NASS supremacy battle: The inside story

The face-off between the Senate and the House of Representatives over the venue for the presentation of the 2010 budget estimates was only a sore that festered, Daily Sun learnt yesterday.
Indeed, the relationship between both chambers of the National Assembly had hardly been healthy since the emergence of Dimeji Bankole as Speaker in November 2007.

Although members and leaders of both chambers have managed to present a façade of healthy relationship to the public, every major event requiring joint sitting has brought to the fore this simmering rift of confidence.

Since the beginning of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, and even before that, all joint sittings have always been done in the green chambers of the House of Representatives. The House, which is designed to take more than it’s 360 members is more expansive, and no eyebrows have been raised by successive Senate Presidents.

The breakdown of the understanding began to manifest in the dying days of the erstwhile Speaker Mercy Etteh. Dimeji Bankole was alleged to have campaigned for her seat, promising parity of senators and Representatives in all scheme of things.
According to a dependable source close to the House, “that was the catch. Most members of the House fell for it. You know most of us here are young and highly impressionistic. The House had over the years carved a niche as more vibrant and enterprising and it brought with it the itch not to be subjugated to the senate, whose members are relatively conservative.”
Dimeji scored a bulls eye but the promise has since transformed to a burden.

The most glaring opportunity for the expression of the parity strain came during the retreat in Minna, Niger State by the joint committee of the National Assembly on the review of the 1999 constitution. The retreat, which broke up because of the insistence of the House members to make the Deputy Speaker. Usman Nafada co-chairman contrary to established procedures was a fall out of the plot and had the full backing of the leadership and entire members.

Inspite of interventions by the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the presidency the things that held both chambers together could not hold again as both charted separate paths.
But the lesson was not lost on the more experienced and older senators. They licked their wounds and bided their time.

2009 budget
The grudge by the senate against the House over the passage of the 2009 budget is also at the heart of the present face-off. Daily Sun learnt that an agreement reached by both chambers on the budget, was reneged by the House. Specifically both chambers agreed on the timely passage of the 2009 budget on or before January 1, 2009. While the Senate, according to the source kept its side of the bargain, the House jerked it up by 50%, forcing the senate to toe the same line, thus delaying the passage.
Regrettably, the implementation of the budget, described by some commentators as “bogus and unrealistic” is adjudged as the worst ever since 1999.

“We knew it was not going to work. The House simply played to the gallery. Some of these things require experience, but our younger brothers will not listen,” a senator, from the South-South geo political zone lamented to Daily Sun.

Mark and Bankole
The president of the Senate David Mark and the Speaker Dimeji Bankole have however stayed above the fray, maintaining and presenting a cordial relationship.
Infact, contrary to beliefs in some quarters, Bankole had at least on two occasions recently stopped over at the senate president’s office to exchange banters. These visits as well as the public posturing of both men on issues affecting them have helped in dispelling public insinuations of a frosty relationship between them.
But the rug was taken off the feet of Bankole, when Mark, utilizing his constitutional position as the chairman of the National Assembly changed the venue for the joint sitting of both chambers for the consideration of the 2010 budget estimates, without consulting Bankole.

This departure, it was learnt is just the beginning, of a battle, which began in Minna.
The Senate is determined, according to Daily Sun findings to re-establish itself as the natural “Upper chamber of the National Assembly.” In pursuit of this, it would deploy its constitutional advantages to great effect, as well as utilize every single opportunity to drive it home.
Although the PDP leadership had intervened, as at press time, there may likely not be a let-up.
Separate presentations of the budget estimates by the president may likely be the fall back position that would herald a break in tradition since the pre-independence days.


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/nov/20/national-20-11-2009-00-002.htm

These lawmakers are not occupied with something better at all.

Ever wondered why Nigeria will never move forward? This is the answer. The very height of political immaturity and unbridled brigandage.

These guys are a group of jobless people. The head of both chambers are the problem the NASS is encountering, how could the senate president think the joint sitting could hold in an auditorium where there are not much seats. There guys are prioritizing personal issues over national issues which is bad, i hope they repent soon for this country to move forward.