NASS has not lost its respect, independence, image – Senator Wadada

Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (Sarkin Yakin Keffi), the Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts, was in the House of Representatives for eight years from 2003 to 2011 and now represents Nasarawa West in the current Senate after winning elections in 2023.

In this interview with TOM GARBA , he speaks on the politics of the National Assembly, and why most Nigerians continue to misunderstand the workings of NASS, among other legislative issues. Excerpts.

Almost ten months in the Senate, how is the journey so far?

The journey so far has not really been different from what I experienced for eight years during my time in the House of Representatives as far as legislative processes and procedures are concerned. But you know the dynamism of life and the situation of our country today have thrown up more challenges to us as lawmakers ,and we are living with the challenges for the benefits of our people.

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Living with the challenges because as a lawmaker my fundamental responsibility is to make laws for the peace, unity and development of the country but because our electorate are facing with multi-faceted challenges, we go beyond our normal legislative responsibilities to shouldering additional responsibilities which ideally is not part of our legislative duties but we are doing the best we can to meet the demands of our people.

What do you mean by additional responsibilities and living with the challenges?

Yes, an average electorate today is looking forward to us as their representatives for their sustenance and who are very close to them. An average electorate is expecting me to award him contract which is not part of my responsibility.

An average electorate is expecting me to provides him with basic infrastructures such as roads, schools, electricity, water, among others. They are not saying I should leverage on my position as a lawmaker to attract all these as constituency projects.

No, they are expecting me to do them from my pocket and you know that no government anywhere in the world gives lawmakers money directly to execute projects but we are doing and we will continue to do the best we can to meet the yearnings of our people irrespective of whether it is our responsibilities or not, what matters to us is the overall happiness and well-being of our people.

You recently wrote a letter to President Tinubu in your capacity as Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts, on the appointment of substantive Auditor General of the Federation. What informed this decision and what exactly did you intend to achieve with that?

My Committee’s decision was informed by patriotism and the need to ensure transparency, accountability and strict compliance with financial regulations in the country. When I assumed office as Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts (SPAC), I realised that Nigeria at that time, had no substantive Auditor General of the Federation, and it is the requirement of the law that it is only the substantive Auditor General of the Federation that can sign Auditor General’s Annual Reports.

As a result of this development, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 annual reports were line up and could be discussed because the person on the seat was acting. So I wrote to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the need and imperative of this appointment which if not addressed will hamper us from effective discharge of our responsibilities and beyond writing.

I took up the issue on official and personal level and never relented in my efforts until Mr. President being a dynamic and pragmatic leader listened to us and appointed a substantive auditor General of the Federation.

As I’m talking to you now, we have gone far in discussing the 2019 Auditor General Report and very soon, we shall get into that of 2020. What we want to achieve is that before the end of the year, we want to, at least, be done with that of 2020-2021. So as event unfolds, we will continue to do the best we can to entrench transparency and accountability in running of government activities and ensure compliance with financial regulations by government agencies.

The NASS which you are part of, by its nature and composition, is supposed to be people-centred but over the years this noble democratic institution continues to lose its respect in the eyes of Nigerians, to the extent that even its leadership, is always imposed and tele-guided. As a lawmaker and a democrat, are you not bothered about this development and how can the NASS redeem its image?

The National Assembly has not lost its respect, independence and image as erroneously believed in some quarters. If it has lost its respect, the MDAs we have been inviting won’t have been appearing. If it had lost its respect, the President won’t have sent us his ministerial nominees and other appointees to screen and approve them.

All the ministers and various categories of appointees were screened by the National Assembly, particularly, the Senate. So it has not lost its glory and integrity. The reason most citizens are not that much happy with the National Assembly is because they have no clear understanding of the National Assembly.

So, it is our responsibility as lawmakers to make them know and understand the workings of the National Assembly. For instance, take a look at the issue of vehicles that are supposed to be purchased for the members of the National Assembly, both Senators and members of the House of Representatives which generated public outcry.

As am sitting here as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, constitutionally I’m above a minister in Nigeria but how many cars do the ministers have in their convoy? Some four, some five and even more than that but for National Assembly members to be given one car each, has become an issue and that car is for the entirety of his legislative engagement both his day to day activities and oversight functions.

They cry over one vehicle each that will be given to National Assembly members but they don’t complain about cars that are bought for ministers.

But some Nigerians believe that the NASS should have gone for locally assembled vehicles rather than exotic foreign cars that will cost the country billions of naira so as to save cost considering the current economic reality in the country. How do you react to this?

I’m not trying to justify anything here and for me, it will make more sense if members of National Assembly are provided with locally assembled vehicles and if you can remember, there was a time in the history of this country when ministers, governors and even president were using Peugeot as official vehicles and you know I was the chairman of Peugeot before my election into the Senate in 2023.

Patronising locally assembled vehicles will grow the capacity of our automobile sector which is one of the major source of our employment providers that will also enable the country to also generate additional revenue for the country among many other advantages.

Be that as it may, the key thing is that the NASS has not lost its respect as erroneously believed by some people. It is just that the National Assembly is not better understood by most Nigerians and I don’t want to blame anybody. We need to keep them informed on the workings of the National Assembly and maintain closer relationships with the electorates for continuous feed back, so that they can understand.

What about continuous imposition of leadership on the National Assembly by the executive arm which continues to rubbish its independence and capacity to checkmate the excesses of the executive?

Talking about the so- called imposition, there is nothing like imposition of leadership on the NASS. For instance, in the 10th Assembly, there was keen contest between Senator Akpabio and Senator Yari. If there was imposition, Akpabio would have emerged unopposed.

The entire senators would have unanimously chosen him but that was not the case as there was election between him and his opponent. Every Nigerian saw how the election went, it was an open contest and the election was televised live in the media and how it was won and lost was known to Nigerians.

So I don’t believe there is imposition. Of course, there could be influences here and there but it is not the influences that prevails at the end of the day, it is the desires, wishes and expression of members that usually prevails at the end of the day as can be clearly seen in Akpabio’s emergence as Senate President.

Nobody expected that we are going to get it smoothly running because the contest was stiff but we were able to galvanize ourselves and kicked on. So there will always be natural influence in things like that because it is a game of interest. If there was imposition of leadership on the National Assembly, Aminu Tambuwal wouldn’t have been Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives.

If there were imposition, late Ghali Na’abba wouldn’t have been and remained Speaker at that time. Hon. Patricia Etteh, a fantastic woman was our Speaker for three to four months, but for some reasons, we were not comfortable with her, so we got her out and brought in Dimeji Bankole. If there was imposition, we couldn’t have been able to do that because at that time, the presidency was solidly behind Hon. Etteh but we kicked her out.

Despite constant denials, there seems to be an ongoing cold war and feeling of disenchantment among Senators over the leadership style of the Senate President and perceived marginalisation and unequal distributions of positions between those who supported the Senate President during his election and those who worked against him. What is your take on this and how will you assess his leadership?

This is news to me. May be there is something that is happening in the National Assembly that is not known to me because as far as I know, there is nothing like that. Senator Godswill Akpabio, our Senate President is not a perfect human being and have his own weaknesses but so far, as a leader, his level of humility is unprecedented. He is our president, we made him the Senate President and if tomorrow we don’t want him, he will go.

But let me say this with high sense of responsibility, he is doing the best he can to balance up and I must confess that he is a humble leader because at any point in time, whenever his mistakes are made known to him, he goes straight forward to accept his mistakes and apologize.

He will waste no time to say he is sorry let’s chart a new course on how to correct this but on machinations and disenchantments, i don’t know anything about it. You know me, I’m not sycophantic in my personal and official dealings and I will never be to anyone irrespective of my close relationship with that person or otherwise.

Lastly, there are feelings in some quarters that the laws that have been passed by the National Assembly over the years have failed to bail the country out of woes and have not been standing the test of time in addressing the various challenges confronting the nation. Do you also subscribe to this belief?

I don’t subscribe to this erroneous belief, and permit me to said that as a lawmaker, and of course, an experienced one, the laws in Nigeria can stand the test of time anywhere in the world and have addressed so many socio- economic and political challenges bedeviling the country at different times.

The only problem is that, in some instances, it is the enforcement and compliance that is lacking. They are lacking because those saddled with that responsibilities sometimes do compromise in enforcing the laws for one reason or the other, mostly, on sentimental grounds. That is just the problem but the quality of our laws and its effectiveness cannot be questioned anywhere in the world.