SENATOR NDOMA EGBA MAKES MESS OF THE NEW PDP

The sun newspaper reports that After two months recess, the National Assembly reopened for a new legislative year on September 16. As the legislators are about to commence full business of lawmaking, the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, unveils some of the major items already penciled down for consideration in this interview. He also gives an insight into the mechanism for resolving the internal contradictions between the so-called new and old Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Excerpts:

What’s the agenda before the Senate in this new legislative year?

We are working on the PIB Bill. It will soon return to plenary. It is now at the final stage at the committee level. . We want to get it out of the way as soon as possible. We also expect the budget to come in anytime soon. We’ve received the Medium Term Expenditure Framework which we are already working on. We also have the harmonization of constitutional review proposals to make. You know the Senate passed its version and the House of Representatives also passed its own version. So, harmonization will soon take place. Very soon also, we are going to take a look at the electoral act, among many other items.

What  is the state of the economy and your expectation of the budget performance for the outgoing fiscal year?

Well, for the state of the economy, it is not my turf. The managers of the economy  can speak authoritatively on the state of the economy. But for the expectations of the budget, Nigerians expect a 100% performance of the budget. That is also the expectation of the National Assembly. That is a tall order in practical terms, but we believe that anything under 80% of  performance of the budget is totally inexcusable. So, we want to see as much performance of the budget as possible given the  fact that we did everything within our powers to get the budget passed as quickly as possible.

Bearing in mind the failure of past governments to organise a successful national dialogue, are you optimistic that the new conference President Goodluck Jonathan proposed in his national broadcast on Independence Day will be able to finally lay to rest burning issues in Nigeria?

The fact that we have had several conferences in the past and they didn’t resolve the problems of Nigeria is the more reason we should have many more of  conferences. We must keep trying until we get it right. I believe this is yet another opportunity for us to achieve what the previous conferences did not achieve. All this talk of Nigeria will break-up is just  imagination. We have had this story of Nigeria will break-up since 1914 and Nigeria hasn’t broken up. A marriage of a 100 years is not something you can break up very easily. Each time there is going to be a conference, there is always this speculation about possible break-up of Nigeria. Nigeria survived the brutal civil war. So, for me, Nigeria will not break-up. Every country has its tension and stresses. Nigeria is not immune to tensions and stresses, but the union is strong enough to overcome them. We have always shown that we are strong and resilient enough to overcome them.

Some people say the timing of the  conference is inauspicious and  diversionary. Is the motive not questionable now that the nation is edging closer to the next general election?

No matter the time we announce the conference, Nigerians will read meaning to it. Nigerians politically are very suspicious people. No matter the timing, they will read meaning into it.

Where does the National Assembly come in here?

A national conference is not inconsistent with the National Assembly. The conference will not in any way inhibit or usurp the functions of the National Assembly. As we speak, Nigerians are meeting in different groups all over the country discussing Nigeria. How does that impact on the National Assembly? The conference is an executive initiative. It will advise Mr. President on a number of issues. The President will forward to the National Assembly issues that will require legislative support as executive bills. When they finish their work, they will submit to Mr. President their recommendations that are acceptable to him and require legislative support he will propose to us. The ones that also require constitutional amendment, he will also propose to us. At the end of the day, the work of that conference will end up in the National Assembly.

You’ve been part of the peace process between the new and old Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)….

(Cuts in) We don’t have two PDPs.

Why is the party so tensed-up?

I think that we forget very easily. From 1998, the PDP has had one crisis after another. At one point we had a sitting Vice President who decamped to another party and remained the Vice President. What crisis can be worse than that? Yet, PDP survived the crisis. For a party as large as PDP, you will expect crisis now and then. I have said it before and I say it again, where you don’t find crisis in a party, it means either of two things. Either the party is dead or it is owned by an individual. When a party is alive and is not owned by an individual, crisis will be a recurring feature. The issue is not whether or not the PDP has crisis. Like I said, PDP has always had crisis. But the issue is this: Does it have the capability to resolve crises as they come? My simple answer is yes. We have resolved every crisis in the past. Once upon a time, there was a huge turnover of national chairmen. We survived that. We survived a sitting Vice president decamping to another party and still sitting as Vice President. We still went ahead to win election after it. So, the party has the mechanism and versatility to resolve crises as they come.

It sounds funny to hear you say that PDP is one when there’s a  Baraje-led faction and another led by Bamanga Tukur….  

(Cuts in). We have what we call legal personality. That is, the personality the law recognizes. Of course, the first personality that the law recognizes is the natural person that is a human being. Outside the natural person, you must be a creation of law. That is why for companies, you must be registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission. For corporations and parastatals, there must be a law of the National Assembly. For a political party, you must be registered by INEC and you must have certificate of registration. There is only one certificate of registration now and that is in the name of PDP. So, legally, that is the entity that exists. Beyond that, when parties are electing their national officers, it is through a national convention. INEC monitors those conventions. You know PDP recently had a national convention. Why was the national convention necessary? It was because the convention that produced our national officers had objections from INEC. INEC said ‘look, you did not follow your own guidelines in the convention that produced some of your national officers.’ INEC is the regulator of the electoral system. And as a law abiding party, PDP complied and went to a national convention monitored by INEC. So, INEC has a list of national officers. Therefore, when you say there are two PDPs, there should be two PDPs with two different certificates of registration. There should be two PDPs that have held two parallel national conventions to elect officers both monitored by INEC. That is not the situation we have on ground. So, we have one PDP. The much that is happening now is that we have a tendency within the PDP. If they insist that there is another PDP, let them undergo the process of registration with INEC. Until and unless that is done, they remain one PDP and the executive of the PDP that emerged from a process monitored by INEC is the one led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. So, no matter how we hype the situation, hyping will not help creating another political party. It is due adherence to the law that will create another political party. Until that happens, no matter how we shout that there is another political party called new PDP, it will remain  fiction.

But isn’t it already a problem for PDP that the aggrieved  tend to join forces with another association?

It won’t be the first time that is happening. I have told you that we had a Vice President who moved to another political party while still remaining in office. People have left PDP a number of times, but they always return.

So far, one of the conditions the factional group is giving for peace to return is that Jonathan must forget  his second term ambition. Is there a possibility of reaching a compromise on some of these demands?

Whether the President wants to contest or not, he alone can exercise the constitutional right to contest or not to contest. Nobody can deny him  that right. It is his constitutional right to say I want to run. He alone can say I will not run. So, no matter how we shout, it is a constitutional right that only he can exercise. If we have to go to him to say don’t exercise your constitutional right, I don’t think that is right. It is his right to decide what he wants.

Even with the widespread insinuation that he signed an agreement for a single tenure?

Why is it still at the realm of insinuation? The President met the media the other day and said ‘Look, there is no such document. If you have the document, produce it.’ Has the document been produced?

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework sent to the National Assembly by the executive indicates that there is still a huge debt overhang on Nigeria. How does the National Assembly caution  the executive against going out of its way to borrow money to finance projects?

The Executive cannot borrow without recourse to the National Assembly. When you look at the issue of debt, economists will tell you there are certain parameters you use to assess whether or not you are over borrowing. We have people knowledgeable enough who are running the economy and who will run the economy in the best possible way. So, I believe the debt is still within tolerable limits and that is why government can still borrow. It is not every debt that is a problem. A debt becomes a problem when you are borrowing above your capacity to pay.