Boroffice: Take-a-Bow Practice Not Good for Democracy
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Science Technology, Prof. Robert Ajayi Boroffice, in this interview with Dele Ogbodo, wants the Senate to change some of its ways, including suspending the ‘take-a-bow’ practice. Excerpts:
Four years down the line, what has your experience at the 7th Assembly been like? Well, my experience has been very exciting and educative. We went into the 7th assembly with much hope and expectations. Even from the spiritual perspective, the number 7 connotes perfection in numerology. So, we had very high hope and expectations that the seventh assembly was going to contribute largely to the development of the country and meet the aspiration of the people. I must say that we started very well but towards the end of that assembly, bi-partisanship took over and the interest of parties became more dominant than national interest and national issues.
From my own perspective, it was a wonderful experience for me. Remember, I have been in the academia for some time and was also in the public service as an administrator, so this legislative function was another experience for me. However, all in all, it was okay for me because it afforded me the opportunity of meeting people from different parts of the country. Also assessing their sensitivities, their values and their perspective of Nigeria which I think is very important.
And of course, I could see that there were quite a lot of intrigues in arriving at decisions. Here, one would say, the more you look, the less you see. What really disappointed me was that there are clear issues that if we looked at from the national interest, we would be very unanimous in our decision but unfortunately in some of those cases, there were divisions and so we couldn’t meet the expectations of majority of Nigerians.
All in all, I think my experience was interesting. My oversight functions, we carried out very effectively may be because I was once a chief executive of the parastatal under my jurisdiction and so I know where to go and what to ask for as well as what not to do. The issue of appropriation was very terrible because the budget performance kept going down every year and this is very unfortunate while the recurrent expenditure kept rising and the capital expenditure kept dwindling. All these call for concern. To me, it was a new experience and I tried to make best use of that experience. What are your expectations in the 8th assembly? I don’t think the issue of effective leadership would bog down the 8th assembly. I really don’t envisage much problem because when you look at the standing order of the Senate and for you to be a principal officer, you must be a ranking Senator, in other words you are not a first time Senator and therefore, you don’t really have to start learning the rope all over. So as a ranking Senator, you don’t have anything to learn; as a serving Senator, whether as Senate President or Deputy down to the whip.
These positions are for ranking Senators that are already in the red chamber for good four years. I don’t think that this is going to be any problem. Therefore, any ranking Senator can be the Senate President, any of them can be any of the six Senate leaders. So, I don’t think that will be a problem and then if you look at the crop of Senators that are coming to the red chamber, some of them are coming from the House of Representatives and some are coming from State Houses of Assembly and so if you look at it critically, these are people who are not alien to legislative functions and culture.
So, it will not be an entirely new terrain or environment for them. And all in all, it is not going to be as if everybody is going to be a rookie. A number of the new legislators have been former governors in their states, and again even though they have occupied some executive positions, they also have some knowledge in the legislative culture in their various states, where they sit as chief executives. So, I think it is a good thing for us and I doubt if you going to have less than 10 per cent of the 109 Senators that are completely strange to legislative culture and functions. We expect that the 8th assembly will be as vibrant as ever. What would you do differently if given the opportunity to lead in any capacity at the red chamber? First is to encourage hard work and seriousness because lawmaking is a serious business and not for charlatans. Let me illustrate this through a personal experience. I have represented Nigeria on several committees at the United Nations (UN). For somebody to have good or quality contributions to debate, you must have access to all documents and information on the issue that you want to debate and if possible carry out personal and group research on the document that you want to debate on.
It is unfortunate that in the present situation, it is the very day that you want to discuss an issue that you will be given the papers and the materials. I don’t think this is good enough. Papers on issues to be discussed should be distributed to members at least one week to members before the debate. I was the chairman of the business committee of Senate, and usually we distributed papers two weeks before the Senate meeting and this will help members to research the documents and study them and then come to Senate to make meaningful contributions.
But here you are given those papers right on the floor of the Senate. At times, it is when the issue is called that they now distribute the papers. It doesn’t seem to be a serious issue. This issue is not taken seriously. Secondly, I think that once you know the issue to be debated or discussed, you open a sort of register, where people can inscribe their names on issues that they want to speak, and when the debate commences, the president already knows those who are interested in speaking on those issues and therefore you are called upon to make your contributions.
But a situation where the president looks at your face and shakes his head and will never call you, I don’t think it is right. It is wrong and you will see where a preponderance of those called upon to contribute is in the ruling party. The opposition is more or less alienated from the debate. I don’t think this is right. We all are elected as Senators and nobody has monopoly of knowledge because our people believe that we can represent them and that our contribution is to make meaningful contribution to debate so as to move the country forward.
There is therefore, the need to give those in opposition the opportunity to make meaning contributions to the debate. So, these are the fundamental changes that I would want to bring to ensure vibrancy and improve the quality of the debate. What other things do you intend to do differently for your people? Sincerely, I hope to continue with the good works, which involves a lot of sacrifice. I have been diligent both in love and in my works towards my people and so it speaks for me. Let me humbly submit that I have been voted back to the Senate on the basis of what I have done for my people and I cannot count them but I can assure you that when you see the document which I entitled my stewardship you will know that in the history of Senatorial representation in that district, no Senator has done One over fiftieth (1/5) of what I have done. It is better, for what I have done for my people to speak for itself. On what I will do differently, I will be close to my people to listen to voices and then take action, for action is the commodity of kings. What does the emergence of General Buhari portend for the country? First the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the ruling party and the President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to me is divine intervention. It was apparent that the country was at the cross-road and sinking. God knows that Nigeria needs change and that change came timely. APC won the elections based on personalities of the people involved in the contest. Everybody knows Buhari’s zero tolerance posture for corruption. He is well disciplined, unbiased in terms of religion, though misrepresented and misunderstood by many people. His reputation speaks for him and by the time he was picked, Buhari has become a trade name that will sell anyway.
While we were campaigning in every corner of this country, children were coming to say ‘Sai baba’ we knew that the wind of change had started blowing so the reputation also of the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osibajo is another issue. Take a look at the people behind the APC – these are shrewd politicians, who have demonstrated their sincerity and commitment to the survival of democracy and good governance in the country.
People like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Ogbonnanya Onu, and Chief Odigie Oyegun etc. These individuals have sacrificed their freedom to fight for the survival of this country. They took it upon themselves and struggled to liberate this country from the clutches of militancy, impunity and bad governance even though people tried to blackmail them that APC was an Islamic party, which was never true.
In fact, those of us in the party knew that this was not true and when the party started selling its people oriented programmes with points of reference in states, it was obviously not difficult for people to say that this is the party to beat. Of course there was attempt to embarrass and to intimidate and blackmail our leader on the issue of certificate, which is ridiculous.
We know the tradition in the military, because once you get into the military, you submit all your credentials and that is the end of it. But such smear campaigns against the president-elect generated a lot of sympathy for him across the country.