By Yusuph Olaniyonu

Let me quickly do a definition of term here. My meaning of visitation is the few visits that Senate delegations had made outside parliament to advance the interest of Nigeria. On Wednesday, September 16, 2015, it will be 100 days since the eighth Senate was inaugurated based on the proclamation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Saraki
The upper legislative house started on a shaky ground as the issue of election of the leadership became mired in eedless controversy, obviously fueled from outside parliament. Today, the leadership, headed by Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has shaken off the initial setback and demonstrated the ability to be the best the country has produced.
While there are so many areas through which one can objectively evaluate the performance of the Senate in 100 days, I have chosen to limit myself to the three visits made by the
Legislative house outside Abuja as well as the symbolism and significance of the visit to judge how well it has done.

On August 3, the Senate decided to fulfil its promise to send a delegation to Maiduguri, Borno State capital and centre of the insurgency against the nation by Boko Haram. The decision to send the delegation to Borno State came after an elaborate debate on insecurity in the North-East. During that debate, the Senate President allowed all senators who wanted to contribute to the motion moved by Senator George Sekibo representing Rivers State. There were chilling reports from personal experiences, losses and deprivations rendered by senators from the affected states. The tales of woes made the chamber to resolve to send a delegation to Maiduguri for an on-the-spot assessment of the security situation and the plight of residents.

Apart from Saraki, other members of the delegation include Senate Leader, Ali Ndume; Deputy Chief Whip; Francis Alimikhena; Danjuma Goje; Bukar Abba Ibrahim; Hassan Mohammed; Abubakar Kyari and the Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Isa Galaudu.
During the visit, Saraki assured Borno people that the entire country was solidly behind them in their trying period . He said: “We have come to feel your pains, to hear what you have been going through first hand. To seek to understand the severe bloody struggle you have had to endure and go through emotionally, physically, financially and in many other ways which can hardly be put in words”.

The Senate delegation, in company of Governor Shettima, paid homage to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Khanemi, during which they assured that the Senate will do all in its power to ensure that life returned to the state and the geo-political zone. The team later visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps located at the Umaru Shehu College of Education, and the Government College, Maiduguri, bristling with over 4,000 displaced persons. They also visited the Dalori IDPs camp housing over 18,000 persons from Bama local government area of Borno State.

Saraki said the resolution of the Senate to send the high powered delegation was a demonstration of the commitment of the upper chamber to find a lasting solution to the plight of the people in the North-East. “We have come to sit with you and listen to you and hopefully together on solutions that would significantly change your situation for the better. We believe that after this visit your situation will not be the same again. The mission of our visit is simple; we have come to bring you hope and to let you know that the Nigerian Senate has not abandoned you and real change is coming. We are determined to end this carnage, this senseless and sorrowful war. We are determined to defeat Boko Haram. The Nigerian Senate and indeed the National Assembly is willing to support you and your families to ensure that your lives return to normal. We could not in good conscience talk to you from Abuja. No. This new senate would rather come here and this is why we are here,” he stressed.

Saraki added: “We stand with you against Boko Haram and everything that stands against your security and against your welfare. We stand together with our dear President, Muhammadu Buhari whose singular devotion to ending these senseless killings gives us greater belief that together we will win the war. Our president has continued to work night and day to bring this evil of Boko Haram to a permanent end and we reiterate our resolve to ensure that together we succeed.

We stand with our troops and will in the coming days show them that this new Senate will do all that is within its powers of authorization and approvals, support them and provide for them the necessary funding and oversight that will guarantee that they defeat this insurgency.
“The 8th Senate has made the security and welfare of our people priority number one on its agenda. We are very conscious of the level of carnage and destruction that has been wrought on the people here. We will be working closely with our counterparts in the House of Representatives to make sure that we rebuild the economy of the North-East. We will not rest on our oars until normalcy is returned to this troubled region”, he said.

While welcoming the Senate President and his team, Governor Shettima, who spoke in an emotion-laden voice, stated that the visit was historic . “I would like to express my sincere and profound welcome to the Senate President and our respected and distinguished Senators over this official visit to Borno State, which is the first of its kind by any Senate President since the advent of Civilian Administration in 1999. This is a clear manifestation of your concern for the plight of the people of the North-East region and Borno State in particular,” he said.

The governor observed that there are 26 IDP camps in Maiduguri aside those in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and other states across the country. He urged the National Assembly to pass a bill that will create the North-East Development Commission to handle the issue of reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of the IDPs and provide employment for youths as was done in the Niger Delta. Shettima said: “The people of Borno State view this day and this visit as most apt and most significant. I have no doubt in my mind about the seriousness of this administration to putting a permanent end to this senseless bloodletting and madness of a few misguided elements, who hide under the canopy of religion”.

The day after the visit, Senator Ike Ekweremadu led another delegation to Adamawa State, another epicentre of the Boko Haram war. The Senate delegation further gave hope to the people. Through both visits, the senators empathised with residents of the two states and encouraged the political, military and traditional leadership to resist the marauders.
And the result of the visitation is that Saraki and his colleagues have almost become radicalised on the need to end the North-East insurgency as fast as possible. Today, the Senate has become the evangelist of the gospel of peace in the geo-political zone. Every opportunity the Senate President has, he uses to canvass international support for rebuilding, resettlement and rehabilitation of the people and the environment in the North-East. The Senate President has, during meetings with envoys of foreign countries who pay courtesy visit to his office, urged for support to Nigeria to end the Boko Haram crisis.

Between August 30 and September 2, the Senate made another visitation. This time to New York where a delegation-led by Saraki attended the 4th United Nations International Conference for Heads of Parliaments. The three-man delegation which included Dino Melaye and Andy Uba, during the bilateral meetings with delegations from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, continuously harped on the need for international support for Nigeria, to end the carnage in the North-East and resettle the people.

Saraki used the UN platform to urge that insecurity in Nigeria be taken as a global crisis like similar occurrences in other parts of the world. His message resonated well with the world gathering, particularly since he had equally utilised the opportunity an earlier meeting of select parliamentary leaders with the UN scribe, Ban Ki Moon, to canvass that Nigeria be supported to quell the Boko Haram insurgency.

The delegation, also at the various bilateral meetings, lobbied for international support for our economic revival plan. Saraki and his colleagues were able to convince their colleagues in other countries on the on-going genuine attempts to rebuild the Nigerian economy as demonstrated by the policies and programmes of the Buhari administration and the solid support the legislature is giving the executive.

With the New York visit, the Senate convinced the international community that all arms of government in Nigeria are united in the objective of fighting the war against insecurity, economic problems and youth unemployment.

If in 100 days, the Senate has re-assured the people that the efforts to end insecurity in North-East has full legislative support, joined the executive in mounting international campaign to support the efforts and utilised all instruments like legislations, oversights and advocacy to further serve Nigerians interests, then the eighth Senate has started well. I have no doubt that it will do better than many Nigerians ever imagined.

* Olaniyonu is Special Adviser to the Senate President

Incase Nigerian Youths don get liver to go beat all of them up.......make una halaa me abeeeg........I get beef for dat Saraki for making Kwara state look like Farm

Its high time we stopped making political offices financially attractive.