Majority Whip of the Senate, Sola Adeyeye, represents Osun Central Senatorial District. He tells LEKE BAIYEWU about his life as a university lecturer in the United States and as a lawmaker at the National Assembly
How long have you been a member of the National Assembly?
I came into the National Assembly in 2003 as a member of the House of Representatives. Thereafter, I contested the 2007 general election which I believed was rigged in favour of my opponent. But I thank God that four years later, in 2011, I won by a landslide and came back to the National Assembly – this time to the Senate. I won again in 2015. I am now in the Senate by the grace of God as the Chief Chip, also known as the Majority Whip.
What duties come with being the Chief or Majority Whip?
The duty of the Chief Whip is to maintain discipline within the chamber. The Chief Whip in Nigeria doubles as the Majority Whip. That means it is my responsibility to keep my party (caucus) together on matters of party interest within the legislature and to be sure that the wishes of my party prevail. For example, if there are issues that are dear to our President – issues that he would like to be pushed through in the legislature, it is my duty to help him win on such issues?
How easy is the task?
It has been a tough battle in that regard, unfortunately. From the very beginning, our party had a serious problem in the elections that produced the presiding officers – that is President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate. There were two camps but eventually, one camp prevailed. But the contestation produced some bad blood, not only between members of the Senate but members of the party in the Senate as well as members of the Executive and the Legislature; to the extent that certain actions by the government were overwhelmingly perceived in the Senate as persecution of this arm of government. We thank God that lately, we are beginning to see an end to that but whether we do or not, we have less than two years left in office. And I hope that the lessons that we have learnt from the extremely factional fractures in the last over two years will never again repeat itself in the near future.
You are usually the first voice to be heard from the chamber whenever there is plenary, calling each of the senators to settle down for the day’s business. Are you satisfied with the level of decorum by your colleagues?
No, I cannot be. You are talking to a man who, for many years, lived his life in the academia. I was a university teacher and when you are in a classroom, you are used to maintaining decorum. Throughout my years in the United States of America, my students knew that I gripped my classroom with a commanding presence and maintained a certain level of discipline. Unfortunately, if you are a governor, you are in charge of your cabinet. When you walk in, everybody stands up and they respect your wishes, and you can dismiss any one of them who does not behave himself or herself according to your wishes. But that is not the case in the Legislature. Yes, the Senate President has avenues to exercise discipline but primarily, he is a first among equals. He cannot dismiss any of us.
Right now, we can only suspend people but I actually pray that in the future, we can get rid of that rule. I don’t believe in it; I don’t believe that people should be suspended unless they are bringing outright chaos to the chamber; unless their presence will bring anarchy into the chamber. I think people should not be suspended.
Does it mean you are not satisfied with the suspension of the former Majority Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, by the Senate?
I am not going to comment on that. I am part of the leadership and I played my role. Someday, I will write about my role but the issue I am talking about now is the principle of it generally. If I misbehave now and you send me out, you may say the lesson is that it will teach Osun people not to send a man who will misbehave to the National Assembly. But what if there is a conspiracy against me? What if there is a court (or panel) that decides to try me unfairly and send me out? At the end of the day, the process (leading to suspension of a member) is also political. And in the corridors of politics and power, things are not always what they seem.
With your experiences in the USA and Nigeria, what are the major differences you have seen in terms of politics and lawmaking?
In the USA to start with, most people who end up in the Senate are well-settled men and women. I am not saying that they are all wealthy but many of them are wealthy – many of the USA senators are former governors and extremely wealthy. Those who complain that former governors are now in the Senate don’t know what they are talking about. Really, in the USA, a senator is senior to a governor. It is like you are bringing the experience that you have had in your state in terms of governance to the national level. So, you will have the best of minds putting their service for the nation. But there, unfortunately, sometimes it is the reverse. The Senate is perceived by some people as a stepping stone to becoming a governor. We have seen examples of that. A few of the current governors used to be senators.
One of the things you will find out in the USA –people don’t realise this – is that to a large extent, it is a government on cruise control. What I mean by that is that every four years, they go through their presidential election but that election is just to determine how to spend less than 20 per cent of the Federal Government’s budget. The 80 per cent is already determined and there is nothing anybody can do about it. You can tinker with it a little here and there but most of the government of the USA is fixed. No matter who comes in (as president), you are not likely to do too much damage to the social security. It is about the institutions. But here, the government is into everything and the result is that everything almost becomes a survivalist battle.
From being a scholar in the USA to becoming a politician in Nigeria, did you experience any culture shock?
Yes, I did. I experienced culture shock in the sense that I was away for a long time. I must also be honest that much of what I experience is expected, and I have made up my mind on how to tackle them. When I was a local government chairman, usually I got to work at 7am and by 8am, I was at the gate to take a roll of latecomers. Eventually, everybody knew they had to come to work on time. Here in the Senate, when we used to sign the register – before I became a principal officer, there were three or four of us who were usually the earliest to come: the late David Kuta from Niger State, Senator (Babajide) Omoworare from my state, myself and one other. Even now, it is rare for me not to get to work at 7.30am. Part of it is that I don’t like traffic. All my life, I go to bed early and wake up early; usually by 4am I am up and my breakfast is over by 5am and I leave for work. It allows me to do some reading.
You talked earlier about my strenuous efforts to bring decorum to the Senate. The truth is that most parliaments are not the most decorous of people. The reason is that you are co-equals. But for me, I would want a parliament that says the Senate is supposed to start at 10 o’clock and at exactly 10 o’clock, we start.
Which of the motions or bills sponsored by you is your favourite?
One of the greatest joys of my life is that I was the one who brought the constitution amendment on reducing the age of participating in politics by our young people. As you know, currently, you cannot be a senator in Nigeria until the age of 40 and you cannot be a member of the House of Representatives until about 35. I brought the bill to reduce the requirement for membership of the House of Representatives to 25, and to reduce the membership of the Senate to 30 or 35. I argued that if you are old enough to become an officer in your country, commanding a sizeable portion of the military; or if you are old enough to be a medical doctor and have life of others at your disposal, then you have the maturity to be able to represent your people in the parliament. I also argued that the parliament is not where one person takes the decision. If you have a bad idea, there is enough presence in the parliament to correct you and you will learn from it.
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