By: Edegbe Odemwingie, Jonathan Nda-Isaiah on May 13, 2013 - 7:17am

Coming out of a high-level meeting with PDP top echelon, the Senate President insists on the inclusion of members of the National Assembly in the PDP National Executive Committee(NEC). EDEGBE ODEMWINGIE and JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH report alongside other key developments in the Senate last week.

The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been engulfed in a leadership crisis that is threatening to decimate the party’s ranks in the lead up to the 2015 general elections and beyond. Bamanga Tukur, the party chairman is desperately fighting to retain his seat. President Goodluck Jonathan is under serious pressure from PDP governors to fire Tukur. The relationship between Tukur and the PDP governors, tagged “rebels” led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, has been everything but cordial. Although the governors have told the president to fire Tukur, he is yet to do so because of the current structure of the PDP’s hierarchy, which will produce Amaechi’s candidate as interim PDP boss in the event of Tukur being forced out of office.

Tukur’s problem started when he and the governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Murtala Nyako, clashed over the control of the party in the state. Tukur, who hails from Adamawa, has openly endorsed his son as a possible successor to Nyako and runs a faction of the PDP in the state to realise his dream.

The governor is also alleged to be grooming one of his sons for the job while Tukur prefers his own son, a former member of the House of Representatives.

The fear of the unknown has made the PDP governors pitch tent with Nyako and every effort made to reconcile them has so far been to no avail. The clash has now been brought to the national scene and Tukur is being asked to go. Tukur has toured the geo-political zones to reconcile various factions of the party but the governors would not budge. To follow the acclaimed “Mr Fix It”, Chief Tony Anenih, the party’s BoT chairman began a fresh tour of the PDP-controlled states to win the governors back to the PDP.

 

Mark Wades In

Last week, the Senate President, David Mark, told the visiting PDP BoT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, that all warring factions in the party need to close ranks and work together in order to effectively implement the party’s agenda and that the disagreement in the party was unhealthy and capable of derailing the programme of the party.

Mark requested the inclusion of members of the National Assembly in the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC), saying as elected representatives of the people, the lawmakers can make better contributions for the benefits of the citizenry.

According to Mark, the lawmakers are true patriots committed to making good laws that reflects the true state of the Nigerian people.

Mark said: “The National Assembly is the engine room of democracy and government and therefore, should be given its pride of place and we pledge the commitment and loyalty of the lawmakers to continue to work for the peace, unity and progress of the nation’’.

Meanwhile, Anenih appreciated the National Assembly members for their patriotism and loyalty to the party, saying the bills and motions churned out from the parliament have helped to keep Nigeria together.

Issues discussed at the parley included party affairs, the executive and legislative relationship as well as security challenges facing the nation.

 

2013 Budget Impasse

President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to amend the N4.987 trillion 2013 national budget last Thursday, suffered a setback with the Senate deferring consideration of the President’s request to “another legislative date”.

Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, declared at plenary when the matter came up that the lead debate for Jonathan’s amendment request was not ready - a rarity for bills already listed for legislative consideration.

Jonathan, in separate letters to the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, dated March 14, 2013, had rejected a number of ambitious stipulations in the 2013 budget allowing the National Assembly to monitor every kobo disbursed by the executive for project execution, a design federal lawmakers hatched to check the perennial problem of poor budget implementation.

 

He called for immediate review.

Another clause directed that the Minister of Finance release funds periodically as due to offices involved, and failure can only be entertained with the due permission of the National Assembly.

The president said that was impossible since revenue fluctuates and might necessitate budgetary defaults.

In the amendment proposal presented to both arms of the National Assembly in March, Jonathan retained the N4.987 trillion passed by the National Assembly last December but proposed N2.4 trillion as recurrent expenditure as against the 2.3 trillion passed on December 20, 2012.

The president is also seeking the approval of N1.588 trillion as capital expenditure as against the N1.6 trillion approved by the parliament last year.

Of the total N4.987 trillion budget in the new proposal, N388 billion is earmarked for statutory transfers while N591.7 billion is for debt service.

Jonathan had in September last year, proposed N4.92 trillion as the budget for 2013 fiscal year, but upon its passage, the National Assembly increased the figure to N4.987 trillion. With the amendment proposal, Jonathan has asked the National Assembly to restore various budget sub-heads as he presented them, in contrast to various tinkering with the figures done by the National Assembly.

 

Season Of Deaths

Last Friday, Jonathan held emergency talks with his security chiefs over a recent spate of bloody violence in the country which left about 350 dead in less than a month, in mostly ethno-religious clashes.

In the most recent case last Tuesday, Ombatse gunmen, a shadowy cult, ambushed a group of police men in the central Nigerian state of Nasarawa, killing 30 of them and setting fire to their bodies. Seventeen policemen are still missing, the police said.

The previous day, 55 people were killed in the northeastern town of Bama when Boko Haram Islamists attacked the northeast town.

In another case of religious violence, a group of gunmen attacked a church in Kano, killing 10 on Sunday, three days after 39 were killed in clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria’s Taraba state.

On April 16 and 17, brutal clashes between soldiers and insurgents in the northeast fishing town of Baga, left nearly 200 dead in the deadliest-ever episode in the Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed 3,600 lives since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

Following the violence this week, Jonathan cut short an African tour, “to personally oversee efforts... to contain the fresh challenges to national security,” an official statement said.

On Thursday, he called off a trip to Namibia where he had planned to travel to after his state visit to neighbouring South Africa.

In view of the recent wave of deadly attacks in central and northern Nigeria, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha representing Taraba South, last week, blamed the recent crisis in Wukari which claimed 39 lives to the handiwork of unseen elements, stressing that the people of Wukari have been living peacefully together in the last six years.

Bwacha called on the Taraba state government to relax the curfew announced in the area in the aftermath of the deadly clash.

The Senator was speaking at a press briefing with Senate correspondents in the National Assembly.

LEADERSHIP recalls that two months after an ethno-religious crisis claimed over 100 lives in Wukari, the town witnessed another bloodbath where 39 people were feared killed.

According to the Senator, Wukari is a community where all faiths have been living together and relating peacefully for years. One day for the same people to wake up and start fighting each other its definitely the handiwork of unseen elements, he told Senate correspondents.

Bwacha: “We condemn such acts. The God we serve does not need anybody to fight for him. We must learn to tolerate and  live peacefully with each other. For how long shall people continue taking each others lives. This senseless killings is undesirable and must stop and we condemn it totally.

He also confirmed that a commission of inquiry has been set up by the Taraba government to unravel the root cause of the matter.

“I spoke to the governor on the need to reduce the curfew because people are suffering and the government has promised to look into the immediate and remote cause of the crisis to stop future occurrence. We have also been in touch with NEMA to access the level of damages. As at now, nothing has been done yet”.

An International Financial Centre In The Offing

A Bill for an Act to establish the Nigerian International Financial Centre to provide for a financial free zone offering a full range of financial and allied services was last Wednesday passed for a second reading by the Senate.

The establishment of the financial centre will cost Nigeria N5.6 billion according to the financial compendium attached to the bill. When passed into law, the bill will create three separate bodies; namely the Nigerian International Financial Centre Authority (Administrative body); the Nigeria International Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (NIFCRA) and the Nigeria International Financial Centre Judiciary Authority. The financial centre will be headed by a Director-General.

In lead debates, the Bill’s sponsor, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), (Cross River, PDP) said the bill will “plug” West Africa, especially Nigeria into the global financial system in furtherance of the region’s economic growth and development.

The bill was subsequently referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, Banking and Currency with a directive by the Senate President, David Mark to report back to Senate at plenary in four weeks.

Ndoma-Egba said the International Financial Centre will attract funding and other resource requirements for tapping the sub-region’s unexplored potentials, encourage and attract top rated International Financial Service firms to participate in West Africa’s development.

Despite the bill’s passage, there were some voices of dissent. Senator Olusola Adeyeye (Osun, ACN), said establishing another agency amounted to repeating past mistakes in creating too many agencies, by implication, adding to bureaucracy and wastage of government funds.

The Senate President, David Mark, said Nigeria needs a strong financial centre. He said the unconstitutional parts of the bill will be sorted out at the committee level to meet international best practices.

“The fact that previous agencies failed does not mean this one will fail. Its not about success or failure now but we should ask ourselves when agencies fail, we should hold the person responsible for the failure. We have to open up to the world ,meet international standards provided we put the right people’’, he said.

State Of Nation Address Bill

The Senate, last Thursday considered and passed the report of the Conference Committee on the State of the Nation Address Bill 2013 -  a bill that will make it mandatory for any sitting president to address a joint session of the National Assembly in July every year.

Following failure of the bill to become law after passage by the sixth session, Senate President, David Mark, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure quick assent to the bill. “2013 is the first State of the Nation address by Mr President and I hope that he will assent to it as quickly as possible”, Mark said.

LEADERSHIP recalls that June last year, the House of Representatives had, through a resolution, invited Jonathan alongside security chiefs to appear before a closed session to brief federal lawmakers on the state of security in the country - a move that triggered varied reactions in support and dissent over the propriety of the invitation. Jonathan has refused to honour the request till date.

A conference committee was set up to harmonise differences in the versions of the bill by the Senate and House of Representatives which had affected its passage earlier on March 13, 2013.

Senators in past debates, chorused that the practice (State of the Nation Address) is in line with best democratic practices as evident in the United States and other established democracies.

The bill as passed, if assented to by the President, makes it mandatory for the president, in company of the vice-president and the head of the judicial arm of government, to address a joint sitting of the National Assembly on issues including but not limited to national security, the economy, foreign policy and social justice.

Going by the provisions of the bill, unlike what obtains in the United States from where the model was copied, the State of the Union Address by the Nigerian president would be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and debate in the two chambers of the federal legislature.

Although the president would necessarily address the parliament as prescribed by the bill when enacted, he could also be compelled to do so through summons, should he fail to comply with the law. It provided that the president must address the nation on issues of security, economy and social justice on “the first legislative day of July every year.” The bill states that “the President shall address the joint sitting aforesaid on such issues including but not limited to national security, economy, foreign policy and social justice.

The two chambers of the National Assembly shall each, debate the issues raised within 14 legislative days following the presentation of the State of the Nation Address. “Where the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria fails, neglects, or refuses to render account of his stewardship within the time stipulated by section 1 of this bill, the National Assembly may by resolution, supported by two thirds majority votes of members of each House of the National Assembly, summon the President to address the National Assembly pursuant to the provisions of this bill.”

It also provided that while the president’s address would be debated by the National Assembly, the resolution emanating from the National Assembly would be communicated to the President within 60 days from the date of such address.

 

Nigeria: 1000 New HIV Infections Daily, 100,000 Deaths Yearly

About 1.5 million people living with HIV in Nigeria require treatment; an estimated 1000 new infections occur daily and about 100,000 AIDS-related deaths are recorded annually; 350,000 infected persons have access to treatment with over 1.15 unable to have access.

The disclosures were contained in lead debates on a Bill for an Act to make provisions for the prevention of HIV discrimination and to protect the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV and affected by AIDS and other related matters debated in the Senate last Wednesday.

The Senate passed for a second reading, a Bill seeking to outlaw the discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS - federal lawmakers say the move will encourage HIV/AIDS carriers to come out and know their status.

Senate President, David Mark, charged agencies in the country saddled with the responsibility of checking the spread of the virus to effectively deploy funds to raise awareness about the virus.

Mark decried apprehension in some quarters on condom use as a preventive measure. According to the Senate President, the belief among some religious groups that HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God is unfounded.

Leading debates on the bill, Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta, PDP), told lawmakers that at the moment, Nigeria has a huge gap in the coverage of prevention from mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

At this point, he said that stigma and discrimination have remained the major reasons why HIV has become difficult to control in Nigeria.

Okowa who lamented that the rights of the people living with HIV and AIDS are often violated, pointed out that such discrimination has limited access to treatment and prevention.

The Bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health for further legislative works with a directive that it be brought back to plenary in four weeks.

http://leadership.ng/news/130513/pdp-patching-leaking-umbrella

By 2015,pdp will be no where to be found

^^^
Bayelsa and Ebonyi should be the only two states under PDP by then