A former Senate leader, Distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba has said that the problem of the Senate was lack of seriousness.
Senator Ndoma-Egba stated this when he interacted with journalists in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
He stressed that when he was in the Senate, they inspected projects everywhere in the country.
“When I was in the Senate, we were always going round inspecting projects, do we still inspect projects?” he asked.
“I was in the Senate for three terms, out of those three terms, I was in leadership position, first as Deputy Senate Leader and then as Senate Leader.
“I was in the leadership under the Senate Presidency of Senator David Mark, there wasn’t a scandal, no rancour that became public and at some points, in the history of this country and the Senate, the Senate had to provide the needed stability in the country.
“Remember, especially when late President Yar’Adua was ill and was absent from the office, we were in a precipice of a major constitutional crisis, it was the Senate that protected us, it was the Senate that held the balance, historically, that is the role of the Senate.
“The Senate is supposed to hold the balance for the country. When the country is in crisis, the Senate come to the rescue.
“I think that to move the nation forward, the legislature and executives must work out a system of promoting the interest of the nation.
“The Presidential system of government is designed with inbuilt conflict, the conflict triggers the checks and balances and to see to the end of crisis in the National Assembly, we need only a word, dialogue, constant dialogue and finding ways around the problem,” he said.
The former Senator said, the Senate must know when to work with the executive. “Members of the legislatures were sponsored by political parties and one of the reasons we had stability in the eight years of David Mark was that caucuses were very very strong.
“PDP was in the majority in the Assembly, we used to have PDP caucuses meeting twice a month, it was a fixture in our calendar and the meeting was held in the Senate leader’s house, the only person who didn’t attend it was the Senate President because he was ought to be seen as neutral.
“We use to have a very strong Cross River State National Assembly caucuses that met regularly, discussing Cross River State matters, Cross River interest and strategies to protect her, we identified interest and at some points, governors attended, I remember Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke attended a few times. Caucuses is a key in my view.”
Ndoma-Egba said that the biggest problem with the politics in this country is that political parties that is supposed to be the vehicle to political power has been appropriated by big men.
“If you recall, when I was in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I said at a point that we were now having government of governors, governors for governors and governors by governors. They appropriated the political parties and what is the biggest challenge of party politics today, it is ownership of the party.
“Do political parties belong to individuals or belong to members of the party?
”Direct primaries confirms the ownership of the party, it addresses the fundamental question of ownership of political party.
“Rather than allow the big men to appropriate the wishes and desire, let the common man be the one to decide the direction of the party.”
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