In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, the senator representing Kaduna-Central, Shehu Sani, speaks about the agenda of the 8th Senate, among other national issues
Considering the myriad of challenges facing the nation, what, in your view, should be the first initiative on the agenda of the 8th Senate?
A committee has been inaugurated to set an agenda for the Senate which would adequately reflect the challenges the country is facing. We are faced with serious economic challenges like the dwindling oil revenue, leakages in the system and a government that virtually couldn’t function properly at all levels as a result of paucity of funds. The agenda of the Senate is to ensure that these issues are put on the front burner to assist the executive arm of the government to be able to achieve its aim.
The 8th Senate agenda will also reflect the spirit of the new order and that is change. Things will be done differently, taking cognizance of the feelings, views and positions of Nigerians. We are concerned that the National Assembly has a bad image in the eyes of many Nigerians; it’s being seen as a den of people who are making money and acquiring wealth and paying lip service to the development of the nation. I think what the Senate is trying to do is to see how it can change that. The first issue is to work on the remuneration – salaries and allowances of the legislators, which will certainly be trimmed down to reflect the economic realities of Nigeria and also to be in tandem with the call by Nigerians that the Senate should not be insulated from the economics of the country.
What’s your view on party supremacy?
The problem of party supremacy is the contradiction that exists between what the party wants and what is existent in the National Assembly. If you are coming to the National Assembly and you are within the premises of the National Assembly, you are completely in a different territory where it is not the laws of the party that operate. Here, the laws of the National Assembly operate. So, anybody who is within the premises and wants to operate, he has to operate within the laws of the National Assembly and not the laws of the party. Now, if the party makes a recommendation, it simply takes the loyalty, obedience and magnanimity of the person who has the message to deliver it. But if he doesn’t deliver it; he doesn’t break the laws of the National Assembly because what the National Assembly says is what matters most. But we know very well that we won elections via the tickets of our party and the party needs to be respected and if it is not, then there will be chaos and disorder. But the limitations of party supremacy has to do with the fact that it does not apply in the National Assembly, unless if you choose to apply it. But if you don’t, you didn’t violate any law there. If senators from one party were given a letter to the National Assembly, if they come to the National Assembly, they can choose to deliver the letter or not deliver the letter. The issue is whether the law of the National Assembly has been broken or not. If it has not been broken, then that’s a different thing.
I think where the mistakes were made was the fact that since we won elections, nobody called us to sit down with us, to give us an idea that this is what the party wants until when it was almost too late to do that. People had shown interest in vying for elections and they insisted, only for the party to come in and say this is what it wants to do.
On the June 9 election in the Senate, I was not among those who were in the National Assembly. I simply chose to be at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, because I thought the President was going to be there because his name was used. I was there and he was never there and nobody told us up till today whether the President actually called for that meeting.
It appears you and your state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, differ on a lot of issues. What is the problem?
We are from the same party and he is a governor and I am a senator and he is a technocrat while I’m an activist and a revolutionary. So, my power base is the common people – the masses on the ground. The people are my strength because I lived with them over the years. As far as he (el-Rufai) is concerned, the way he is running the affairs of government in Kaduna State, if care is not taken, we will all sink. He has to take consideration of the fact that you came in and met people that were impoverished, that were muscled, harassed and demoralised by the government of the Peoples Democratic Party.
So, first of all, they don’t need harsh policies that would further impoverish and alienate them. We need to carry them along, taking cognizance of the situation which we find them in. I, fundamentally, differ with him on that issue. For that reason, he has decided on his own not to even appoint people who identified with me in anyway and who are also seen to be from my camp. He is running Kaduna State in such a way that he would end up ruining all of us. He has taken some steps which have only attracted anger from the general public against him; but I can say it very well that Kaduna is a place I have I lived all my life and since I came out of prison in 1998, I have never been out of Kaduna for more than two weeks and I’ve never been appointed to any public office which would entail one living in Abuja and not make one oblivious of what is happening in Kaduna. So, I can tell you that within Kaduna-North, Kaduna-South and the metropolis of Kaduna, there is hardly any street where I don’t know anybody. When I speak against the governor, I have also spoken against the President and military dictators. I have also been speaking against injustices in the last 30 years and I went to prison for my views. I have seen terror in my life. So, I don’t find anything difficult for me to bring you back when you are going out of order.
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