National honour: Credit to new Senate leadership

David Mark

Taiwo Adisa, in this piece, examines the new style of leadership in the Senate that culminated in the national honours bestowed on the Senate President, David Mark; and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, by the Federal Government.

Senator David Bonaventure Mark assumed office on June 5, 2007 in one of the most transparently-conducted elections on the floor of the Senate.

Prior to the June 5 election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which produced the largest number of members in the red side of the National Assembly (the Senate), had often adopted its style: “family affair” in picking the leaders of the Senate.

Usually, elections don’t get conducted on the floor during inauguration. Shadow elections were always conducted a day or two before the D-Day and the results of that were adopted on the floor. But on June 5, 2007, a real contest was witnessed on the floor of the Senate. All attempts by caucuses to ensure the adoption of one of the contenders did not work as the senators insisted on ensuring that democratic values were allowed to take roots in the Senate.

The position had been zoned to the North Central and senators from the six states were entitled to vie for the seat. There was the rule on ranking of Senators, which tend to set the stage for the contest for only senators with cognate experience. But there was also the confusion on whether the rule would be invoked as the senators-elect could not refer to the rules of the Senate when a substantive leader had not emerged.

In view of that confusion, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Nasiru Arab, threw the nominations open as he presided over the inaugural sitting.

The intrigues eventually saw to the emergence of Senator David Mark and the former governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume, as the foremost co-contender in the contest. An election was eventually conducted and Mark won 68 votes as against Akume’s 39. It was an openly contested election where each of the senators rose to mention on which side of the divide he was.

Since his assumption of office, Mark had brought a unique style, informed largely by experience, to bear on the the Senate. He has led the Upper Chamber with caution and openness that the office requires. He has tried to show his colleagues that he had learnt a lot from the rise and fall of many of his predecessors, three of which happened during his tenure in the Senate.

One of the virtues is bonding and ensuring that decisions are taken with his colleagues in mind. In the legislature, the leader is merely primus inter-pares. Of truth, it is only the leader who sees himself as first among equals that would succeed in office. The fact remains that even while the senators and other legislators have yielded the control of affairs to one man, they want to be seen as co-equal to the leader and would feel elated when the leader actually describes himself and acts largely as if he were serving them.

Failure to do that had led to the rise of an “axis of evil” in the Senate and eventual removal from office of some particular leader.

Although the instability in the Senate during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo had to do with the disposition of that government, the character of individual senators of that era also, in a way, contributed to the manner in which they stepped on the proverbial banana peel. Any senator who sees himself as deriving his power from his colleagues and grants them the due respect and courtesy is the more likely to remain in office, even when the presidential villa is against such a leader.

In nearly one year, Mark has taken his understanding of that to the hilt. Rather than abide by the disposition of the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo, who refused to exchange pleasantries with his colleagues whenever he was on the way to the chamber, something the senators saw as a display of arrogance, Mark enters the chamber each day and behaves as if he last saw his colleagues a decade ago. Right from the entrance to the chamber, he would exchange pleasantries till he gets to his chair, while his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; and the Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin, would follow in like manner.

That conduct may be a deviation from the Senate rules which indicates that all senators and those in the gallery should remain still when the presiding officers enter the chamber till they take their seats. Despite that law, the senators appear to be at home with the friendly disposition that ushers in Mark and members of his leadership to the floor every morning as every member is found on the floor jostling for handshakes at every sitting.

Perhaps, it did not come as a surprise to many of the senators when the Senate President was announced as a recipient of the national honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by President Yar’Adua last year. His deputy, Senator Ekweremadu, who was earlier announced as a recipient of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OFR), later got upgraded as the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CFR), an award seen as more suited to the exalted office occupied by the Enugu-born legislator.

The camaraderie that exists in the current Senate is widely discussed by the senators as many of them rose to pay tributes to their two leaders at the Wednesday sitting.

Senators from both the PDP and the opposition parties were unanimous that Mark had given the Senate a purposeful leadership. They also declared that his deputy, Ekweremadu, had supported him quite well to forge a good partnership.

One of Mark’s compatriots from Benue State, Senator Joseph Akaagerger, told the Senate that he was already looking forward to such an honour being bestowed on Mark in view of his contributions to many aspects of the nation’s development. He said he was glad that the honour, indeed, came when the man was leading the Senate.

His opinion was echoed by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) who declared that whether the man became Senate President or not, the honour would still have come his way as he had served his people meritoriously.

Mark shocked many people, early in January, when he announced that the National Assembly had returned N7 billion unspent capital votes to Federal Government treasury at the end of the 2007 fiscal year. He said the action was to ensure that the Senate did not run foul of the fiscal responsibility law passed by the National Assembly.

Mark had stated in a speech on January 8 that: “You may recall that it became necessary for the National Assembly to consider and approve Supplementary Budget in the last quarter of 2007. It was also our position that funds appropriated should be expended within the year of appropriation and not carried over or warehoused.

“Therefore, in the spirit of living by example and in pursuit of accountability and transparency to the fullest, we had to return to the treasury the capital funds appropriated to the Senate in the 2007 Supplementary Budget.

“It is unfortunate that the funds were not released to the Senate until December 31, 2007, knowing full well that all unspent funds have to be returned to treasury by that date. In accordance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, we also know that due process must be complied with in incurring any expenditure. As lawmakers, we were not, therefore, prepared to breach the standards set to ensure proper accountability and transparency in the conduct of government business.

“It is our hope that other arms of government have similarly complied with this principle. In order to ensure and sustain compliance, I wish to implore His Excellency, the President and Commander-in-Chief to effect the establishment of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission as provided for by the enabling Act.”

In keeping in line with the avowed radical oversight function of this current Senate, the Senate also discovered unbudgeted funds, running into N300 billion, which were hitherto kept in secret accounts by ministries, departments and parastatal agencies, while the lawmakers insisted on capturing the entire revenue profile before passing the 2008 budget.

Besides, the lawmakers stopped the plan by the government to purchase N1 billion worth cars for ministers and permanent secretaries as they insisted that it was a negation of the monetisation law.

Within a short while, the Senate, under Mark’s leadership, has covered a lot of grounds especially in the budget process such that questions are now being asked as to how budgets were passed in the past without answers to the salient issues raised in the 2008 budget passage. As many senators agreed on Wednesday, it is a testimony to a leadership that came through the democratic process.

“When a leader is voted for by the people, they follow and respect him,” said senator on the platform of the Accord Party, Patrick Osakwe.

Senate Leader, Senator Folarin, who moved the motion for tributes to Mark, as well as Senators Olorunnimbe Mamora, Jubril Aminu, Kabiru Gaya, Suleiman Nazif, Uche Chukwumerije, Lee Maeba and Joy Emordi, were among those who showered kind words on Mark and his deputy.

While expressing gratitude to his colleagues, Mark brought out the part of him that can hardly hide — hitting issues on the head.

“I have spent eight years in the Senate already and I know the turbulence that used to go on within the leadership, but in this Senate, we have bond together and we will continue to bond together,” he said.

He agave the assurance that the only way his leadership could show appreciation was to be fair and just in its dealings with all.