Lawan’s Appropriateness for Senate Presidency
As the seventh National Assembly is winding down stylishly; a new parliament is set to be inaugurated June 4, 2015. This realization has thrown open leadership tussle in the National Assembly and its attendant challenges, horse-trading and intrigues. Not a few re-elected lawmakers are now in the race to emerge as either the Senate President or Speaker. Unlike in the past, the shocker is that there is paucity of candidates pushing for the positions of Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker.
Those who are obviously in the race for the position of Senate President include: Senator Ahmad Lawan from Yobe state who has been in the National Assembly since inception in 1999; Senator Bukola Saraki, former Governor of Kwara state and Senator George Akume, former Governor of Benue state. They are all members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) given the party’s majority in both Senate and House. But then, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is scheming rather feebly to cash in on the discordant tones evident in the APC to re-launch David Mark as Senate President.
It is however incontrovertible that on all counts – administration, legislative process and action, oversight, plenary session, committee effectiveness, Senate cohesion, consistency and integrity – the out-going Senate President, Senator David Mark evidently gave good account of himself. This understanding makes it imperative for the search for a new Senate President to be intensive and critical. This is instructive because the new Senate should be desirous of a leader who is unblemished, who has profound legislative experience tinged with educational sophistication and right disposition to forge a cohesive Senate to be able to consolidate and boost the record set by Mark.
Essentially, a critical assessment of the candidates pushing to occupy the number three seat in the country, Senator Lawan, in all modesty, is most fitting for the job. Apart from untarnished political career, he is the most experienced in legislative business and leadership; a bridge builder, he also boasts the highest educational qualification with a Doctorate Degree in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System.
Since the inception of the National Assembly in 1999, Lawan has had unbroken chain of 16 years in the National Assembly- eight years in the House and another eight years in the Senate. Naturally, this uncommon feat has intrinsically made him to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Nigeria legislature and its legislative process. With his recent re-election into the Senate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress to represent Yobe North, Lawan has another four years of immense experience and thus ought to be elected on merit to competently pilot the affairs of the Senate.
A vibrant, visionary and focused parliamentarian, Lawan came to the National Assembly in 1999 well prepared. Apart from his educational sophistication; from the outset, he had a clear vision of his mission to the parliament which included; providing constructive, credible, virile and courageous opposition; holding the executive accountable to the people through effective oversight; ensuring quality representation through regular interface with his constituents and pursuit of better funding of infrastructural development.
Others however included; ensuring the delivery of qualitative and functional education; stemming the tide of fiscal indiscipline evident in public finance management and appropriation and pursuit of legislation and policies geared towards good governance, peace and the welfare of Nigerians
He has been able to accomplish these through regular, robust, quality and intellectual contributions during plenary sessions, and committee activities. He also plays leading role during parliamentary caucus meetings. He is one of the key legislators vociferously opposed to extra budgetary expenditure, low level of budget implementation and constitutional breaches especially during Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime and arbitrary deployment of soldiers.
Similarly, he added a strong voice and rallied opposition lawmakers against Obasanjo’s plot for tenure elongation in 2006 and thus contributing largely to the failure of that project. He also moved against President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration over the snail pace adopted in grappling with Boko Haram’s insurgency which hitherto has been ravaging his North East zone resulting in general insecurity in the country.
As House Chairman on Education and later Agriculture, he injected dynamism and parliamentary prowess into the running of the committees. He developed desirable legislative frameworks that brought about unassailable reforms in the two sectors.
Based on the legislative experience he amassed from the House, he was appointed member Senate ad hoc committee on Constitution Review and has since the past eight years been heading the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, an elaborate committee, critical to all the sectors of the economy. He has since the appointment been pre-occupied with fashioning out a more responsible public accounts regime.
Obsessed with the penchant for selfless service to the masses and humanity; consequently, of his many bills and motions, the one he considers most passionate is Desertification Control Commission Bill. This is on account of desertification’s attendant dangers and socio-economic crisis resulting in intense poverty, insecurity and rendering of more and more people homeless and thus increasing the incidence of migration.
The secret behind his rare and sustained re-elections evidently lies in his humility, accessibility, sincerity, kindness and great performance. More crucially, regular interface with his constituents, providing him the opportunity of identifying their needs and aspirations and taking concrete steps towards tackling such. Lawan’s towering legislative feat and governance tinged with pursuit of effective opposition are also instructive of his extensive successes at the polls.
It is incontrovertible that his 16 active and pulsating years in the parliament, playing leading roles have earned him vast, profound and matchless experience on parliamentary politics, procedure and administration. To allude that this man of great vision has seen it all in parliament is an understatement, he is indeed an institution on parliamentary issues. Having been returned for another four years and the first of its kind in APC, the only way the Senate and the nation can benefit immensely from his inestimable experience and his parliamentary father figure is to elect him to lead the 8th Senate. Lawan’s Senate Presidency is simply an idea whose time has come.
– Uganwa wrote from National Assembly, Abuja