Leadership (Abuja)
Uchenna Awom
18 May 2011
Abuja — A defiant Senate yesterday brushed aside scathing criticisms and went ahead to unanimously amend its standing rules that would effectively prevent new senators from aspiring to become presiding officers of the Senate.
This was even as the Senate president, David Mark, warned that the Senate can never chicken out because of some deliberate blackmail from outsiders, adding that “the new rule is not about David Mark”.
Consequently, it is now an internal law that only ranking senators will henceforth occupy such high offices as presiding officer of the upper chamber and of appointments of principal officers of the Senate or any parliamentary delegations.
Also, the lifespan of the senate will now be in perpetuity, meaning that the legislative business of the Senate will continue irrespective of the end of any session. Accordingly, all business of the Senate including bills which remains undetermined at the close of session of the Senate, shall be resumed and proceeded with in the same manner as if no adjournment of the Senate had taken place.
The amendment was sequel to a motion sponsored by the Senate majority leader, Teslim Folarin. He asked the Senate to consider and approve the amendments to the standing orders, first by inserting a new rule 3(2) to replace rule 97(1)(f) on ranking.
The new rules, which specifically dealt with the election of president of the Senate, deputy president of the Senate and appointments of principals officers and other officers of the Senate, states that nomination of senators to serve as presiding officers and appointments of principal officers and other officers of the Senate or on any parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of senators.
On the business continuing from session to session, which is contained in rule 111, the rule was amended such that legislative business of the Senate which remains undetermined at the close of a session of the Senate shall be resumed and proceeded with in the same manner as if no adjournment of the senate had taken place and all papers referred to committees and not reported upon at the close of session of the Senate shall be returned to the Office of the Clerk of the Senate and retained until the next session of the Senate when they shall be returned to the several committees to which they had previously been referred.
As the amendment scaled through, it now forecloses the rule that any bill or any other business of the Senate that was not concluded will start de novo (afresh).
Ruling on the motion, Senator Mark said: “This is not a rule that is new. It exists. We want to move it from 97(1)(f) to 3(2). Any new senator who is not ranking today would be ranking tomorrow. It is for the strengthening of the Senate as an institution. This has nothing to do with David Mark but the institution of Senate. Commentators outside were ignorant of the rules and they were trying to blackmail us. There is nothing wrong with what we are doing now”.
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Continued here:
National Assembly Leadership – Senate Locks Out Fresh Members