9th Senate: The Seven Senators To Watch In Red Chamber
Gradually, the Ninth Senate is taking off and its impact will be felt in the coming weeks and months. There are deep seated reservations that the Senate in this current administration will exist to merely execute the will of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, yet, political book makers insist the legislative and oversight prowess of the 9th Senate will be remarkably shaped by seven Senators who earned eminence not only because of their political offices, but by their strong characters and political antecedents.
They are: Ahmed Lawan, Omo Agege, Orji Uzo Kalu, Suleiman Abdu Kwari and Dino Melaye. Others are: Rochas Okorocha and Danjuma Goje.
Senator Ahmed Lawan is not new to the political power play in the National Assembly. Call him a grand master in his own right and you wouldn’t be wrong. Lawan who represents Yobe North Senatorial District made history by defeating his main challenger, Sen Ali Ndume who represents Borno South Senatorial District.
Charming, unassuming and target-driven, he is vocal and highly articulate. If there is anything this distinguished lawmaker has going for him, it’s the undeniable fact that he is an unrepentant party man and to the core. That Lawan today sits as the Senate President of the 9th Senate and of the ruling party, tells of his robust influence which rolls beyond the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly but transcends within the Aso Rock corridors of power and seat of the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, smacks off the political war chest Lawan parades.
To underscore the Senate President’s resolve to get the country back on the right footing, he is quoted as affirming recently: “I have the experience to make the ninth Senate a place with the capacity to solve Nigeria’s problems.”
That this top rate distinguished senator is on top of his game is not in doubt, having led different committees for eight years.
Again, hear him: “In terms of experience, I have it. There are so many senators, who have not stayed long but have experience and I am looking forward to working with them. I was in opposition for 16 years, I headed committees for eight years, between 2007 and 2015. There is always a time when it will be appropriate to support the government because the government is heading in the right direction, and as legislators, we should support and monitor the activities of government for service delivery.”
As a trusted and stabilising force between the executive and the legislature, not a few political observers believe Lawan’s antecedents, which are well known will checkmate excesses of the executive, even as he does not believe in unnecessary fights.
Born in 1959, he graduated in geography from University of Maidugiri. He has a postgraduate diploma in Land Survey and later got MSc and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS), all from the University of Cranfield, United Kingdom.
Lawan started out as a graduate assistant at the University of Maiduguri and retired as an accomplished scholar and educationist before his foray into active politics. He has been a member of the Nigerian parliament since the return of democracy in the country in 1999. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 1999. After 8 years in the lower chambers, Lawan was elected into the Senate in 2007, and he has been in the Red Chamber since then. As things stand, Lawan is the most experienced senator in the ranks of the All Progressives Congress.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who clinched the Deputy Senate President seat, is a radical lawyer, politician and successful businessman. He is the Senator representing Delta State Central Senatorial District.
Dogged, rugged, bullish – these three words best describe this distinguished no-nonesense Red Chamber lawmaker, who suffer fools gladly. That his name has been a recurring decimal in the equation of top rate activities in the Senate, ought to scare those who underrate him; they do so at their own peril. And to prove this point, this Delta State-born Senator flatly defeated the old timer and former deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to covet the highly exalted seat, after polling 68 votes to win Ekweremadu who garnered 37 votes.
Fearless Senator, he once strongly criticised the leadership of the 8th National Assembly and other PDP members of working against President Muhammadu Buhari, thus, drawing out the daggers, in a battle line between himself and the opposition lawmakers.
Omo-Agege who at one-point dismissed the resolution of the ad hoc committee, also attacked the immediate past Senate President, Bukola Saraki for his alleged role in his ‘illegal’ suspension. He only came short of calling Saraki a tyrant, just as he also took on Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, whom he labelled as Saraki puppet.
A consummate lawyer, Omo Agege’s brilliance in law practice, transcends beyond the shores of Nigeria.
As a former executive assistant to the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, in 2003, he also acted as the Chief Liaison Officer at the PDP national headquarters and Presidency relations.
Determined to prove he had come off age in politics, following his exit as a Commissioner for Special Duties, Omo Agege joined the governorship race but lost to Emmanuel Uduaghan. He was thereafter appointed Secretary to the State Government in 2007.
Not yet done, he won the Senatorial seat in 2015 under the platform of the Labour Party, but defected from to the APC in March 2017. Still with APC, he contested for a second term in the Senate in the March 2019 National Assembly elections and was reelected.
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Sen Danjuma Goje is one of the ‘big boys’ in the Senate. He entered the Red Chamber with an enormous financial muscle, having served a two-term of office as the Governor of Gombe State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He switched over to the All Progressives Congress (APC), under which platform he now plays big in the Senate.
He began his political career as a member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly from 1979-1983. Goje became the Secretary of the National Institute for Medical Research in Yaba, Lagos State in 1984, till 1989. He later established his own organization, Zainab Nigeria Ltd, which he named after his mother, Hadjia Zainab, between 1989-1999. Goje returned to active politics and contested for a senatorial seat in 1999. His ambition didn’t materialise, but he ended up as the Minister of State, Power and Steel from 1999-2001 under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Dogged and persistent, he was finally elected Senator of Gombe Central on the PDP ticket in the April 2011.
As the 9th Senate leadership battle raged, Goje stepped down for Lawan for the Senate Presidency race after a meeting with President Buhari.
Battle tested war horse, Senator Rochas Okorocha is not shy of controversies or battles. His armoury is constantly well oiled to do one, when and where necessary. The ‘iberibesm’ senator and immediate past governor of Imo State is one man who calls a spade, a spade. Endowed with loads of native talent with which he floors his opponents, Okorocha is feared and highly revered for his wide international connection, robust business acumen and he is filthily rich. This fiscal muscle that Owelle Rochas parades in the 9th Senate, sets him out from the pack; this is aside the fact, he is also in the class of two-term governors in the Senate. Okorocha’s road to the Upper Legislative Chamber was fraught with landmines, but for the intervention of the judiciary, which gave judgment in his favour.
His educational philanthropic strides further gives him the much needed leverage as a lawmaker of Igbo extraction, representing Imo West Senatorial district.
As president and founder of Rochas Foundation, a charity organization comprising a number of special schools spread all over Nigeria that gives scholarship to the less privileged children, Okorocha who is not new to politics, ran on the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) platform and ran on the platform All Progressives Congress (APC) for his second term of office.
He was a Commissioner on the Federal Character Commission and a Member of the National Constitutional Conference. When democracy was restored in 1999, Rochas Okorocha contested in the primaries to be People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor of Imo State, but lost to Achike Udenwa. He moved to the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), and again was an unsuccessful candidate for the seat of President on the ANPP platform in 2003. He returned to the PDP, and President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as Special Adviser on Inter-Party affairs.
Rochas Okorocha formed the Action Alliance (AA) party in 2005, while still deeply nursing his presidential bid for AA in the 2007 elections. He again returned to the PDP, and in September 2007, he indicated interest in becoming PDP National Chairman. After Governor Ikedi Ohakim decamped from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to the PDP in July 2009, Okorocha was to have a bitter face off with Ohakim.
Muscled out by Okhakim, he once again abandoned PDP for APGA to run as APGA candidate for Imo governorship seat in the April 2011 elections. Earlier in December 2010, APGA suspended Okorocha from the party over ‘anti-party activities,’ but while investigation was on, he allegedly stormed Imo State Secretariat of APGA with dozens of thugs, who beat up several top officers of the Party. Okorocha again is believed to have wielded his larger than life influence on the Imo State Chairman and Secretary of APGA, a situation which saw him emerge as APGA candidate. He was to later win and become the state governor. The highly cerebral and restless Rochas in 2013 decamped once more to All Progressive Congress.
Before the 2015 elections, former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, threw in his hat for the governorship tussle, after snatching the PDP ticket from other contenders, and thus, had to slug it out with the incumbent, Okorocha. Following the well fought election, Okorocha was declared winner after a rerun of the election which held April 25, 2015.
The sitting senator meanwhile got the biggest shock of his life, in the twilight of his administration’s second term of office, following the protests and wide rejection of his attempt to impose his son in-law as the state governor.
Sen Daniel Dino Melaye – hate him or like him, maverick Senator Melaye is the proverbial bone hung on the dog’s collar. An embodiment of all that is flashy, lamboyant, eccentric, loud, brash, intelligent, suave, stylish, bold, fearless, remarkable and audacious. That Dino, as he is fondly called by his admirers, run a colourful, articulate and strategic political machinery that is well oiled for electoral success is no longer in doubt. A nemesis to his political foes, he represents Kogi West Senatorial district.
Born in Kano, he was a Students union leader at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He later became Secretary General of African Youth Council and subsequently, that of the Commonwealth Youth Council.
These positions won him the African Youth of the Year Award. Dino beat over 54 citizens from Commonwealth countries who equally competed for the award to emerge the winner in 2005. He was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo to chair the Presidential Advisory Council on Youths.
Melaye upped his activism when he ventured into the murky political waters in the lower chamber when he emerged as a member in the House of Representatives. There, he became a reckoning voice, after he openly opposed President Jonathan Goodluck, calling his government the most corrupt in Nigeria.
Effervescent and restless, Melaye not feeling fulfilled in the House, contest against the more popular Smart Adeyemi in the 2015 Senatorial election. He won and became a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He seconded the nomination of Senator Bukola Saraki as candidate for the office of President of the Senate, following a nomination made by Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima in a controversial bid that led to Saraki’s emergence as Senate President.
It is in record that hard working Melaye sponsored no less than 15 bills and 20 motions in the legislature. Dino’s constituency projects are numerous, thus endearing him to the people of his constituency and Kogi State at large. As always lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Dino pushed for electricity, solar power, motorized boreholes in over 15 wards, purchase of free jamb forms and payment of tuition fees to indigent Nigerian students. Following his antecedents, Melaye’s political career has not been spared of scandals and accusations.
In June 2017, a process to recall him from the National Assembly was initiated, but it failed, even while he was incarcerated. The Senator, characteristically has been in the forefront of a battle against his state governor, Yahaya Bello, whom he had severally taunted as “shooting the moon and boxing the air.”
Despite frantic efforts made by the governor to prevent Melaye from being reelected to the 9th Senate, Dino won. Today, there are strong indications from Melaye himself, that he is set to wrestle the prized seat of Kogi governorship from the sitting governor Bello.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is the chairman of SLOK Holding. He is also the publisher per excellence of both Daily Sun and New Telegraph newspapers in Nigeria. He was governor of Abia State from May 1999, to May 2007. Prior to his election, he served as the chairman of the Borno Water Board and the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited. Kalu was also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the chairman of the PPA Board of Trustees. He was the party’s presidential candidate in the April 2007 general elections. He is currently a member of the ruling party after he officially announced his resignation as a member of the PPA Board of Trustee.
He contested in the 2019 Nigerian general election to represent the people of Abia North in the senate, under the banner of the ruling All Progressives Congress. He defeated the incumbent senator Mao Ohuabunwa with over 10,000 votes.
Kalu is a staunch supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari and one of the power brokers in the presidential villa. He once described Buhari as a “close friend and father, who deserves all the support to make Nigeria better.”
Senator Suleiman Abdu Kwari representing Kaduna North Senatorial District is another man to watch in the Red Chamber. He is an unusual Nigerian because he matches his words with action. A measured politician who is tested, steady and very reliable. Though, not given to frivolities, Kwari is more on the quiet side. Nonetheless, as an achiever, he is one of the few Senators the system would be relying upon to push very important agenda in the 9th Senate. That this warm and unassuming politician is highly cerebral is not in doubt; especially going by his background as a technocrat. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Administration who served meritoriously as Commissioner of Finance, Kaduna State. He also served as a Federal Commissioner, Finance and Administration at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Member of the House of Representatives in the 4th Assembly. Born in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, he obtained his first and second varsity degrees in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1984 and 1998 respectively.
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Driven by the zeal to give back to his community and the country at large, he contested for and won the 1991 L.G Chairmanship Election to emerge as the first Executive Chairman of Sabon Gari Local Government Council. After all successful tenure, he was appointed Assistant General Manager (Administration) Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Kaduna State, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor in 2003. Until his appointment in 2015 as the Commissioner of Finance, Kaduna State, he had since 2010, worked as a Financial and Administrative Consultant at Samsyleem Consult Ltd, Abuja.
Suleiman Abdul Kwari is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria (FICEN) and Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM). This outstanding senator also holds Professional Practicing License from the Chartered Institute of Administration.
Through groundbreaking professional successes, Sen. Suleiman Abdu Kwari who ousted Hunkuyi as Senator representing Kaduna Central in the 9th Senate, earned the confidence of the progressives who encouraged him in politics.
Kwari’s competence in financial matters will considerably impact the 9th Senate.
More than anything else, his never-before achievements as Kaduna State Commissioner of Finance stands him out as an achiever whose pulse continues to impact the nation even after he meritoriously left office as Commissioner.
Apart from overhauling and strengthening the state’s fiscal framework, more importantly, Kwari instituted financial prudence and service efficiency in the execution of government programmes as it concerns finance. These policies brought about progressive multiplier-effect for Kaduna state and also served as a role model to other states.
Under his watch, Fitch Ratings assigned Kaduna State a Long – Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of “B” and a National Long Term Rating of ‘A+(nga) with Stable Outlooks. The Kaduna State Credit Rating was reaffirmed by Fitch in 2017 and 2018.
In September 2016, under his watch, Kaduna state completed the implementation and launch of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Operations Manual, making it the first state in Nigeria to release an Operations Manual since the adoption of the TSA Policy.
In order to sustain various strides across the finance sector, the state set in motion frameworks which have continued to drive the Kwari strides in fiscal prudence, transparency and strategic financial intelligence, years after.
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