TIJANI ADEYEMI relays the drama on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday over the distribution of loans by a development bank and how the matter was put under check to avoid it goading some senators into fisticuffs.
Signposting the significance of money in politics in his paper entitled “Money is politics”, Jonathan Kirshner wrote: “…the management of money is always and everywhere political: for every policy choice, there is an alternative that some actors would prefer.”
The view of the professor of Political Science and International Studies at Boston College, United States of America, as captured above provides a sort of background to the altercation on the floor of the Senate that nearly ended in fisticuffs last week.
The leadership of the Senate had promised Nigerians that the 10th Senate would be markedly different from what obtained in the past. But less than one month after the National Assembly was inaugurated, the floor of the upper legislative chamber was nearly turned to a boxing ring on Wednesday.
The mild drama and exchange of hot words was caused by a move to re-open a matter that legislative actions had been concluded upon during the Ninth Senate.
The matter had been brought through a controversial motion entitled “Uneven disbursement of half a trillion naira loan to the six-geopolitical zones by the Development Bank of Nigeria” sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno State), now the Senate Chief Whip.
Trouble started when Ndume had, upon commencement of the plenary, drawn the attention of the Upper Chamber to a motion he sponsored on the same issue of imbalance in the distribution of the loan last year, adding that the outcome of that motion was not concluded before the expiration of the ninth Senate.
He sought the permission of the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, to move the motion to debate the matter afresh. But before Akpabio could rule on that, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun State) rose to counter Ndume’s position that the last Senate did not conclude the matter. Adeola submitted that from his discussion with the chairman of the ad hoc committee set up to investigate the issue, a report was done on the motion and was sent to the Presidency for implementation.
Infuriated by Adeola’s submission, Senator Aliu Ahmed Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa State) sprang from his seat, shouting “point of order! Order!”
After being recognised by the Senate president, Wadada declared that his rights as a lawmaker had been trampled upon. He said he opposed the noticeable imbalance in the distribution of the money, adding that his senatorial district, his state and the entire North, were grossly cheated.
Senator Wadada became more incensed when the Senate president attempted to rule him out of order on the grounds of citing improper order.
Based on the strength of the submission of Adeola, the Senate president suspended further debate on the motion. But the suspension of the debate on the motion did not go down well with the, Ndume, who intervened again and insisted that it was morally wrong that the whole North was given only 11 per cent, while Lagos State alone got 47 per cent of the loan. He added that his state, Borno, got just one per cent.
Ndume said: “The former Senate president [Ahmad Lawan] had insisted that I should be a member of the committee because I was the mover of the motion.
“However, I was not always around whenever they called the meeting. I don’t want to believe that it was deliberate. I swear by God, I have not seen a copy of the report.
“I am a senator. I raised the motion because my people were shortchanged. This is a serious matter. N500bn was distributed. Other geopolitical zones got 11 per cent, while my region got only one per cent.
“When you say that you have submitted the report and you ambush people to sign the report only when those who are interested were not around.
“I didn’t sign any report. I insisted I am not a young man. You should have given me the report. I have not seen the report. It is a privilege of mine.
“What are you talking about? I have not seen the report which was even submitted at the tail end of the 9th Senate.”
Akpabio thereafter invited Senator Musa to clarify the situation in order to lay the matter to rest.
In his explanation, the Niger East senator said, “I submitted the report after due consultations with all the agencies like the Bank of Industry, Agricultural Development Bank, Minister of Finance, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency and other agencies that are involved in the palliatives or grants.
“When we were deliberating, we included all senators from each geopolitical zone and we were meeting.
“The Chief Whip [Ali Ndume] attended the meeting twice. The meeting continued. The time that we wanted to submit the report, I called the Chief Whip, but he was in Maiduguri.
“When they submitted the signature sheet to me, I saw that you [Ndume] signed the report of the committee like any other member.”
At that stage Ndume interjected and said, “but I have not seen it.”
Sani Musa also responded, “but you signed it. You signed it and it is not an interim document. It is a final report and it has been adopted. It was debated here and adopted.”
The Senate president at that stage said, “I can imagine the passion you [Ndume] have shown on this matter. We are a corrective 10th Senate.
“We are ready to correct anything that you feel was not properly done. The Senate president has already ruled on the matter that it should be stepped down.”
It will be recalled that Ndume, while presenting the same motion in the Ninth Senate had noted that there was a huge disparity and uneven disbursement of the N500bn loan by the Development Bank of Nigeria to the six geopolitical zones in the country in 2021.
He said that the bank’s annual integrated statutory report 2021 obtained by him on 13th July, 2022, from the its website showed that the bank disbursed loans worth N483b out of which only 11 per cent went to the 19 states of northern Nigeria, while 47 per cent went to Lagos State alone.
He also noted that the 11 per cent of the loan that went to the entire northern totals about N53.1bn, while the 47 per cent that went to Lagos State alone totals about N227bn.
Ndume further added that the South-West accessed the lion’s share which was 57 per cent of the total loan, which was estimated to be about N274, 740,000,000 only.
He expressed worry that the South-South zone accessed 17 per cent, (N81,940, 000,000); Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the North-Central Zone, 11 per cent, (N53,020,000,000) only; the South-East Zone, nine per cent, (N43,380,000,000); the North-West has five per cent, (N24,100,000,000) and the North-East accessed only one per cent, N4.8bn
He said the DBN existed to alleviate financing constraints being faced by micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria by providing finance, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable basis.
According to the motion, “the top five sectors considered for the loan are oil and gas (42 per cent), manufacturing (16 per cent), agriculture, forestry and fishery (7.2 per cent), trade and commerce (6.3 per cent), and transportation and storage (3.5 per cent).”
The Ahmad Lawan-led Ninth Senate had thereafter set up an ad hoc committee chaired by Senator Musa to probe Ndume’s claims and whose report after it was submitted was debated, passed and sent to the executive for implementation.
Sunday Tribune also gathered that when the issue was first raised last year, the then Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said the Federal Government would review the criteria currently being used by development banks in the country to disburse loans to MSMEs in order to ensure geographical spread.
The minister stated this when she appeared before the Senate ad hoc committee set up to investigate the alleged uneven disbursement of the loan last November.
The minister cautioned that such a review would not be too flexible or go round in order to ensure the sustainability of the development banks.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
