From George Umeh
Modelled after the American democracy, Nigeria operates a bicameral legislature. What it means is that the legislative arm of government at the federal level is of two tires.
Because globally the nomenclature is not uniform, Nigeria took the Senate and the House of Representatives for the names of the upper and lower chambers of the two houses respectively.
In exercising its statutory function of Lawmaking and Oversight, the Senate is higher than the House of Reps. The implication is in line with the axiom that, to whom much is given, much should be expected. The Senate consequently is saddled with much greater responsibilities.
Under normal circumstances, naturally, without checks, man often tends to do wrong. When saddled with power, the tendencies and propensities for such doubles.
This, therefore, underscores the imperative of oversight or supervision.
In nation-building, all hands work together but the saying that all fingers are not equal aptly also applies. Accordingly, there is a hierarchy of those to be overseen/ supervised.
For effective oversight, therefore, the Igbo dictum of obere azụ kata obere nku; Manukau azụ kata nnukwu nku comes in handy.
Being the Manukau, Senators are consequently supposed to be men whose status in society is such that can look into the eyes of even the no 1 citizen of the country and tell him where he is getting it wrong. This should be done without fear or favour and it's not a business for the boys but men.
The Senate requires men with sufficient knowledge anchored on adequate experiences.
To undertake the first lap of its duty of lawmaking, ideally, a Senator is supposed to have had cognate experiences in lawmaking. This is supposed to be 'learnt' from State Assemblies or the Lower Chambers - House of Reps before moving up to the Senate.
Similarly, to effectively do the second leg which is oversight, a Senator is supposed to be someone who has handled very higher executive positions- like say, Governor, Deputy Governor, at that level- positions of which, while handling them, one would have got very cognate experiences, exposure and high recognitions plus national (not local) visibility.
These are ideally, the quality of persons who are supposed to be talking about going to the House of Senate.
It, therefore, means that aspiring for the senatorial position is not supposed to be for boys from an obscure, remote and timid village who probably is having their first contact with civilisation in about a decade. What will such a person say when Senators gather? Who will listen to such a person? Who will recognise him? Who will allow him access to certain places? In a country like ours, how will such a person introduce himself so that he could gain access to places where he could access certain dividends?
In Nigeria particularly, the dividends of the Senate get more to those who are not first-timers. Those they call Ranking Senators get more dividends than neonates. Reasons are simple-they are already more at home with whatever is done and how it is done to get what is expected when it is expected.
Examples of such dividends are seen in the achievements of ranking Senators like David Mark, Ahmed Lawan, Ike Ekweremadu etc for their senatorial districts where they embark on mega projects for their people. They can attract such dividends because they have been consistent and have known what to do. They have the contacts and all the exposure as well as lobbying skills.
If the people of Enugu West, for instance, have been changing Senator Ekweremadu since 2003, the solid road he attracted to them that was built until it dovetailed into the southern part of Ebonyi State might not have been attractive. Similarly, the myriad of achievements attracted the people of Benue
South by David Mark would probably have eluded them, had they been changing David all those years.
In my home state Ebonyi, my Senatorial Zone, Ebonyi North Senatorial District particularly, is enjoying many more mega projects and empowerments now in the second tenure of my Senator than in the first. For example, apart from the numerous empowerment programmes where people gain not only knowledge but also are financially empowered afterwards, apart from the many developmental projects like roads, transformers, street lights, over 400 laptops for students empowerment, etc, my senatorial zone is today housing other mega projects attracted to it by our Senator in his second term. Such projects include an ultra-modern gigantic E-library for our dear Ebonyi State University which our students are enjoying today. He equally attracted such huge government agencies as the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) which I saw at Ochudo City last week and marvelled that such is in Ebonyi. Upon enquiries, I was told my Senator attracted it to be built in Ebonyi.
This piece is not meant to praise my Senator, Dr Sam Egwu but to underscore the imperative of not changing Senators like boxers because the dividends come more with a little extension of tenures as well as with quality and capacity of the personality. It is a mirror through which the world sees the people being represented.
If a people send their worst eleven for representation, they will be viewed as all being that way.
If they send their best 11, then they will equally be seen as the best. If they send a tout they will all be adjudged to be touted.
We must make a rightful decision here. As for me and my family, I can't be a party to starting another phase of destruction of people's means of livelihood but to support a continued quality representation by a man of character, experience and content come the 2023 general elections because the Senate is not for the boys.
