The Senate to implement Federal Character in committee positions

THE new standing orders of the Senate, which
institutionalised the federal character principle in the
sharing of aconites and legislative assignments have it that
senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts should have
equal number of committees when they are eventually
constituted.
Indications to this effect was seen in the amendment to
Section 3 of the Senate standing rules, which indicated in
Section 3(iv), that federal character would be adopted in
sharing positions in the Senate.
It means that the senators of the APC and the PDP have to
share the committee positions on equal basis along the line
of geopolitical zones.
The section provides that "the appointment of senators as
chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in
such a manner as to reflect the six geopolitical zones of the
country and there shall be no predominance of senators from
a few geopolitical zones."
There are 54 committees in the Senate, with the Senate
President heading the Selection Committee constituted by
the body of principal officers.
Besides the Selection Committee, two other committees,
including the committee on Public Accounts And Ethics,
Privileges and Public Petitions are usually reserved for the
opposition members.
But the 2015 rules appears to have institutionalise see
balance with the provision. That no geopolitical zone
would be allowed to dominate the other in the composition
of standing committees.
In the Seventh Senate for instance, Senator Ahmad Lawan
(Yobe North), who was adopted by the APC as its candidate
for Senate President seat headed the Public Accounts
Committee, which he retained after holding the same
position in the Sixth Assembly. Senator Ayo Akinyelure
(Ondo Central), headed the Ethics Committee
The new Senate rule is already a source of contention, as
some senators loyal to the Senate Unity Forum have
petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, alleging forgery.
The content of the new rule could further aggravate the
contention in the Eighth Senate as the majority APC with
59 senators would expect to produce more chairmen than
the opposition PDP which has 49 members.

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