On vacant Senate seats and the passing of Biyi Bandele

1Drama in a depleted senate

The Nigerian Senate has been a scene of some drama of late. A few days ago, the Senate decided to move a motion to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to address the insecurity balkanising the country into pockets of territories held by terrorists and bandits.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan’s attempt to railroad that motion into a dead end, was resisted by some of the senators, who, like the rest of Nigerians, have grown concerned over the state of the nation.

They staged a walkout, and later, started chanting “Buhari must go.” Eventually, they settled on giving the president a six-week ultimatum to handle the insecurity in the country or be impeached.

Will they actually impeach the president? I have little faith in that coming off, to be honest. While they are angry, especially after terrorists threatened the Federal Capital, and to abduct lawmakers, and demand the president take action, I imagine it is an attempt to show their outrage and give the president a much-needed kick in the rump. If that fails, I suppose loyalists like the Senate President will placate the other senators to allow the president to finish his tenure and retire to his farm. This move will be advertised as being in the best interest of the nation.

While this debate rages, it is worthy of note that the Senate is somewhat depleted. And has been for months.

In the last few months, three senators have vacated their seats in the Red Chamber to pursue other private political goals. Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa) and Abubakar Kyari (Borno) have abandoned their posts to take on new ones as the chairman and deputy chairman of the ruling All-Progressives Congress.

In March, Senator Muhammad Hassan Nasiha was appointed the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State and surrendered his senate seat to take his place in the Zamfara Government House. Good for Zamfara and maybe good for his constituents, especially if he succeeds his principal as governor.

But the surrendered seats have remained vacant since these resignations occurred. This means that their constituencies have remained blind and voiceless in the National Assembly. It may seem like nothing but at this crucial juncture in the country’s history, it would be sad for important decisions, say the hypothetical impeachment of the president to be taken without representation from all parts of the country. However, on a more serious note, all constituencies should be represented in a country where anything could happen at any moment, like bandits sacking an entire town or occupying it.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not fixed a date for by-elections to replace these senators. What is their reason? I am not sure because to the best of my knowledge, INEC has not made any reason public. Granted they may be busy preparing for the 2023 elections, but there should be contingency plans for such situations.

Much has been made of the provision of Section 76 (2) of the constitution that provides for INEC to set a date to fill this position “Not later than thirty days after the vacancy occurred.”

Here we are, four months after, and INEC has not commenced plans for by-elections. The only logical reason there could be for the delay is if the Senate President has not confirmed the senators’ resignation from their position to the commission.

In either case, it is imperative now that whatever steps need to be taken to fill the vacancies in the Senate should be taken. This is a dire period for Nigerians with different parts of the country suffering different aches. Without representation, some of these parts might go on suffering for a while without a voice to take their cries to the centre.

Whatever the case, INEC needs to do the needful. Just in case that impeachment ordeal is going to play out for or against the president, every part of the country should have a say in it.

2.     Biyi Bandele’s painful exit

On Tuesday morning, upon checking my email, I was shocked to find someone asking for my reaction to the death of the author, Biyi Bandele. I did a double take, did a basic search and discovered, very much to my shock, that it is true. Biyi is gone. His death had been announced the night before by his daughter.

Biyi came to fame in the 90s when his debut, The Man from the Back of Beyond, was published. But I suppose his phenomenal novel, Burma Boy, which was one of the few novels that document the untold stories of Nigerian soldiers, of which his father was one, who fought in World War II, that catapulted him to global fame.

In recent years, the Kafanchan-born Biyi, also a renowned playwright who lived most of his adult life in the UK, had occupied himself with filmmaking and photography. He directed the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, Fifty and most recently, alongside Kenneth Gyang, he directed the much-talked-about Netflix Original Blood Sisters. And this was only recent.

Since his return to Nigeria, Biyi has been producing some scintillating street photos of Lagos, some of which can be seen on his Facebook page. His photographic interpretations of Lagos cast the city in an enchanting light that evokes a feeling of admiration and pride in the chaotic behemoth that Lagos is and the ordinary people who live there. It has been rewarding and satisfying to see Lagos through Biyi’s eyes and that is a service he has rendered to that city. The city in which he died on Sunday.

My first encounter with Biyi was of course through his books. But I had the chance to engage with him in 2011 or thereabout. As the Arts Editor of the Sunday Trust at the time, I reached out to him requesting an interview. He agreed instantly. He was in the UK and I was in Abuja. Thanks to technology, we had the interview over the internet. From that engagement, it was easy to see how much of a gentleman Biyi was, how assured he was in his self-awareness and how kind he was as a person. In no time, he was calling me Abu, as if we had known each other for a long time.

Over the years, our interactions have been cordial and mutually respectful if very infrequent. It was only after his death that I realised we had never actually met in person. The irony of the age we live in. Sadly, that meeting will never happen.

Nigeria has lost a brilliant, creative mind, a fine gentleman and a champion of the arts. Rest in Peace, Biyi.