Nigerians literally elected a brand new Senate on March 28, and with 76 senators of the 109-member Red Chamber not returning, many wonder how this will impact on the 8th Senate.


Andrew Essien takes a look at some of the key newcomers.


A day after the 2015 presidential and National Assembly polls, it became clear that the members of the National Assembly and power equation for the 8th Senate had been irrevocably altered and that power had changed hands: the broom has swept out the umbrella in terms of control of the Senate.


Interestingly, 60 of the senators have been elected on the APC platform and 49 from the PDP.

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Three of the eight female senators are of the APC. They include Oluremi Tinubu, who is a ranking member of the Red Chamber from the Lagos Central Senatorial District; the incumbent speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Alhaja Monsurat Sunmonu, and Binta Masi Garba from Adamawa North.


The five other women are PDP and newcomers to the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.


Anambra and Ekiti states produced two each and the other is from Cross River State.


Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central) is a House of Representatives member while Stella Oduah (Anambra North) is the former aviation minister.


The two women elected senators from Ekiti are Abiodun Olujimi (Ekiti South), who was Governor Ayodele Fayose’s deputy from 2003 to October 16, 2006, when they were impeached, and Fatima Raji-Rasaki (Ekiti Central), a House of Representatives member between 2003 and 2007.


Since 1999, the National Assembly and indeed the Senate have not witnessed the sort of makeover that the 8th Senate will present. In a classical show of power, the same people whom the lawmakers claim to represent kicked them out with their inked thumbs resulting in several hitherto heavyweights tumbling out of the chamber, hence creating room for fresh faces in the Senate across the six geopolitical zones.
South-South


Rose Oko (PDP, Cross River North)
Dr. Oko is moving from the Lower Chamber to the Upper Chamber having represented Ogoja/Yala federal constituency in the 7th National Assembly. A former Federal Commissioner for Refugees, ex-National Electoral Commissioner and one-time Commissioner for Education in Cross River State, Oko was elected on the platform of the PDP to represent the North Senatorial District of Cross River State.


With a demure personality, many had feared she might not stand the rigours of the campaigns owing to some health challenges.


Godswill Akpabio (PDP, Akwa Ibom West)
The Akwa Ibom State governor and outgoing chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum enjoys a lot of goodwill from both within and outside his state. He is expected to bring to the Senate all the transformational experience he garnered in Akwa Ibom State.


Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP, Bayelsa East)
With the election of Ben Bruce into the Nigerian Senate, the Niger Delta region may have found a voice to tell its story, its challenges and indeed its history. Armed with a degree in Marketing and Business at the University of Southern Carolina, Bruce, a former director-general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), now has a national platform to promote his ideas which are usually revolutionary.
South-East


Uche Ekwenife (PDP, Anambra Central)
Mrs Ekwunife is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing Anocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia federal constituency. A two-term member of the lower house, Ekwunife’s elevation to the upper chamber is a good omen for Anambra politics. She is a vocal, intelligent and experienced lawmaker with a good record of achievements.


Stella Oduah (PDP, Anambra North)
The former aviation minister will be experiencing legislative business for the first time as an insider. One of the three PDP senators from Anambra State, Oduah will hopefully bring her political and business acumen into lawmaking.


The former minister is mostly remembered for her controversial purchase of two bullet proof cars which led to her sack from the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.



Theodore Orji (PDP, Abia North)
On April 14, 2007, Orji emerged governor of Abia State and thus made history as the first governor in the history of Nigeria to win his election while in detention. Governor Orji had served in Government House, Umuahia, Bureau of Budget and Planning and Ministry of Agriculture and seconded to the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), now INEC, Abia State, as administrative secretary. He was later redeployed to Enugu State in 1997 where he supervised the elections that ushered in the democratic government in the state in 1999. The man popularly called Ochendo goes to the Senate with a lot of public service experience after eight years as governor.
North-West


Rabiu Kwankwaso (APC, Kano Central)
Kwankwaso, 58, is one man that has seen it all in the Nigerian political firmament. Bold, strong-willed and a dogged fighter, the Kano State governor’s experience will be useful to the upper chamber as he comes into the legislative house with valuable experience as former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, eight years’ experience as a two-term governor of the most populated state in the northern region, Kano, and a four-year experience as Nigeria’s minister of defence.


Aliyu Wamakko (APC, Sokoto North)
Wamakko’s presence in the Senate will be well received by political analysts as the 62-year old former governor of his home state is heading to the Red Chamber armed with decades of experience in the civil service and government.


His performance in office in the last eight years no doubt paved the way for his smooth entry to the Senate.


Comrade Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central)
Sani is an author, a playwright and the president of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, a human rights organization based in Kaduna. He was a leading figure in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria during which he was arrested and jailed by past successive military regimes. He was released from life imprisonment when democracy was restored to Nigeria in 1999.


Sani is a member, African Union African Peer Review Mechanism and member, United Nations Reform Committee. He was appointed by the president as a member of Presidential Committee on Prison Reforms, Presidential Committee on the Control of Violent Crimes and Illegal Weapons, Presidential Committee on Petroleum Products Prices, Presidential Committee on Conflict Resolution, member, Niger State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, member, National Political Reform Conference, member, Charles Taylor Investigation Committee.


He was also appointed by the Nigerian government as a board member of Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).



Sani is expected to bring his wealth of experience in the business of lawmaking and public governance.


North-Central
Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West)
Melaye is a very popular politician, especially among Nigerian youths, because of his active presence in the social media. He revived his battered image as a House of Representatives member (he was seen exchanging blows with other lawmakers in the chamber), when he aligned with the progressives and started giving the outgoing Goodluck Jonathan presidency a tough time. Always at the forefront of organising protests against government policies, he defeated the incumbent senator, Smart Adeyemi.


Jonah Jang (PDP, Plateau North)
Jang voluntarily retired from the Nigeria Air Force in 1990. He took a Bachelor of Divinity Degree at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria (2000–2002). In 2007, he successfully contested the governorship election in Plateau State on PDP platform and was re-elected in 2011. He is a factional chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum even though he lost the vote by 16 votes to 19 to his rival, Governor Chibuike Amaechi.


He brings to the Senate a wealth of experience in security and administration which is needed at this time in our national life. But at 71, not a few wonder whether he still has the energy for the tedium of lawmaking or whether he is going to the Senate as a political retirement chamber. His actions over the next four years will prove which.


Jeremiah Useni (PDP, Plateau South)
Useni was a lieutenant general in the Nigerian Army and FCT minister in the Sani Abacha military junta. He served Nigeria in various capacities such as minister for transport and quarter-master general of the Nigeria Army. Useni also served as Deputy Chairman of one of the significant parties in Nigeria, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).


In May 2006, he left the ANPP to become chairman of a new party, the Democratic People’s Party, taking with him other members of the progressive wing of the ANPP. However, he was suspended indefinitely in December, 2008 for saying the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa was a national sacrifice.


Useni ran for election as Senator for Plateau South in April 2011 on the DPP platform, but was defeated by Victor Lar of the PDP. He defected to the PDP and won the April 11 election.


At 72, he is one of the oldest and most experienced politicians going to the Senate as a newcomer.


North-East
Binta Masi Garba (APC, Adamawa North)
Binta Garba is politician, businesswoman, administrator, philanthropist, humanitarian and a trained marketer and Public Financial Manager.


She was the Adamawa State APC chairman and the first female state chairman of a registered major political party in Nigeria. She was elected into the House of Representatives three times (1999 – 2011). She was the only female delegate from the Northern Nigeria to attend the National Conference in Abuja.


She is the first politician to represent two different federal constituencies at the National Assembly. She is the only female senator-elect in North Eastern Nigeria in 2015. She won a Senate seat against a sitting governor, Bala James Ngilari.


Abubakar Sani Danladi (APC, Taraba North)
Danladi is sitting acting governor who came to power after the Supreme Court declared former Taraba deputy governor, Sani Abubakar Danladi’s impeachment as illegal, null and void.


He is coming to the Senate after superintending over one of the north-east states that has witnessed security challenges.


Abdul Aziz Murtala Nyako (APC, Adamawa Central)
A retired naval officer and son of the impeached governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, is coming into the Senate with a wealth of experience from both the military and business worlds.


South-West
Fatimat Raji-Rasaki (PDP, Ekiti Central)
Hon. Raji-Rasaki, a lawyer by training, is another of the amazons in the Senate making a switch from the House of Representatives. Prior to her elevation, she was representing Ekiti Central, Ado and Irepodun/Ifelodun Federal Constituency 1.
Raji-Rasaki, wife of former military governor of Lagos State, Major General Raji Rasaki, is not new to legislative business and could be good bargain for the PDP and Ekiti.


Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South)
The senator-elect is a woman that has seen it all. She has been commissioner for works, House of Representatives member, ex-deputy governor and acting governor when Governor Ayo Fayose was impeached during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.


Olujimi is expected to be one to watch out for in the 8th Senate owing to her wealth of experience in governance.


Prince Buruji Kashamu (PDP, Ogun East)
Kashamu was declared the winner having beaten the APC candidate, Prince Adedapo Abiodun at the polls. Kashamu’s victory was the most unlikely permutation in the state, facing up to Abiodun, an oil mogul, who ran a well-oiled campaign.


Kashamu defeated the incumbent and a former senator, Senator Adegbenga Kaka and Senator Gbenga Obadara.