senatorchukwumerije.org - Voice of the voiceless in the Senate

UPDATED PROFILE 1. PERIOD COVERED: March 2007 to February 2008 2. VISION: Virile democratic culture nourished by                                 a dispensation that practises: a. Strict compliance with tenets of constitutional democracy.   b. Strict compliance with rule of law in all its ramifications.   c. Strict compliance with the highest law: welfare of the people, especially the poor –– all, anchored on unrestrained vigour of parliamentary organs and personal integrity of all the players in the three realms of governance. The sad reality is –– the Nigerian State is delinquent. A tradition of lip service to Social Responsibility by the State had spread down to all the tiers of government and the Private Sector.   d. Vigour of Parliament: Parliament can achieve a lot in keeping the State on the tracks of good governance. But, I must admit, the prospects of star performance by the present Senate are dim. The irony of the success of last Senate in killing Third Term (I played a humble role in initiating and mobilizing a vanguard squad to achieve this) is the birth of a docile successor chamber (at least in the Senate) with a strong establishment disposition. This was the havoc done by the outgoing President Obasanjo who rigged out virtually all the leading lights and independent minds of the last Senate in favour of supporters of the Third Term and trusted party zealots.   My performance (or non-performance) as a Senator flows from this vision.   3.  2007 CAMPAIGN  PROMISES:    i. Major development projects that are critical to speedy take-off of economic development in my Senatorial District comprising of 5 LGAs – two dams and cassava-based cottage industries.   ii. Self-Help Projects.   iii. Strengthening of democratic culture, especially equality of all before the law. I have begun the fulfillment of these pledges. See Annex and Section 4:  Senate.   4.  SENATE: Bills: i All the five Bills which I sponsored in 2006 suffered the fate of most private bills. Three –– (Oil Pipeline Explosion, Election Campaign Finance and Legal Aid) –– were merged with other similar bills, while the rest were still at 2nd Reading stage when the tenure ended. I have devised a method of fast-tracking the process in this tenure. While I re-introduce the two old bills which were not merged with other bills, I have already laid down on the table three new bills which are due for 2nd Reading next week. They are: a. A Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of the Corporate Social Responsibility Commission. b. A Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of the Anti-Torture Commission and for other Matters Connected therewith. c. A Bill for an Act to provide for the Establishment of the Environmental Pollution Tax Commission.   ii.     Motions: I have moved the following motions: a. President Obasanjo’s Reckless Utterances: The motion condemned President Obasanjo’s Utterances on General Elections in April 2007. The Senate resolved that the President should desist from utterances which raised doubts over the disposition of his administration to allow free and fair elections and sovereign expression of the electorate’s will in the elections. b. Confidentiality of Senate Executive Sessions: The motion sought to draw the attention of Senators to the gravity of the offence of disclosure of confidential discussions of the Senate in Executive Sessions according to Senate Rule 16, and to re-affirm a basic canon of accountability in democratic system that the final responsibility on issues designated to the Senate rests squarely with the Senate. c. Supremacy of Senate decisions over all reports which must be seen as recommendations (e.g. Security Reports on Presidential nominees for Ambassadors). d. Equity in dispensation of same punishments and procedures for same offences: Call for Ralph Uwazuruike’s release from 2  years of detention as was done to OPC leaders and Asari Dokubo.   iii.   Support To Motions a. Besides own motions, I gave active support to key bills that either expand our democratic space (Sen. Ndoma Egba’s Freedom of Information Bill) or widen the area of social responsibility (Sen. Kuta’s Dams Commission Bill which is on-going). b. I continually speak and mobilize colleagues against practices that undermine the independence of the Senate (e.g. the convention of ‘bow and go’ to priviledged nominees during screening and the unduly subservient respect to Executive Bills (e.g. the pending Bill on cession of Bakassi which contravenes Article 12 of the Constitution).   I COMMITTEES: I belong to 5 Committees although   I am most active in Niger Delta Committee where I mobilized members to ensure strict compliance with Section 14 of the NDDC Act. If fully implemented, the section which compels various stake-holders to contribute specific percentages of their annual budgets to the economic and social development of Niger Delta area will minimize the multilateral damages inflicted on the people through the delinquency and corruption of all the tiers of government (LG, State and Federal )and the oil companies. I attend the meetings of the other Committees regularly. Power/Steel Committee is a valuable platform to push for rural electrification while the ‘monetary’ committees gave me opportunity to check some sharp practices among key players in the economy.   My five committees are:   1. Power & Steel (Vice Chairman) 2. Niger Delta 3. Capital Market 4. Local & Foreign Debts 5. Inter-parliamentary