By: Ayandare Ibrahim
The Senate sitting held on Friday, 20th of October, 2023 was a blockbuster between the Senate and the Executive president of the association. The Senate president, Sen. Alimi Yusuf and his senators were offended the executive arm of the association attended a program ( Sebi Oba) and presented an award to the organizer of the event without ratification of the House. According to the House, the action is a form of illegality which does not follow the constitutional tenets of the association.
While reporting on the state of the association, the executive president, Mr Victor Johnson, reported that “from a program (Sebi Oba) we went last week, we got a donation of over forty thousand naira and also presented the host of the event an award”. However, when quizzed, the President explained that the association was not exclusively invited to the event, rather an open invitation was thrown to NAPSSites. Also, he explained that he attended the event with some members of his cabinet not to represent the association but to represent “the executive organ of the association” and the award presented to the host was not presented on behalf of the association. He explained the award was an award from himself and his cabinet(executive council) to the host and not from the association to the host.
His explanations disappeared into thin air and none of the Senators present at the sitting agreed with his views. The more he explained the more confusing his explanations and arguments became. At the end of the day, the House deemed his actions to have breached some provisions of the Constitution. One of the major provisions breached was Article 27. There are three sections in Article 27, and these sections were “allegedly” breached by the President and his cabinet. Article 27 states; “ Prizes and certificates of merit shall be awarded to members of the Association who have diligently served in the past or present at a general forum i.e. annual week/dinner/swearing-in ceremonies. The list of awardees shall be presented to the senate for screening. Any member of the Association who is short-listed for award and not approved by the senate shall not be given an award’’.
The deputy Senate President, Sen. Sunday Noah, also raised that the action of the executive President breached Article 4 Section 2 of the NAPSS constitution which states “honorary membership shall be ratified by the Senate.” He explained to the House that what the president did was conferring an honorarium and was a breach of the Constitution. “If anything were to happen, the association will be held responsible.”
Deterring disciplinary measures were proposed by some of the senators during the seating, Sen. Noah proposed the president should pay a fine of five thousand naira within two weeks and failure to do so should warrant his suspension while Sen. Joshua proposed his power should be restricted. To wrap it all up the senate President said the issues should be transferred to the House disciplinary committee.
In a chat with the executive President after the sitting, he told our correspondent he would be appearing before the House disciplinary committee and would abide by their decision.
