Senate: Thank you, but…, by Tonnie Iredia

In recent times, new narratives are emerging daily in Nigeria’s fight against insecurity. On a daily basis, we now hear of bandits and kidnappers that are captured by our gallant security forces. New developments, more impetus, greater hopes. Also, recently, the Nigerian senate approved a donation of fifty million naira (N50m) to the families of five individuals who lost their lives during the rescue operation that followed the abduction of pupils and teachers from schools in Oriire local government area of Oyo state. Senate President Godswill Akpabio who announced the donation last Wednesday said the senate took the decision to augment the upkeep of the children left behind by the deceased adding that each of the affected families would get N10million. We cannot but thank the senate for what looks like uncommon compassion especially as it has not been a regular reaction of the senate to the role of security agencies who paid the supreme sacrifice under similar circumstances. Indeed, one senator hoped that the same posture would be extended to other security officials who have also lost their lives in similar operations in other parts of the country. But our only problem concerning the donation is that there is not enough information on it. How we wish it was contributed by the nation’s wealthy 109 senators. From the way it was announced, it would appear that it was donated by the senate as a body. In other words, the Nigerian senate has a subhead in its budget for donations. In addition, the said subhead is buoyant enough to have as much as N50million that can be taken ‘at a go’ with perhaps a balance for other donations as and when due. If that is so, why will going to the senate not become a matter of life and death for a typical Nigerian politician? Now we can imagine that apart from salaries and allowances that are said to be the highest in the world, our senators have constituency projects and all types of allowances.  The judiciary that everyone else is ‘helping’ is probably the only one lagging behind in budgetary matters. Another matter of public interest that has left the senate in the middle of the news is its decision to confirm the nomination of Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina as a non-career ambassador.  Some people had tried to use several petitions to block the confirmation of Fasina who had earlier served as Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). At the point when the senate decided to confirm the nominee last week, there were allegations of sexual harassment, human rights violations and victimisation against Fasina. The allegations were yet to be determined at the National Industrial Court in Lagos and Abuja. The senate justified its stand with the argument that the allegations had been cleared by the Police and the DSS as well as the governing council of the university. However, no one is sure of the veracity of the alleged clearance especially as an earlier report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ)had stated that the university’s Governing Council directed Mr Fasina to apologise to the complainant. Does that amount to innocence? Although a few senators had urged the senate to exercise some restraint as a confirmation of the nominee would appear insensitive, the senate went ahead to clear Professor Fasina for the position of non-career ambassador. Here, the senate does not appear to have done well because to confirm a nomination calls for more diligence than has been exhibited. In a country of over 200 million citizens, it is not difficult to find hundreds of people with no accusation of any form of misdemeanour. Our senate must thus learn to be circumspect about rushing into the confirmation of nominees that are opposed by certain segments of the society. Clear guilt is not all that can hold or pause the confirmation of a nominee. Certain objections ought to be thoroughly examined and concluded because the holder of the position of an ambassador ought to be clearly above board like Caesar’s wife. It is only that type of confirmed nominee that deserves public respect. Again, not everyone was surprised to hear of the confirmation. Some weeks ago, one analyst had argued that nothing would stop the confirmation of Fasina because the ruling party cannot disappoint a person who had served as INEC’s Returning Officer at a Governorship Election. Is it true that it was the same Fasina that was the returning officer for a popular governorship election in one of the states of Nigeria held in November 2023? Could that have played a role in the current controversial confirmation of his appointment? Ordinarily, where people work with diligence, the issues being linked here would not have arisen. But it is important for government to begin to reduce the high degree of politicisation in the nation. Those who introduced Vice Chancellors as Returning Officers at elections had imagined that the presence of such intellectuals would add ampl

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