After five hours of meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday,
the Senate ended its sitting in a stalemate and once again deferred a decision
on President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua now 65 day absence. The meeting,
which held in the Senate chamber was called off by the Senate President,
David Mark, after five hours of deliberations because the senators were
tired and several members were yet to speak on the matter.
The Senate spokesperson, Ayogu Eze (PDP Enugu State), said the Mr. Mark was
determined to ensure that all senators bared their minds on the issue because
of its sensitive nature.
‘Painstaking session'
"As you can see, it was a very painstaking session and it was the determination
of the leadership of the Senate that every member of the Senate who wanted to
speak will be given an opportunity to do so," Mr. Eze said after the session.
"We had to extend our sitting period and yet we were not able to exhaust the
opportunity for everybody to speak. So, discussion and deliberation on the
matter will continue tomorrow, also in close session, and then we are going to
conclude and come out with a position at the end of (today)."
The issue of whether President Yar'Adua should let the vice president, Goodluck
Jonathan, act while he is away has rocked the unity of the Senate since they
resumed plenary this year. Currently, the Senate is divided along three lines:
the pro-Yar'Adua, the pro-Jonathan and the undecided.
For the past 10 days, the pro-Jonathan group, who think that Mr. Yar'Adua hand
over to the vice president while he is away, have been pushing for a motion
which will back their position but have always been stopped by the executive.
It is believed that the group, also known under the pseudonym, National
Interest Group (NIG), has a membership of 94 and has the deputy senate
president as a member. But they have not succeeded in their mission to compel
the absent president to comply with section 145 of the 1999 constitution,
despite their large number. The Senate has 109 members.
Deadlocked meeting
It was learnt that besides the fact that all the sitting
senators could not contribute to the debate before the meeting was called off,
the Senate leadership also agreed to adjourn for further consultations because
the two contending interest groups could not reach an agreement.
Some senators insisted that they will defend the constitution, no matter who
will be hurt, saying that the least they would accept would be getting the
president to comply with provisions of section 145 of the 1999 constitution.
Suleiman Nasif (PDP Bauchi State), one of the senators who is believed to be in
the pro-Jonathan group, said in an interview that "since the court is hinging
its ruling on section 144, we believe section 145 should apply. Since Mr.
President recovered when he wanted to sign the supplementary budget, it should
be easier for him to sign the letter and transmit it to the National Assembly."
Despite the overwhelming number of the pro -Jonathan group, the pro -Yar'Adua
members were able to put up a strong opposition during the meeting.
Suggestive echo
Deep into the meeting, faint chants of "all we are saying is, hand over to
Jonathan" reverberated from behind the shut doors.
It was later learnt that some senators, who are believed to support the
handover to Mr. Jonathan and come from the North, resorted to the chant as a
means of delivering their message.
A Senate source said Smart Adeyemi, (PDP Kogi State) was the arrowhead of those
agitating for the president to comply with the provision of section 145 and
allow the vice president act while he is away.
Mr. Eze however denied that there was ever a chant during the meeting, saying,
"I do not know where your echo is coming from. I do not specialise in echo. I
am not authorised to report on echo. Maybe you may need to see radiologists.
They are the ones who deal with echo. I do not deal with such matters."
Outside the chamber after the meeting, Mr. Adeyemi was surrounded by some of
his colleagues who took turns to give him warm handshakes.
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