. (Consolidation) Act (CETA); Federation Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) (Establishment) Act; Personal Income Tax Act (PITA); Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA); Stamp Duties Act (SDA); Value Added Tax (VAT) Act; Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences (CPORO) Act; Public Procurement Act (PPA); and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment) (TETFund) Act.
“The Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 repealed and re-enacted the CAMA legislation of 1990. The Act introduces measures to ensure efficiency in registering corporate vehicles, reduce the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency and stakeholders’ engagement in corporate vehicles, and promote a more friendly business climate.
“Furthermore, the Startup Act 2022, which we passed and was assented to by the President, established the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship and provides an enabling regulatory environment for technology-enabled start-ups in Nigeria.
“In addition, the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Act 2019 gives effect to fiscal incentives given to oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin areas under production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or other companies holding oil prospecting licenses (OPL) or oil mining leases (OML) and various petroleum exploration and production companies.
“Arguably, one of the notable achievements of the 9th Senate is passing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which was first introduced in the 6th Assembly (2007-2011) but failed to scale through. The Act seeks to provide legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry that would promote optimal utilisation of the country’s abundant oil and gas resources as well as enhance social and economic development and promote a conducive investment climate in the industry and foster the development of host communities.
“To help Nigeria transition from a mono-economy, from overly dependent on crude oil and providing more sources of employment for our youth, the 9th Assembly introduced and passed several bills such as the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (Amendment) Act, 2022, the National Fertilizer Quality (Control) Act, 2019, Plant Variety Protection Act, 2021, Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikasamma (Establishment) Act, 2021, Raw Materials Research and Development Council Act, 2022, and the Animal Diseases (Control) Act, 2022 and School of Mines and Geological Studies (Establishment) Bill, 2022.
“The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (the Act. 2022) provides a legal and institutional framework for preventing money laundering in Nigeria. The Act also provides statutory backing for establishing the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 provides a robust legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of the proceeds of crime, a non-conviction-based procedure for the recovery of proceeds of crime, strengthens criminal confiscation procedure, and collaboration among the relevant organisation in tracing properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.
“The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 was introduced to strengthen our democratic process and empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be in tune with modern expectations on the use of technology towards free, fair, and credible elections and engender public confidence in the electoral process.
‘Rubber stamp’ image and ending with 104 serving senators
Despite the achievements reeled out by President of the 9th Senate within the last four years, many political watchers in Nigeria still see it and by extension, the 9th National Assembly, as ‘Rubber Stamp’ parliament where any requests cum proposals from the executive got expeditious considerations and passage .
Finally, as it was for it from the beginning at inauguration in June 2019 with less than 109 membership, so it is for it at the end, four years after with 104 serving senators out of 109.
The five Senators who started with it but not ending with it due to political exigencies or litigations cum convictions are Senators Abdullahi Adamu (APC Nasarawa West) who is now the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Kyari (APC Borno North), who is now the National Deputy Chairman (North) of the party, Hassan Gusau (APC Zamfara Central) who resigned in April last year and served as Deputy Governor of Zamfara state, Peter Nwaoboshi (APC Delta North), who is battling with conviction from the court of law in Nigeria and Ike Ekwerenadu (PDP Enugu West), who is battling with conviction from a London Court.
Seats of the affected five senators, were not declared vacant nor replaced, while those of the three Senators who died between December 2019 and June 2020, were declared vacant and substituted.
today, the toga of ‘rubber stamp’ has refused to leave it. TAIYE ODEWALE reports
The 9th Senate
The 9th Senate is the 6th of its kind since the 4th republic began on May 29, 1999. The first of the Senate in the 4th republic, was the 4th Senate (1999- 2003), the second was the 5th Senate (2003-2007), the third was the 6th Senate (2007- 2011), the fourth was the 7th Senate (2011- 2015), the fifth was the 8th Senate (2015- 2019) the sixth was the 9th Senate (2019- 2023).
Like the saying that “anything that has a beginning, must have an end”, the 9th Senate which began with 107 Senators out of the 109 seats in the Senate, will be ending in tomorrow with 104 Senators out of 109 serving Senators it later paraded after inauguration in June 2019.
At inauguration on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, two out of the three senatorial seats of Imo state, were not occupied either due to non – issuance of certiexecutive, return (CoR) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the winner or inconclusiveness of election.
Specifically, Senator Rochas Okorocha (APC Imo West), was not issued CoR by INEC as at the time of inauguration of the 9th Senate, while Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu (APC Imo North), was as at the time, not declared winner yet.
However, weeks after inauguration, both Okorocha and Uwajumogu were at different times, issued certificate of returns by INEC and joined the 9th Senate by making its membership to be 109, provided for, by the 1999 constitution on the basis of three Senators per each of the 36 states of the Federation and one for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja).
Inaugural speech by Lawan
At inauguration and with emergence of Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (APC Yobe North), as President of Senate, agenda – setting inaugural speech was made by him, which reads thus: “Today’s epochal event is symbolic in many respects. It marks the beginning of another decade in the annals of the country’s federal legislature, recognizing that the Fourth Republic National Assembly was first inaugurated twenty years ago (now 24 years ago), on June 4, 1999.
“Our determination is to evolve a well-resourced Senate with a vision and a great sense of commitment to securing a prosperous future for our great nation. I strongly believe that for the 9th Senate to live up to this declaration, it must be operated as an institution that is largely accountable, participatory, collaborative and responsive to the needs, aspirations, rights and liberties of the masses whose mandate we hold in trust.
“In the 9th Senate no dream is too big to imagine, no challenge is too great to surmount. We will pursue our goal of a better and brighter future, we will no longer settle for anything less than the best.
“We will work with and collaborate with other arms of government to reclaim our country and restore our values. We will dream big, aim high and take bold initiatives. To this end, I will work with my colleagues to build actionable consensus around a robust legislative agenda that serves the best interest of majority of our people.
“We are going to work collaboratively with the executive arm of government to strengthen our planning and budget linkage that ensures effective service delivery and fulfilment of essential government obligations to the citizens, while taking care of the perennial delays in our annual appropriation bill passage and implementation.
“We will embark upon a sustained pursuit of national ethical renewal, through legislative and political support for the fight against corruption and other major security challenges that Nigeria faces today, namely; rural and highway banditry; inter-ethnic conflicts; herdsmen and farmer conflicts, cattle rustling; kidnapping and all other forms of criminality in the country.
“We have a plan to make Nigeria an economic growth hub and the most sought after business destination in Africa. This is to be achieved through legislative and policy coordination with the Executive Arm of Government to put in place the necessary reforms and legal instruments that promote the diversification and investment in the critical (real and service) sectors of the Nigerian economy.
“We will frontally address the current high level of youth unemployment, underemployment and high use of illicit drugs as well as depression and high rate of suicide.
“At the same time, we will collaborate with the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly, with a view to having legislative partnerships that address the existential challenges of corruption, insecurity, emerging criminal gangs, kidnaping, poverty, decayed educational system that has left Nigeria with an embarrassing reported figure of 14 million out of school children.
“I want to seize this opportunity to tell the entire nation, particularly those that are in doubt, that the Senate and indeed the legislature is going to operate independently in accordance with its own rules, procedures and time honoured norms and best practices. While working closely with the executive arm to deliver the dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people.
“Our legislative agenda must focus on enacting laws and strengthening existing laws to facilitate the reforms required to truly take our nation, our people and our economy to the next level.
“Within us as a Senate, our leadership will commit to partnership rather than partisanship and between us and the executive arm of Government, we will choose unity of purpose over conflict and discord while also working towards further strengthening and guaranteeing our independence and that of the judiciary.
“We will sustain and strengthen our institutional working relationship with critical stakeholders especially the Civil Society Organizations, the Media and Development Partners within and outside Nigeria.
“In conclusion, let it be said that we have come to this chamber conscious of the trust our constituents have reposed on us. Dear colleagues, we must not betray that trust. To this extent, in the next four years, we must drive a transformative Senate dedicated to serving the people with confidence, courage and patriotism. Indeed, the urgent task towards socio-economic reforms and transformation through legislative intervention has begun.
“In so doing, we are convinced that our past was only a story told while our future can yet be written in gold.”
Self assessment four years after
In what can be described as self assessment by the 9th Senate four years after, its President, Ahmad Lawan, at induction organized for federal lawmakers – elect for the 10th National Assembly, gave a speech which reeled out achievements of the 9th Senate under his leadership.
Ahmad Lawan in the speech said: “In line with our well-articulated Legislative Agenda, the 9th Senate prioritised the return of the Federal Budget to predictable January-December cycle, concerns of security, corruption, youth employment, poverty alleviation, education, health care provision, gender, economic growth and diversification, and oil and gas, among others.
“The 9th National Assembly has broken many ‘jinxes’ and done many ‘firsts’, overcoming traditional obstacles through consensus building and clever political brinksmanship.
“As of July 2023, a total of 874 bills were introduced in the Senate, out of which 162 were passed. Remarkably, 104 Bills of the 9th Senate have been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, making this significantly higher than those of previous assemblies, which recorded 31 for the 4th Assembly, 98 for the 5th Assembly, 52 for the 6th Assembly, 60 for the 7th Assembly, and 74 for the 8th Assembly.
“In the area of appropriation, the 9th Assembly has successfully pushed for a return to the January-December budget cycle. This has introduced a new consistency in the Budget cycle and increased Budget implementation, which has enhanced the predictability of macroeconomic policies.
“This assembly has passed landmark legislations targeted at various sectors with the potential to enhance the productivity of our economy and national life by encouraging investment, facilitating the ease of doing business, boosting investors’ confidence, and providing a legal and regulatory framework to safeguard the rule of law.
“The Finance Bills 2020 has accompanied the Appropriation Bills since 2020. This is an innovation because the appropriation Bill provides the planned expenditure outlay. At the same time, the finance Bills provide a legislative framework for how the government intends to raise additional revenue within the fiscal year to help fund the budget.
“While the 2020 Finance Act successfully amended 17 critical aspects of the extant laws, including seven existing tax laws, the 2023 Finance Act amends 11 legislations, including the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA); Customs, Excise, Tariff, etc. (Consolidation) Act (CETA); Federation Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) (Establishment) Act; Personal Income Tax Act (PITA); Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA); Stamp Duties Act (SDA); Value Added Tax (VAT) Act; Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences (CPORO) Act; Public Procurement Act (PPA); and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment) (TETFund) Act.
“The Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 repealed and re-enacted the CAMA legislation of 1990. The Act introduces measures to ensure efficiency in registering corporate vehicles, reduce the compliance burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency and stakeholders’ engagement in corporate vehicles, and promote a more friendly business climate.
“Furthermore, the Startup Act 2022, which we passed and was assented to by the President, established the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship and provides an enabling regulatory environment for technology-enabled start-ups in Nigeria.
“In addition, the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Act 2019 gives effect to fiscal incentives given to oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin areas under production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or other companies holding oil prospecting licenses (OPL) or oil mining leases (OML) and various petroleum exploration and production companies.
“Arguably, one of the notable achievements of the 9th Senate is passing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which was first introduced in the 6th Assembly (2007-2011) but failed to scale through. The Act seeks to provide legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry that would promote optimal utilisation of the country’s abundant oil and gas resources as well as enhance social and economic development and promote a conducive investment climate in the industry and foster the development of host communities.
“To help Nigeria transition from a mono-economy, from overly dependent on crude oil and providing more sources of employment for our youth, the 9th Assembly introduced and passed several bills such as the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (Amendment) Act, 2022, the National Fertilizer Quality (Control) Act, 2019, Plant Variety Protection Act, 2021, Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikasamma (Establishment) Act, 2021, Raw Materials Research and Development Council Act, 2022, and the Animal Diseases (Control) Act, 2022 and School of Mines and Geological Studies (Establishment) Bill, 2022.
“The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (the Act. 2022) provides a legal and institutional framework for preventing money laundering in Nigeria. The Act also provides statutory backing for establishing the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 provides a robust legal and institutional framework for the recovery and management of the proceeds of crime, a non-conviction-based procedure for the recovery of proceeds of crime, strengthens criminal confiscation procedure, and collaboration among the relevant organisation in tracing properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.
“The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 was introduced to strengthen our democratic process and empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be in tune with modern expectations on the use of technology towards free, fair, and credible elections and engender public confidence in the electoral process.
‘Rubber stamp’ image and ending with 104 serving Senators
Despite the achievements reeled out by President of the 9th Senate within the last four years, many political watchers in Nigeria still see it and by extension, the 9th National Assembly, as ‘Rubber Stamp’ parliament where any requests cum proposals from the executive got expeditious considerations and passage .
Finally, as it was for it from the beginning at inauguration in June 2019 with less than 109 membership, so it is for it at the end, four years after with 104 serving senators out of 109.
The five Senators who started with it but not ending with it due to political exigencies or litigations cum convictions are Senators Abdullahi Adamu (APC Nasarawa West) who is now the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Kyari (APC Borno North), who is now the National Deputy Chairman (North) of the party, Hassan Gusau (APC Zamfara Central) who resigned in April last year and served as Deputy Governor of Zamfara state, Peter Nwaoboshi (APC Delta North), who is battling with conviction from the court of law in Nigeria and Ike Ekwerenadu (PDP Enugu West), who is battling with conviction from a London Court.
Seats of the affected five senators, were not declared vacant nor replaced, while those of the three Senators who died between December 2019 and June 2020, were declared vacant and substituted.
