Former US Senator, Gaylord Kent Conrad aka the ‘Statistician’ and one of Time Magazine’s top 10 American senators in 2006 is known for using more charts than all other senators combined. He is occasionally called “Mr. Chart Man”. His budget expertise came in handy when former President George Bush Jnr. was pushing a plan for partially privatizing social security and put the hard sell on him. Bush first tried by flying with Conrad to Fargo then, after they returned, kept the pressure on by inviting him to the White House where he dropped hints about election-year vulnerability for red-state Democrats. But Conrad, whose honorary Sioux name translates as “Never Turns Back,” stood firm in his opposition to the plan.
“I could never support something that added dramatically to the debt,” Conrad says. “I told him, “Count me out.”
Taking a gaze at the American senate, one would observe that it parades men of integrity, intellectuals, policy makers, professionals, strategists, philanthropies, right activists and those who won unquestionable elections.
In our upper chamber, one wonders if we will have senators in the 9th Senate like late Senator John McCain (Republican) who was known as the Mainstreamer by his colleagues. Love or loathe him, once a Vietnam prisoner of war is always a man of authority. Sometimes it’s often said that the “power of a law depends on the lawmaker”. Late McCain earned that moral authority over the years by being patient, brave, bold, plain and making the big play. He spent his entire senate career exposing wasteful pork-barrel projects. Nigerians will not quickly forget the shocker he gave to the government during a debate on the kidnap of Chibok girls at the floor of US Senate chambers… “that America should utilize every asset that we have, satellite, drones, any capabilities that we had to go after them. We didn’t have to wait until a practically non-existent government of Nigerian gave us the go ahead before mounting a humanitarian effort to rescue those 276 abducted girls.”
In the 9th Senate, Nigerians will be expecting to see a replica of late Senator Arlen Specter (R) aka ‘The Contrarian’, who spent almost 30 years in American Senate as an arrow head and popular voice. Arlen was a talented guy whom allies called “abrasive,” “brutal” and “prosecutorial” for being blunt, not sparing even his party members and colleagues who try to compromise during debates on national and important issues. Or senators like late Senator Carl Milton Levin (D) ‘the Bird-Dogger’ who was a senator from 1979-2015 and gained respect from both parties for his attention to detail and deep knowledge of policy, especially in his role as a vigilant monitor of business and federal agencies. He was once quoted that he considers congressional hearings a critical part of his job, spending as much as 20 hours prepping for each one so an evasive witness won’t outwit him.
We want to have 9th Senate full of people like late Senator Ted Kennedy (D) ‘the dealmaker’ who was a Senator from 1962-2009 and was reputed to have fought for defending working class, health care and penalizing discrimination or former Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R) known as the ‘Provider’ who is a major player on national issues and known as one of the most effective advocates of her constituents. She travels back to Maine from Washington DC nearly every weekend, often stopping in a small town and villages for what she calls a “Main Street tour” walking the streets and visiting shops to ask people what they are thinking about the government.
In Nigeria, few senators have exhibited commitment to the national interest in the past. Nigerians will always remember and appreciate the spirited stand of those senators that aborted tenure elongation plan of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Late Idris Ibrahim Kuta (Niger), Badamasi Maccido (Sokoto), Uche Chukwumerije (Abia), Usman Al-Bashir (Yobe), Isaiah Balat (Kaduna), Muktar Aruwa (Kaduna) and Mamman Ali (Yobe) were in the categories of those that fought the third term aspiration of Chief Obasanjo. Kudos must be given to the young, charismatic, intelligent and vibrant Senator Sule Yari Gandi (Sokoto) of blessed memory whose motion on ‘point of order’ created the opportunity for the debate that finally nailed the coffin of the tenure elongation.
In the heat of Obasanjo’s aborted third-term debate, the then PDP national chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali on a BBC Hausa anchored programme poured tantrums on the senators describing them as rascals and fools for their inability to support the agenda. While most of them chose to be silent and swallow the insult in fear of being persecuted or losing their seats, it was late Senator Idris Ibrahim Kuta that called the attention of the senate and insisted that Ali be summoned to the upper chamber to apologise to them; that being a party chairman doesn’t warrant him to insult them in the cause of discharging their duties to the country.
For close two decades, the senate has wasted its time and the resources of the nation on myriad of probe committees and oversight functions that have been swept under the carpet without the culprits brought to justice. It’s an open secret that many offenders of probe panels are today moving unreservedly in the country without being sanctioned or indicted for prosecution.
The only way to make the 9th Senate relevant is when our senators stop asking Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) to pay for their flight ticket, estacodes and accommodation to attend conferences; when they stop writing notes to ministers and heads of MDAs asking for contracts, favours, kick-backs or securing jobs for their family members, mistresses and cronies. We want our senators in the 9th Senate to stop the practice of leaving their seats and running after executive nominees in the chamber for photographs after confirmation. The insulting idea of “take a bow and go” by nominees must be stopped in the chamber. The 9th Senate must make every executive nominee irrespective of his or her experience, status or qualities subject to scrutiny.
Our senators must stop playing the ethnic, regional, tribal and religious card when discharging their responsibilities. We want to have a 9th Senate that will not be a rubber-stamp or whipping boy of any arm of government, political party, individual or any interest group. We want a 9th Senate that will be loyal to the people and the constitution of federal republic of Nigeria and a senate that will not be a chamber of absentees, bench warmers and yes-me types. As one of the highest paid legislators in the globe, they should try to employ professors, PhD holders, retired career civil servants, speech coaches, speech writers and professionals as their special advisers/legislative assistants who are up to date with the current global challenges and expectations. This will afford them the opportunity to understand the workings of the committees they belong and to be acquainted with the kind of questions to pose and information required during public hearings and oversight functions.
Nigerians have been disappointed with the unpatriotic outing of the previous senate and the question on the lips of many is will the 9th Senate make a difference?