Senate leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River central) took time during the launch of his empowerment programme to field questions from newsmen. Excerpts:
Do you agree that the outcome of the National Conference should go through a referendum?
A referendum under which law? Which law in Nigeria provides for a referendum? There is no law. Those advocate it are saying it should go directly to the people and I have decided not to make any comment on it because who will take it to the people? How do you determine the people who will receive it? How do you determine the venue where they will receive it? How do you determine how they will vote? How do you determine whether the results of the votes are genuine? How do you determine all of those issues? When we talk about referendum there is no law providing for referendum and as far as I am concerned the referendum is just wishful thinking because there is no law guiding it.
A referendum under which law? Which law in Nigeria provides for a referendum? There is no law. Those advocate it are saying it should go directly to the people and I have decided not to make any comment on it because who will take it to the people? How do you determine the people who will receive it? How do you determine the venue where they will receive it? How do you determine how they will vote? How do you determine whether the results of the votes are genuine? How do you determine all of those issues? When we talk about referendum there is no law providing for referendum and as far as I am concerned the referendum is just wishful thinking because there is no law guiding it.
One of the issues at the national conference is that Nigeria should discard a bicameral legislature. Do you agree?
Let us go back to why we have Bi-cameral legislature. You have bicameral legislatures usually in places where there is diversity, either religious; tribal, cultural and I think there is only one homogenous society which is Korea. But for a country like Nigeria which is diverse, multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic the trend all over the world is that such a country should have bicameral legislature. Where you have two Houses: the upper House and the lower House, the lower House membership is usually based on population and the upper House is usually based on equality of states, Bayelsa has the same number of senators like Kano. Then go to the lower House, because it is based on population, two states in Nigeria can frustrate anything they want to frustrate because they have the number. If we were to have a unicameral legislature it means that there will be no place for a minority man like me, because all the big tribes will take all the seats in a unicameral legislature.
What about the huge cost of running bicameral legislature?
I have heard the argument that it is because of cost, that it is too expensive to have two Houses. Maybe, but let us do the arithmetic. This year’s budget without the SURE-P component is N4.6 trillion by the time you add the sure P component it will be about 4.9 trillion and the budget of the National Assembly is N150 billion. What percentage of N150 billion is it to N4.9 trillion? Under three percent, so if you scrap one House it is probably a fraction of under three percent and that will be your savings. The budget of the National Assembly is a fraction of what we have not been able to account for in our petroleum subsidy regime, that one is in trillions. The pension money that are stolen is in trillions. The import waivers are in trillions so as far as I am concerned, we are looking at an aspect that is too tiny because when we talk about National Assembly people forget that we have 360 members, and we have aides paid from them.
What has been the position of the Senate on the abducted Chibok school girls?
We debated Chibok. I moved the motion on behalf of 108 Senators. It was fully debated on the floor and that was when we said that we shouldn’t shy away from international help, because it had become a global issue. So it was debated fully on the floor of the House. So beyond that I don’t know whether you are asking if we have gone to Sambisa forest.
A legislator in US made an allegation on corruption and how it is hampering the process of rescuing the Chibok girls.
These are security and military issues and I don’t have the details so I can’t comment on it
Why were there so many politicians among the beneficiaries of your empowerment programme?
It was five people per ward, and every ward has its leadership, so they determine for us who those five people will be but in many cases I made the choice personally considering how hard you have worked for the party or for me in helping my political career or your relevance to your society. One of the beneficiaries for instance is the chairman of Ikom forum is not expected to be going to meetings on a Motor bike?
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