NASS REPUBLIC: Nnamani playing double-faced game? Two other stories, and a quote to remember

Former Enugu State Governor, and Senator representing Enugu-East Senatorial District, Chimaroke Nnamani, last week, extolled the leadership qualities of the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

We picked two other stories that dominated affairs at the National Assembly (NASS), within the week under review.

1. Nnamani playing double-faced game?

On October 28, Senator Nnamani, a chieftain of the country’s main opposition party, PDP, said that Tinubu had what it takes to change Nigeria’s fortune, adding that the former Lagos State Governor can replicate the successes he recorded during his tenure in the State across the country.

“From health to education to the economy and security, Lagos State and many other States were in turmoil as a result of years of military rule, but Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the most progress out of all of us in reforms of various sectors, with Enugu State coming in second,” he said while fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja.

Nnamani’s outpour of encomiums is a clear endorsement of Tinubu’s presidential aspiration, and has many terming his disposition as political sin, given that his party is also fielding Atiku Abubakar as a candidate in the 2023 polls.

Nnamani’s moves may not be divorced from the internal wrangling rocking the PDP. Indications are rife that his stance may have been influenced by the support he has for his State (Enugu) Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who is among the G5 Governors fighting for the sack of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.

Indeed, Nnamani’s doubled-faced game may have seen him being ‘mistakenly’ listed in the ruling party’s presidential campaign council.

Needless to say that Nnamani’s open endorsement of Tinubu could go some miles to de-market Atiku. The PDP is, no doubt, in a peculiar mess but will the likes of Nnamani be sanctioned for anti-party activities? Only time will tell, especially in a clime where politics is hardly played by ideologies and principles.

NASS MEMORY LANE

Who said;

“We must come up with non-kinetic measures by ensuring the Police are provided with needless personal strategies. Both the Police and the Army are overwhelmed. The truth is, the fight should be strategic. We need State Police too for urgent action.”

Answer: See end of post

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Two other stories

2. To merge or scrap some agencies?

The House of Representatives, on October 27, revealed the Federal Government has been taking loans to maintain agencies that perform similar functions, and such has increased the country’s debt profile.

Victor Danzaria, the Chairman of the House Adhoc Committee created to examine the duplication of government institutions/agencies, brought up the issue during a meeting with Cecilia Gayya, the Director-General of the Administrative State College of Nigeria (ASCON).

Danzaria said: “Counter productivity of established agencies is a fact that a lot of agencies led to a lot of loans we always approve as a National Assembly to maintain the organisations.”

“We cannot continue to keep borrowing money to maintain most of these agencies that we feel need to be merged or taken away.”

Danzaria’s observation reinforces the clamour to cut the cost of governance and raises the need for the government to dust up the Stephen Oronsaye report, submitted in 2011, which specified some agencies that government can merge or scrap in order to save money for other beneficial national projects.

For example, the report admonished the government to merge the nation’s top three anti-corruption agencies: The Code of Conduct Bureau, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), as this could save N31.5bn.

Will Danzaria’s observations provide fresh impetus on the need to check the cost of governance? How far will Federal Lawmakers push this time? Too many questions for which answers are far-fetched, and this is because the establishment has played more politics than confront its realities.

3. Tackling insecurity

On October 27, the Senate Committee on Army assured the Nigerian Army of continuous support in fighting insecurity, while charging them to intensify efforts to rid the country of criminal elements before the year runs out.

The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, had quoted the Chairman of the Committee, Ali Ndume, as saying: “He urged them to intensify efforts in tackling insecurity in troubled parts of the country before the end of the year.”

Ndume’s statement may have tacitly acknowledged the various challenges confronting the military, given much-publicised reports that the Army is overstretched.

While the Army needs all the encouragement and support it deserves, the twin issues of accountability and transparency must continue to be interrogated. How were the monies pumped into fighting insecurity in the different parts of the country expended? This is the onerous task before Ndume and his colleagues.

Answer: Hon. Abdulrasaq Namdas

Namdas made the statement, on August 10, 2022, while speaking on a Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today. He represents Jada/Ganye/MayoBelwa?Toungo Federal Constituency at the Green Chambers of the NASS.

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