NASS CRISIS: Alteration of Senate rules must be probed — Rep Oladele

MR Bosun Oladele represents Irepodun/Orelope/Olorunsogo Federal Constituency of Oyo State  in the House of Representatives on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC. In this chat he shares his thoughts on the crisis ravaging the National Assembly and the way out.
By Bashir Adefaka
On the controversy trailing the elections of National Assembly leadership
Whether you like it or not the leadership of the House of Representatives emerged from among APC candidates. What we can now be contesting is whether or not it was in line with the expectation of the party. And I will quickly say that,mainly that it  wasn’t in line with the expectation of the party. The extant rules are there. They have not been changed and what the rules say is that the party with the majority must nominate candidate for the leadership.
The situation in the Senate has raised a lot of questions. On what ground should PDP candidate become Deputy Senate President? I think we have not seen the last of that and we are yet to find the answers to that question.
Do you blame the emergence of a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senator, Ike Ekweremadu, as candidate as deputy Senate President on the alleged forgery of the Senate rules?

Fighting for the mace

There has been that allegation, which will be proved or disproved and until that is done, I will say it is better not to make comments on it.
If we look at it carefully, the process that led to the emergence of the Senate President and even the Deputy Senate President as well is flawed in the sense that not everybody participated. I would say at least about half of the people that were supposed to participate did not participate and it was a situation of the PDP catching in on the absence of some people and I would say the process smacks of mischief. It was like a gang-up.
The basis of the allegation of forgery against Ekweremadu
I think the fulcrum of the allegation is that at no time was the extant rules of the Senate which prescribed voice vote for the appointment of principal officers amended to allow secret balloting by which the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President were elected to their current positions.
I am of the opinion that if the allegation is coming from a member of the 7th Senate as in this case, then it is something that ought to be viewed with all seriousness that it deserves. One is fortified in this line of reasoning by the fact that the National Assembly keeps records of its proceedings which includes the names of members that moved motions or gave notice of any amendment sought.
Standing rules
It is therefore logical to look into such records and see the veracity of this instant allegation.
Further more, if an unauthorised alteration has been made to the records of proceedings of the 7th Senate or any part of the standing rules and orders then it amounts to forgery and there must be
consequences. I am afraid this is not a case where “doctrine of necessity” can be used to obliterate clear breach or criminal act. It will be the most unfortunate thing to have happened at that level of
government and it will be incurably bad for the leadership of the Senate.
I also do not see anything wrong in the invitation (if any) extended to the Deputy Senate President by the police if it will help the investigation. Let’s not forget that none of them at that level enjoys
any immunity under the Constitution and I think it will give the present administration’s anti – corruption crusade a bite that no one is above the law. Whichever way it goes, the last is yet to be heard of the leadership crisis at the 8th Assembly.
On comments that the crisis in the National Assembly was orchestrated by those who want to hijack the National Assembly hinder President Muhammadu Buhari from waging his anti-corruption war
With due respect, I think the President has summarised it all. He has asked everybody within the party in each of the chambers of the National Assembly to drop their personal interest. I think we have a lot of personal interests at play and I think the best thing to do is to follow that admonition of the President. We must drop personal interests and that suffices for even people within and without the National Assembly.
Lack of infnrastructure
We must drop all our personal interests so that Nigeria would move forward whereby we will all settle down and work for change expected by the people.
On the wardrobe allowance controversy
I think some mischief makers were at play; people wanting to set people against the new government. The question one should ask is, why would anybody want to spend millions upon millions of Naira to dress up when people are hungry all over the place? Why would that happen when Nigerians are complaining of lack of infrastructures, power supply and all the rest? It  that was pure misinformation.
That money they are talking about consists of housing allowance for new legislator because, there is  no more official accommodation. And you would agree with me that in most places in Abuja now, the least accommodation you can get is between N4 million and N7 million and so on and so forth.
The money also consists of furniture allowance, which is payable once throughout the tenure. And then the money consists of car loan to be given to legislator, which is deductible every month. What will be deducted from my salary every month is close to N200,000. So, if I don’t want it, I can as well go and tell them that I don’t want car loan. But if I am taking it, I must pay back. Then, the wardrobe allowance for a member of the House of Representatives is not up to half a million naira.
And, so, I wonder why the people that mischievously branded that payment wardrobe allowance did so.