Senate: How Buhari’s loan request caused rift between Lawan, Abaribe

There was tension on the floor of the Senate last Thursday, when bickering ensued between the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, over President Muhammadu Buhari’s $22.7 billion loan request.

The disagreement, notwithstanding, the apex legislative Chamber still approved the loan and promised that it would ensure that the fund is judiciously applied to the various projects tied to it.

Buhari had requested the Eighth National Assembly to approve $29.96 billion for his administration, but the Senate, under the leadership of Dr. Bukola Saraki, turned down the request because the President did not attach details of the projects and financial allocations to his letter of request.

President Buhari, however, represented the request to the Ninth Senate last December, but was reduced to $22.7 billion, clarifying that the Eighth National Assembly actually approved about $6 billion out of the total amount requested.

The altercation between Lawan and Abaribe started as a result of the presentation of the report on the loan request by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Loans, Senator Clifford Ordia.

Some senators had wanted debate on the report to be deferred till Tuesday (yesterday) to enable members of the Red Chamber thoroughly scrutinise the document in order to be able to make constructive contributions, but the President of the Senate and some other senators who backed him, insisted that it should be considered and adopted that day.

Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central), for instance, urged that members of the apex assembly be given the opportunity to study the report for consideration ahead of Tuesday (yesterday). This position was also supported by Senator Bassey Albert Akpan (PDP, Akwa-Ibom North East). However, Senators Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue North East) and Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West), among others, insisted that the report be considered immediately on the floor.

Lawan, on his part, made frantic effort to sway his colleagues, arguing that it was the Senate’s prerogative to discuss the report first before sending it to the members of the public their analysis and commentary.

However, the Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the major opposition party in the Chamber, Senator Abaribe, was not comfortable with the way the President of the Senate wanted members to approve the report without properly dissecting the content.

Accordingly, he insisted that the members be given the opportunity to consider the report in more detail. He decided not to look away from the lacuna, as he drew the attention of his colleagues to the matter, and sought for a thorough scrutiny of the document.

Consequently, Abaribe raised a point of order to draw the attention of the Senate to some loopholes he spotted in the report, and stressed the need for the President of the Senate to allow for a clause by clause consideration of the loan request.

But, Lawan, who was not comfortable with Abaribe’s request, turned down his suggestion, saying that the report of the committee should not be subjected to debate, according to the rules of the Senate.

The position of Lawan, did not go down well with the Minority Leader, who cautioned that it would be injurious to the country’s economy, for the Senate to approve the loan without proper scrutiny.

His words: “My point of order is based on loan approval of $22.7 billion and we who are going to pay back are making effort to make sure that this is clarified and Mr. President, you are not giving us the privilege to make our points known. I don’t see what is difficult for us.” Lawan, in response, asked: Where is your privilege? You cited Order 43, which privilege was not given to you? Abaribe fired back, saying: “My privilege Mr. President, I was calling for point of Order to point out this thing to you…”

Lawan, however, interjected: “Haven’t I given you that privilege? You raised a point of order 43, you didn’t tell me what you are going to raise and I said I denied you because that is what the standing order says. You are supposed to tell me what the point of order is in details; you didn’t even tell me the synopsis of that order. I didn’t even know what that order is. So, I denied you that but before then you….. Minority leader, you know all the process here more than anybody else.

You have not been denied your privileges. In fact, the Minority leader has had more than a fair share in this respect…” Abaribe responded: “All I wanted to say, which is the feeling on this floor is that you don’t want us to say our minds on this issue.

The general feeling is that there are some aspects of this loan that we must have to vote on to decide whether they are in our interest or not, and the Senate leader has even confirmed it. “All I am saying is that we are the ones that will raise our economy; we have some issues with certain things inside here.

The reason why committees come to the general house is so that we can make our inputs into it. Now we want to make our inputs and we are being shut out. We are been pushed to pass the report or not pass it but what we are saying is that for economy of this country.” Again, Lawan interjected, saying: “Minority leader, I don’t want this debate to generate controversy, please. We shouldn’t allow it to generate into partisanship.

This is for our country and I want to say that you raised your hand on a number of occasions and the only one I denied you, was when you came under 43 and order 25 says that I interpret the rules and you supposed to have discussed this with me, and there wasn’t any effort to muzzle you. “Nobody is stopping you from voting what you want and if you have any explanation to guide us to process this report, we don’t have any reason to degenerate into partisanship.”

Lawan and Abaribe’s insistence on their different dispositions on the report triggered tension as other senators resorted to partisanship in their interventions. At this point, Senator Gabriel Suswan (PDP, Benue State), asked the President of the Senate to quickly call for an executive session to enable the senators resolve the matter in-house, without washing their dirty linens in public. The Majority Leader of the Senate, Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi), immediately backed Suswan’s suggestion, and moved the motion for the Chamber to go into executive session, where the lawmakers resolved their differences. In his remarks after the passage of the loan request, Lawan said that the Senate would ensure strict monitoring of how the fund is utilised.

His words: “We must follow very strictly how this money is expended by the Executive arm of government in funding the projects. We must ensure that no single dollar or cent is spent on any other thing outside of what has been indicated here and we pray that this loan will turn around the economy of Nigeria.

“It is our belief that this loan by itself will definitely have some positive influence on the GDP of this country and therefore, we want to assure Nigerians that as a chamber of the National Assembly, we will be responsible, we will ensure to be always available to ensure that no funds approved here are utilised for something else or used in very uneconomic and un prudent manner. This is our responsibility and we must ensure that we do that.