Opinion: Nothing Good Will Come Out Of This Senate | By: Efe Paul Azino

Photo published for EXCLUSIVE: Despite cash crunch, Nigerian Senate illegally buying N4.7billion exotic cars for...
There is a mad man in Tanzania. Less than three months after assuming office as president, John Magufuli has left no one doubt about the seriousness of his mission. One of his first moves behind the rudder was to slash the budget of the typically lavish state dinner that marked the opening of parliament by 90 percent, redirecting the savings to the equipping of hospitals and building of roads. Magufuli has banned public travel for ministers and government officials and placed a moratorium on the purchase of first class tickets. He has pulled government meetings, workshops and conferences out of swanky hotels and restricted them to public buildings, going a step further to set austere benchmarks for refreshments at such engagements.
There are mad men in Nigeria. Seven months, one combustive leadership tussle, zero gestures of seriousness after, the Eighth Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has decided to purchase 120 brand new vehicles, at the speculated cost of N4.6billion for oversight functions of 65 committees, an amount which constitutes a part of its approved annual budget of N130billion. This is coming against the backdrop of a continuing drop in oil prices, persistent petrol shortages, threats by governors to cut minimum wage, looming increases in electricity tariff and the pump price of fuel; against the backdrop of one of those rare occurrences – a near unanimous agreement between the leadership and the led, on the need to make sacrifices in the short term, to cut waste and free up resources for areas of utmost priority. A concern the senate, by its recurring rhetoric, will have us believe that it shares, but one its actions have consistently betrayed.
There are no mad people on the streets. No heads shaking vigorously, rage traveling out of bellies, spittle blowing in the wind, voices borne by fury screaming ‘buy those cars and see what happens.’ This absence of madness is perhaps the consequence of an abiding variant. The kind directed at keeping landlords at bay and children in school. The “We’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy,” variation needed to secure rice and stew and get petrol to keep the lights on. This present madness, expended on who voted for Buhari or who supported Jonathan diatribes, distracts the mind and chips at the will, leaving the bulk of the people without enough rage to reverse the madness of the senate, to insist on the madness of Magufuli.
So the senate will buy its cars and there will be no significant consequence. It has reached into the rickety laws it was elected to fix to extract a justification for its profligacy. It may have a legal basis for this expenditure, but it will never have the moral ground from which to wield it. Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, in his response to this issue, insists the senate has been frugal and responsible in its spending and that “…certain expenses and purchase are normal in government.” 
Yes, the senators exist in an alternate universe where frugality has an altogether different meaning. And no, Senator Abdullahi, normal is not what is expected under abnormal conditions such as these. What is expected is madness, madness of the Magufuli strain, radical reductions in public spending, every opportunity seized to make symbolic gestures of collective sacrifice with leadership at the helm of it. Symbolic gestures of sacrifice like we will not buy these cars, like we will in fact reduce the number of cars in the convoy of the senate president and his deputy, like we will make do with our motor vehicle allowance which we shall in fact cut. Nothing else suffices as ‘frugal’ and ‘responsible.’ Definitely not N4.7billion.
Nigerians have hardly expected serious leadership from the national assembly, and this senate, for all its rhetoric, reinforces why. The signs are ominous. Nothing good will come out of this senate.
Efe Paul Azino is a writer, author  and the director of the Lagos International Poetry Festival.

List Of 46 Bills passed by Senate yesterday

The Nigerian Senate yesterday  set a legislative record after it passed 46 bills into law within 10 minutes. ‎Below is a list of the bills.

1. Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment etc) Act (Amendment), 2015

2. Office of the Nigerian Financial Ombudsman Bill

3. Institute of Chartered Trustees of Nigeria Bill

4. National Convicts and Criminal Records (Registry) Bill, 2015

5. Community Service Bill

6. People’s Bank of Nigeria Act (Repeal) Bill

7. Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry Act (Repeal).

8. National Commission for Rehabilitation Act (Repeal) Bill;

9. Maintenance Orders Act (Repeal) Bill, 2015;

10. Federal Saving Bank Act (Repeal) Bill 2015;

11. Loan (State Development) Act (Repeal), 2015;

12. Nigerians in Diaspora (Establishment) Commission, 2015;

13. Electronic Transactions Bill, 2015;

14. Chartered Institute of Statiscians of Nigeria, 2015

15. Nigerian Metallurgical Industry Bill, 2014

16. Federal Audit Commission Bill, 2015

17. National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation Act (Amendment,) Bill

18. Nigerian International Financial Centre (Establishment, etc) Bill

19. Investment and Securities (Amendment) Bill

20. Nigerian Communications Satellite, Bill

21. Federal Capital Territory Education Resources Centre
(Establishment) Bill

22. Labour Institutions (Establishment)

23. Witness Protection Programme Bill

24. Institute of Mediators and Conciliators Bill

25. Legal Education Act (Establishment) Bill

26. National Health Insurance Commission Bill

27. National Economic Intelligence Committee (Establishment) Act (Repeal) Bill

28.Federal College Dental Technology and Therapy Bill

29. Federal Capital Territory College of Nursing and Midwifery
Bill

30. Oaths Act (Amendment) Bill

31. Federal Capital Territory Hospital Management Board
(Establishment) Bill

32. Passport (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Bill

33. Chartered Institute of Management Accounts of Nigeria

34. Federal Capital Territory Water Board (Establishment) Bill
35. Institute of Local Government and Public Administration
Bill

36. Whistle-blower Protection Bill

37. Family Economic Advancement Programme (Establishment,
etc) 2015

38. Family Support Trust Fund Act (Repeal) Bill

39. Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (Guarantee) Act (Repeal) Bill

40. Treasury Management Bill 2015

41. Legislative Powers and Privileges Act (Repeal and Re-
Enactment) Bill

42. Anti-Torture Bill, 2015

43. Lobbyist (Registration and Regulation) Bill

44. National Hospital for Women and Children, Abuja (Establishment, etc) Act (Amendment) Bill,

45. Nigerian Prisons Act CAP, P29 LFN 2004 (Repeal and Re-
Enactment) Bill 2015 and

46. Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act 2010
(Amendment) Bill 2015.
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