Opinion
Emodi @ 65: Metaphor of 5 Percent, Broken Nation
By Ikenna Ideagu
Distinguished Senator Joy Emodi’s name rings the bell for the good reasons on the Nigerian political turf. And it does so for good reasons. Thus, the National Assembly was electrified with joy when the news of her nomination as Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) by President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Abubabar Bukola Saraki, broke.
Unfortunately, conspiracy, bigotry, and nepotism truncated that sound appointment.
According to an exclusive story by Sun Newspapers, Saraki wrote to President Buhari on December 20, 2018, nominating members of the NASC. Section 3 (3) of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) Act provides: “The President of the Senate shall, upon consultation with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, submit to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria a proposal list out of which the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall nominate for appointment, the chairman and members of the commission.”
Going further, Section 5 (3) of NASC Act clearly states, “the President shall send the appropriate nominations to the National Assembly within 30 days of being requested to do so”. The wisdom in this is that the President of the Senate could not be the nominating authority, when the senate, which he presides over, is going to be the confirming authority.
However, information soon filtered in that some divisive interests within the National Assembly and the presidency were unhappy about the emergence of a South East woman as Chairman of Commission, given the strategic nature of the Commission.
So, all they needed to do was to ensure that the President sat on Saraki’s letter for about seven months until Saraki’s tenure expired and Senator Ahmed Lawan emerged Senate President and Chairman of NASS in June 2019 to make fresh nominations in December same year.
Lawan’s Senior Legislative Aide, Ahmed Kadi Amsi, who is also from his Bade LGA of Yobe State, was nominated as Chairman of the NASC, while a former Distinguished Senator from the South East, Julius Ucha, was nominated as one of the floor members.
Thisday newspaper of 22nd December 2019 reported the nomination with screaming headline “Outrage as Lawan Appoints Aide Chairman, National Assembly Service Commission”. It was particularly so as the immediate past Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Adamu Fika, whose tenure expired in July 2018, also hails from Yobe.
Fika’s predecessor, Aliyu Dogondaji, Chairman July 2006 -May 2011, was from Sokoko State, while the pioneer Chairman, Mr. Ishaya Akau, Chairman, June 2001-May 2006, hails from from Kaduna. In other words, just like the EFCC, no Southerner has headed the Commission.
Therefore, on Emodi’s 65th birthday, one cannot but wonder what the nation had lost in denying her the opportunity to bring her experience, integrity, charisma, and passion to bear on this important job.
A student activist and Aminu Kano’s disciple, filled with the great ideals of welfarist and egalitarian ideologies, Emodi ventured into partisan politics during the Transition to Civil Rule programme of the Abacha Administration. Before then, the educationist and lawyer had worked as an educational administrator in the old Anamabra State.
Emodi won election into the 1994/95 National Constitutional Conference. She later became the National Legal Adviser and Deputy National Chairman of the Congress for National Consensus (CNC), the highest Political Party Offices ever to be occupied by any Nigerian woman politician as at then. She was a member of Nigeria’s Expert Team to the popular 1995 World Women Conference in Beijing, China.
But for Abacha’s death and consequent truncation of the transition programme, Emodi already had one leg in Anambra State Government House, Awka.
A veteran, Emodi is one politician, who has practically fought political godfatherism in Anamabra’s turbulent politics, although she has also often had to pay the price for her non-conformity. One of such prices was the daylight robbery of her people-given mandate in the 1998 Anambra governorship that ushered in the current democratic era.
Unfortunately for Jonathan, he couldn’t venture into NASS after Emodi’s removal as it became too hot for him to handle.
She later vied for the Senate in 2003. Although INEC, in its usual magic, reversed itself after announcing her as the winner and issued the Certificate of Return to someone, who did not even buy Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination as senatorial aspirant, Emodi fought hard and fiercely and reclaimed her mandate in the court of law to become the first Igbo female Senator.
She was reelected in 2007 despite all the odds staked against her even by her own party simply for refusing to play along during the Third Term agenda.
She nevertheless cruised to victory, but only for her stay to be magically truncated by one Chief Alphonsus Igbeke, whose judicial wonders had earlier taken him to the House of Representatives without standing for any elections.
Emodi bowed out in a blaze of glory. Igbeke tried to repeat the “wonder” post 2011 election, nemesis caught up with him.
Emodi was appointed the Special Adviser to former Goodluck Jonathan after 2011 elections. Under her watch, no single executive Bill failed. There was not a single override of presidential veto. And 99.9% of the President’s nominees, be they ministerial or ambassadorial, and Chairmen and members of Commissions, were all confirmed.
Only one ministerial nominee (Taraba) and a Commissioner (Delta) were rejected due to their states’ internal political wrangling. The 2013 Budget was equally passed in a record time since 1999.
However, as members of the same government, although in different branches, she did not believe the presidency and NASS should be at daggers drawn. She is not your “O yes” kind of person, and was always on hand to thaw the ice in relations. Emodi was so loved and popular among lawmakers that former Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, renamed her from Joy of the Senate (once bestowed by David Mark in the 6th Senate) to Joy of the Villa and Joy of the National Assembly.
Shouts of “Aye” and clapping of hands rented the Green Chambers amid standing ovations when Tambuwal jokingly put to question the new title he conferred on her during the event marking the Second Session of the 6th House.
Emodi pulled through a historic international conference on “Strengthening Executive-Legislative Collaboration in Governance”, which brought eggheads like Ruth Wedgwood, Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, John Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA; Senator Norm Coleman, Former Member, U.S Senate; Hon. Andrew Michael Holness, M.P, Minority Leader of Jamaica Parliament and former Prime Minister; and Ms. Baleka Mbete, Chairperson, African National Congress, former Deputy President of South Africa, and former Speaker, National Assembly of South Africa, etc.
But as earlier stated, she would not join in fanning the embers of executive-legislative feud. On one of the occasions that Labaran Maku and Ahmed Gulak badmouthed NASS, particularly Senate leadership, David Mark was so pained he warned Jonathan to beware of Fifth Columnists.
Emodi, a pacifist, quickly issued a statement declaring that “those (presidential aides) to whom the statements were credited, were on their own and never spoke the mind of Mr. President”.
She was, however, eventually removed rather unceremoniously. But she went home with head and shoulders high. Unfortunately for Jonathan, he couldn’t venture into NASS after Emodi’s removal as it became too hot for him to handle.
…she comes from the wrong tribe and a region that gave President Buhari the proverbial 5 percent votes. That is the reason Nigeria remains a crawling giant.
Ex-Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, laid subsequent budget proposals. Sometimes, you don’t know the value of what you have until you lose it.
Sadly, today, Emodi’s experience, integrity, principled life and passion for Nigeria’s progress cannot be brought to bear on the National Assembly Service Commission, though this time for a different reason: she comes from the wrong tribe and a region that gave President Buhari the proverbial 5 percent votes. That is the reason Nigeria remains a crawling giant.
Distinguished, you have nothing more to prove. Posterity will always bear you out as a resounding administrator, lawmaker per excellence, a no-nonsense woman, and lover of God, country, and humanity. Happy birthday, Adadioramma.
Ideagu writes from Onitsha
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