New rule demands equal distribution among geo-political zones
THE Senate will distribute its committees equally among the six geo-political zones of the country irrespective of political party affiliations.
Accordingly, each zone is expected to get at least nine committee chairmanship seats out of the total 57 Senate committees.
This new tradition is in compliance with Order 3 (4) of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended.
The new Standing Order states: “The appointment of Senators as chairmen and members of committees shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the six geo-political zones of the country and there shall be no predominance of Senators from a few geo-political zones.”
However, this portion of the Standing Order runs contrary and in conflict with the 2011 version, which favoured the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In fact, it was not contained in the 2011 version of the Senate Rule, which was used by the Senator David Mark-led Seventh Senate.
In the Seventh Senate, the distribution showed a serious discrepancy in favour of PDP. In that arrangement, the South-South got 14 chairmanship seats, followed by the North Central, South East and North West, which got 10 each.
The South West got the least number of chairmanship positions with only five seats while the North East got seven.
The political implication of the equal sharing principle stipulated by the new rule is that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which drew its membership mainly from the North West, North Central and the South West will enjoy no special preference unlike what PDP enjoyed when it was in power.
The 2015 Standing Rule had generated serious crises leading to the intervention of the police. The Unity Forum Senators had petitioned the Police over what they described as forgery of the Senate Rule. This was a reaction to their defeat in the battle for Senate leadership.
Consequently, the Police had summoned leadership of the Seventh Senate including Senators David Mark, Ike Ekweremadu as well as Victor Ndoma-Egba. Also invited for questioning was the President of the Eighth Senate, Bukola Saraki.
