Senate President Bukola Saraki has sparked a fierce struggle for juicy committee membership in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly after asking senators to signify interest in committees of their choice.
He asked them to pick forms from the office of the Clerk to the Senate to indicate their preferred committees.
The committees’ main responsibility is their oversight role in holding the executive arm, through each ministry or agency, accountable for its actions and ensuring that such ministries and agencies implement policies in accordance with the laws and budgets as passed by the legislative arm.
Consequently, such committees as Senate Services, Appropriation, Finance, Petroleum (down and upstream), Defence and Army, Communications, Aviation, Interior, Rules and Business, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Federal Capital Territory, Education, Niger Delta, Agriculture, Environment and Ecology, Power, Gas, Works, Marine Transport and Health which are considered influential have always attracted more interest than the rest.
They are classified as Grade A committees. Saraki said each Senator should indicate interest in about five committees.
The body of principal officers, also referred to as the Selection Committee with the Senate President as its chairman, has the responsibility to assign Senators to the committees based principally on the interest shown by individual Senators.
Although the 54 committees in the upper chamber are supposed to be equal and made to receive the same allocation, some are considered more ‘lucrative’ than others.
The Senate Services Committee was constituted last week with Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim Gobir from Sokoto State as chairman and Senator Abubakar Kyari, from Borno State as Vice Chairman.
Other members of the special committee are: Senators Monsurat Sunmonu (Oyo central) Olufunke Raji-Rasaki (Ekiti Central) Sunday Ogbuoji (Ebonyi South), Mohammed Hassan (Yobe South), Mathew Urhoghide (Edo South) Philip Aruwa Gyunka (Nasarawa North), Tijani Yahaya Kaura (Zamfara North) and Ibrahim Rafiu.
A reliable source close to the Selection Committee, told The Nation that “since Saraki’s announcement on the constitution of standing committees, the traffic of Senators to the Senate President’s office has dramatically increased.”
Although the source described lobbying for committees as a normal legislative practice, he said: “It is interesting to observe that what is going on cuts across all political interests in the Senate.”
According to him, “It seems as if nobody wants to be left out in the choice committees.”
A new Senate rule stipulates that the committees should be shared equitably among the geo-political zones.
Some All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators have criticized the rule, saying that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led Seventh Senate did not adhere to such sharing formula.
It is also not clear when the committees will be constituted but going by the emerging spirit to move the Senate forward, the committees are likely to be formed before the end of August.
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