{"id":3602,"date":"2024-07-26T13:15:47","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T13:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2024-07-26T13:30:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T13:30:24","slug":"senate-chief-whip-whipped-by-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/senate-chief-whip-whipped-by-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Chief Whip Whipped by Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Wednesday 17th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2024, the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus of the Senate removed the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume (APC:Borno South) and replaced him with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights & Legal Matters, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC:Borno North).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ndume\u2019s removal followed from allegations of party disloyalty and\ncritical comments he made against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his administration. A letter requesting his removal was written by the\nNational Chairman of the party, Umar Ganduje and National Secretary, Senator\nBashir Ajibola and read on the floor of the chamber by the President of the\nSenate, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The party leaders asked him to resign from\nthe party and join either the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) or any other\nopposition party. The request for his removal was put to voice votes and\napproved by APC senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Ndume was also removed from his deputy chairmanship position of\nthe Senate Committee on Appropriation, and made Chairman of Committee on\nTourism, which he has rejected, citing lack of experience over the committee\u2019s\nmandate. An attempt was even made via motion, for him\nto face the Senate Committee on Code of Conduct, Ethics and Privileges, but\nthis was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incident has been met with several reactions. For the opposition\nand many in the civic space, Ndume\u2019s removal is an example of an action by a ruling party and administration that is intolerant of critical\nviews. One that resorts to humiliation and intimidation to silence opposing\nvoices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His party members argue that he should have explored internal channels\nto offer his personal views on the administration instead of playing to the\ngallery and making what they see as derogatory remarks. However, it is not certain if Ndume already explored these\nchannels and was met with silence. It is also unclear if the ruling\nparty has mechanisms or channels where members can express their grievances. What is certain however is that\nthe party and its representatives in\nthe Senate will not hesitate to wield its stick over\nlegislators who show public dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case of Senator Abdul Ningi is a prime example. Nigerians\nwitnessed the spectacle that led to his suspension\nfrom the Senate after he made allegations of\nbudget padding in the 2024 Appropriation Act. The Senate\nvoted to have him suspended instead of calling for a thorough investigation\ninto the matter. This further damaged the already\npoor image of the Senate as a rubber stamp of the executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a strict sense, Party Whips are not expected to publicly go against\nthe party they represent in Parliament. A Chief Whip has the job of enforcing\nparty discipline and whipping members of the ruling party in line. In\njurisdictions with a strong party system, Party Whips are enforcers of the party\u2019s\ninterests in parliament and sometimes go to great\nlengths to do so. Unfortunately, the Chief Whip in this case, has\nbecome the object of the whipping. The APC clearly felt that Ndume was not living up\nto his responsibility by asking for his\nremoval and advising him to resign from the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be stated however that Ali Ndume is not afraid of courting controversy. He is known for being very outspoken, therefore his comments should have come as little surprise to anyone following his antecedents. It would be recalled that he supported the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President in 2015 contrary to wishes of then President Buhari and the ruling party. He later fell out with the same Saraki which led him to lose his position as Senate Leader to Ahmed Lawan. The Ethics Committee in 2017 recommended that he be suspended for six months for repeating allegations of forgery of fake vehicle importation documents against Saraki and questioning Dino Melaye\u2019s university certificate https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/senate-suspends-senator-ali-ndume\/<\/a>. Fast-forward to 2019, he ran for Senate President against Senator Lawan contrary to the party\u2019s wishes but ended up losing to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some may disagree with his\nposition or disposition, but it cannot be said that he lacks a backbone. Moreover, Nigeria does not operate a system where legislators go against\ntheir judgement or conscience should it conflict with party policy or the\ndictates of the party leadership. Because legislators maintain a strong link to\ntheir constituents, it is expected that citizens\u2019 interests come first. While\nhe has a role as Chief Whip, Senator Ndume also represents a constituency \u2013\nordinary Nigerians, whose voices cannot be drowned in the quest to avoid\nrocking the boat with the leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the issues raised by Ndume go beyond mere\ndisagreement with government policies. He raised serious concerns that cannot\nbe waived away such as that of embezzlement of public resources in the midst of biting hunger, as well as the President not being accessible and his team\nhaving a closed-door policy that has alienated some of his Ministers and other\nparty members in the National Assembly. These have serious implications\nfor governance and should bother any\nwell-meaning Nigerian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a political party reserves the right to choose its representatives\nor change its principal officers in the legislature,\nthe National Assembly must take utmost care\nto protect its constitutional role and independence\nto ensure that the institution does not become a mockery of representative\ndemocracy. Tomorrow may yet be another legislator\u2019s turn to face the big stick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday 17th\u00a0July 2024, the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus of the Senate removed the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume (APC:Borno South) and replaced him with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights & Legal Matters, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC:Borno North).\u00a0 Ndume\u2019s removal followed from allegations of party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}