The Senate yesterday rejected an interim report by the ad hoc committee raised to investigate clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.
Committee Chairman Senator Kabiru Gaya, who presented the report, called on Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to release previous white paper reports on the crisis.
Gaya, who noted that 70 per cent of policemen posted to the area are indigenes, condemned the trend and called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to correct the imbalance. The call was stoutly rejected by the lawmakers.
Deputy President of the Senate Ike Ekweremadu urged his colleagues to reject the report, insisting that the committee be mandated to go back and do a thorough job and come up with a realistic report.
Ekweremadu said the report failed to address certain salient issues the committee was mandated to address, noting that arms proliferation, which was rampant among Fulani herdsmen, was omitted in its report.
He said: “I consider this issue very serious. We must accord it the seriousness it deserves. The committee has confirmed that the killings happened; the recommendations need to reflect more on the seriousness of this matter.
“I understand clearly that the chairman of the committee needs more time to do more work to show the whole world that this Senate is serious about this matter. Looking at the recommendations, they do not reflect the seriousness of the matter like I said.
“Suggesting that we use money from the Service Wide Vote to handle this matter shows that we do not understand the relevance of that fund.
“Today, we are talking about arms proliferation; we have a whistle blowing policy; we need to direct it more on those keeping arms. We were told the Nigeria Customs Service intercepted arms but till today, we have not been told who imported the arms.
“We cannot sit back and allow our women and children to be killed every day. This matter is serious enough for the committee to go back and do more work.”
Senator Barnabas Gemade agreed with Ekweremadu in faulting the committee’s report.
Gemade faulted the recommendation asking for special grazing routes for herdsmen while neglecting the plight of farmers.
Senate President Bukola Saraki urged the committee to accommodate issues raised and come up with a clean report. He admonished them to be time conscious.
Tag: Senate
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Senate rejects report on Southern Kaduna crisis
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Senate wants police, military to rid Lagos of kidnappers
THE Senate yesterday resolved to ask the Federal Government to mandate the Army, Navy and other security agencies to assist the police in its quest to rid Lagos State, particularly the creeks in Lagos East, of criminal syndicates.
It urged the government to direct the inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to instruct the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, to beef up the strength of the task force constituted to secure the affected creeks and communities.
The Senate advised the government to direct Idris to make available sufficient helicopters for aerial surveillance and gunboats to the Marine department of the Lagos State Police Command to enable it to tackle activities of militants.
The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion on “the urgent need for the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies to intervene in the increased rate of kidnapping in the Lagos East Senatorial District and securing the water ways”.
Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East), who sponsored the motion, noted the increase of criminal syndicates, which specialise in kidnapping/militancy in and around communities in Lagos East, particularly Kosofe, Epe, Ikorodu and Ibeju Lekki local government areas.
Ashafa said criminals have forced law-abiding residents of coastal/riverine communities to flee.
He expressed concern that on Friday, April 7, Mr. Ademola Salami, a 42-year-old plank dealer, was kidnapped in Ise community in Ibeju Lekki area by a gang of seven dare-devil abductors, who escaped in a gunboat via the river.
The abductors, he said, demanded N100 million as ransom for his release.
Ashafa said: “The situation is now so bad that even prominent citizens of Ise community, including HRM, Kabiyesi Onise of Ise, Oba Ganiyu Adegbesan, has had to vacate the community due to the level of insecurity in the area.”
He said it is disturbing that for the past seven years, a divisional police station commissioned in Ise had been a ghost of itself as no police officers were deployed there until the recent attack.
He noted that a publication had the report of the case of two sand dredgers, who were kidnapped in Ibeju Lekki by kidnappers that also stormed the community in a gunboat.
Ashafa recalled that between April and July, 2016, there were reports of militant activities in some communities in Ikorodu, including Elepete, Agbede, Ishawo and Igbo-Olomu, which led to the death of residents.
He said the militants were equally reported to have stormed the communities through the creeks using gunboats.
The lawmaker said he was “alarmed that the recent kidnap incidents have assumed a totally new and disturbing dimension in the sense that on April 9, an army Captain, identified as Muhammed, two other rank soldiers, four policemen, and a civilian lost their lives after suspected militants attacked Ishawo, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
“The late security operatives were responding to a distress call after the militants stormed and kidnapped some residents of Woodland Estate, close to the Ishawo creeks with about 10 speedboats, according to reports relayed online.
“It was also reported that other innocent citizens, who were seriously injured are now receiving treatment at the Ikorodu General Hospital,” he lamented.
He said it was obvious that the activities of the criminal syndicates have caused untold hardship to the people of senatorial district, adding that the intervention of the Federal Government was urgently required. -
Senate rejects report on Southern Kaduna crisis
The Senate on Tuesday rejected report on the Southern Kaduna crisis for lack of depth.
The Senate had in January set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the causes of the crisis which killed hundreds of people and displaced millions in Southern Kaduna.
Details later…
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Senate, Magu and anti-graft war
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) could not have asked for more. With a majority in the National Assembly, getting what it wants from the legislature should not be a problem. So, many thought. But rather than work together, the Presidency and the Senate, especially, have been working at cross-purposes. 12 of the 109-member Senate are either being tried or investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies. Senate President Bukola Saraki is being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false assets declaration. The Senate’s rejection of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC Chairman, for the second time last month, has raised a question of how fair the upper chamber was to him. Can the Senate be trusted to help President Muhammadu Buhari in the ongoing anti-corruption war? ERIC IKHILAE sought lawyers’ views.
ALMOST two years in the saddle, the Muhammadu Buhari-led government, whose policy thrust is anchored on the elimination of corruption has yet to make major breakthroughs and many are blaming the Senate for this.
The government is finding it difficult to establish a robust legal framework to drive its anti-corruption efforts. Today, many bills sent to the Senate in this regard have been left unattended to.
The executive resorted to an administrative policy when the Senate did not pass the Whistle-Blowing Bill, intended to provide legal backing for whistle-blowers and also protect them.
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN), in a television programme, expressed the executive’s frustration with the Legislature’s posture.
Malami said the National Assembly’s failure to pass the Proceed of Crime Act (POCA) Bill pending before it accounts for the Federal Government’s inability to establish a body to manage recovered assets. He said: “If Proceed of Crimes Act had been promulgated, we would have had in place an agency that would formulate policy on the management of recovered loot”.
There are many other similar bills pending before the Senate, some of which are the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and Money Laundering (Prohibition and Prevention) Bill.
To many, the Senate’s posture did not come as a surprise, because it has from inception, evinced traits that portray it as an institution averse to the Buhari government’s anti-corruption policy.
This school of thought is quick to cite the Senate’s amendment of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Act amid the trial of its president Bukola Saraki.
By the amendment, the Senate sought to subject the CCB/CCT to the control of the legislature and not of the Executive.
The Senate ignored the agitation of all, including the CCT and the Judiciary, that, for effectiveness and independence, the CCT, in particular, must be severed from the executive and retained with the Judiciary.
They also cited the Senate’s refusal to confirm the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman as another proof that it is working against the government.
The Senate, observers noted, crossed the line, when its members asked the Federal Government to discontinue Saraki’s trial before the CCT, as a condition for it’s support for the government’s policies, including the war against corruption.
How we got here
Watchers believe that two factors are responsible for all this. First, they noted, was the process leading to the emergence of the Senate leadership. Second is the composition of the Senate.
They argued that President Buhari’s seeming lack of interest in the choice of leadership of the Senate accounts for why the legislature and the executive now appear to be working apart.
According to observers, the president should from the onset have shown interest in who leads the Senate, to ensure the success of the anti-corruption war.
It may be difficult getting the Senate to key into the war because some of its members are either being tried or investigated for alleged corruption.
Senators on trial or under probe for alleged corruption
Investigation by The Nation revealed that major players in the 8th Senate are either being tried or investigated for corruption-related offences.
Some of these senators were named in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/102/2017 instituted at the Federal High Court, Abuja by businessman, Raji Oyewumi. According to Oyewunmi, they include the following:
Saraki
Oyewumi in a supporting affidavit, noted that Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki is being tried before the CCT on false assets declaration charges,
Godswill Akpabio
Senator Godswill Akpabio is being investigated on allegations of diversion and embezzlement of public funds while in office as Akwa Ibom State governor.
Aliyu Wammako
Senator Aliyu Wammako, he said, is being investigated by the EFCC in relation to alleged abuse of office, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering while in office as Sokoto State governor.
Danjuma Goje
Senator Danjuma Goje, a former governor of Gombe State, Oyewumi noted, is being tried by the EFCC for charges relating to corrupt practices and money laundering before a Federal High Court in Gombe, in a charge marked: FHC/GM/CR/33C)2011.
Joshua Dariye
Senator Joshua Dariye, Oyewumi said, is being tried by the EFCC on a charge marked: FCT/HC/81/2007 before Justice Bukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Gudu. He is accused of embezzling public funds while in office as Plateau State governor.
Adamu Abdullahi
Senator Adamu Abdullahi, Oyewumi noted, is being prosecuted in charge No: FHC/LF/CR/8/2010 before the Federal High Court in Lafia, for alleged corrupt practices offences while in office as governor of Nasarawa State.
Abdul-Aziz Nyako
Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako is being tried before the Federal High Court, Abuja, with his father, Murtala Nyako (a former governor of Adamawa State) on a 37-count charge of criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N29b.
Jonah Jang
Senator Jonah Jang, according to Oyewumi, is being investigated by the EFCC in relation to his activities as governor of Plateau State, particularly his handling of N2billion Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) loan given to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Rabiu Kwankwaso
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Oyewumi noted, is being prosecuted by the EFCC on charges related to abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds during his tenure as governor of Kano State.
Stella Oduah
Senator Stella Oduah, he stated, is being investigated by the EFCC for a contract awarded while she was Aviation Minister to I-SEC Securities Nigeria Ltd, where public funds were allegedly diverted, according to a petition by Ken Asogwa.
In October last year, Justice Adamu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja rejected Oduah’s prayer for among others, an order restraining the EFCC and other investigative agencies from arresting and prosecuting her over the controversial purchase of two armoured BMW vehicles at the cost of N255 million by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCC) under her watch as the Aviation Minister in 2013.
Theodore Orji
Senator Theodore Orji is, according to Oyewumi, is being investigated by the EFCC in relation to the alleged misappropriation of public funds while he served as Abia State governor, including the N2 billion SME loan from CBN, as contained in a petition of a group, Save Abia Initiative for Change.
Ahmed Sani
Senator Ahmed Sani, Oyewumi stated, is being investigated by the EFCC in relation to allegations of abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds while in office as Zamfara State governor.
Beyond the question marks sorrounding the financial dealings of these lawmakers in those transactions, observers argued that the 8th Senate, since its inauguration in 2015, can hardly be associated with any noble deed.
They noted that with the Senate, it has been one scandal or the other. The latest of such scandals, observers said, is the alleged importation of a bullet proof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) for the Senate President with forged documents.
Lawyers, including Wahab Shittu, Abubakar Sani, Tosin Ojaomo, Dan Ikechukwu are worried by the Senate’s posture to the government’s anti-corruption efforts, particularly in relation to Magu’s confirmation.
Senate, Magu and the courts
At the last count, about three cases have been filed, challenging the Senate’s handling of the confirmation of Magu.
In his suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/59/2017 filed on January 24, 2017 Ojaomo is contending, in the main, that the Senate President (by extension, the Senate) is without the powers to reject a nomination made by the President under Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act 2004.
Ojaomo said his suit is intended mainly to shed light on the actual role of the Senate in the confirmation of a person appointed by the President as EFCC Chairman, argued that the Senate exceeded its powers when it rejected Magu’s appointment.
“The only ground on which the Senate can reject a person appearing before it is when the person is nominated and recommended to the Senate for screening, vetting and subsequent confirmation, like a ministerial nominee.
“In the instant case, the Senate is to confirm the qualification of the appointee as sent by the President. And, where the Senate is of the view that it requires additional information in accordance with the statutory requirements stipulated by the Act, with respect to the qualification of the appointee, it can refer to the President for further clarification, but not to reject a statutory appointment validly made by the President.
“The role of the Senate in the confirmation of the appointment of a Chairman validly appointed by the President for the EFCC, according to the Act that created the commission, is to ensure that the requirements stipulated in Section 2(1)(a)(i)(ii)(iii) of the Act are duly complied with by the President in making the appointment,” Ojaomo said.
The Act, in Section 2(1)(a) (i)(ii)(iii), provides: (I) The Commission shall consist of the following members (a) a Chairman, who shall (i) be the chief executive and accounting officer of the Commission; (ii) be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; and (iii) possess not less than 15 years’ cognate experience.
Ojaomo argued that, where the necessary requirements were complied with, “the Senate is statute barred from rejecting the nominee for the office of the Chairman of the EFCC in the said Act or any law.”
He contended that the Senate erred in law when it held a plenary session and decided to reject a valid nomination made by the President pursuant to his powers under a valid law.
Ojaomo added that it was only the President that could decide who to appoint as the EFCC Chairman and not the Senate.
He argued that, the President, having exercised his powers under the EFCC Act to appoint a qualified person for the office of the EFCC Chairman, in compliance with the provisions in sections 2(1)(a)(i)(ii)(iii) and 2(3) of the Act, the Senate has no further say on the choice of a person so appointed.
Ojaomo wants the court to declare that the Senate has confirmed Magu’s appointment in accordance with the provisions of the EFCC Act 2004. He also seeks a declaration that the Senate lacks the statutory power to reject Magu’s appointment as the EFCC Chairman.
He also wants an order, activating its statutory powers for the interpretation of the provisions of sections 2(1)(a)(i)(ii)(iii) and 2(3) of the EFCC Act in relation to appointment of EFCC Chairman and Senate’s confirmation of such appointment, within the dictates of the law.
Infuriated by the Senate’s handling of Magu’ case case, Abuja-based lawyer, Abubakar Sani has asked the Federal High Court to nullify the provision under Section 2(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act subjecting the nomination of the President for the Chairman of the EFCC to the confirmation of the Senate.
In his suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/278/2017, filed on April 4, 2017 in Abuja, Sani wants the court to declare that, to the extent that Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act purports to subject the appointment of the EFCC Chair, by the President, to the confirmation of the Senate, the provision in the EFFC Act is ultra vires and invalid, on the ground that it is inconsistent with the spirit and intendment of the Constitution in Section 216 (2).
Sani argued that the intention of the provision of Section 216(2) of the Constitution was to give the President a free hand in appointing the heads of law enforcement agencies, without such appointment being subject to confirmation by any person/authority.
Oyewumi, in his suit filed on February 13, queried the moral standing of Saraki and other senators being investigated and tried for alleged corruption related offences as it relates to issues concerning the decision on whether or not to confirm Magu.
The plaintiff’s contention is that, since the Senators are either being tried or investigated for economic and financial crimes by the EFCC, Magu will not be afforded fair hearing by the Senate.
Shittu, a legal practitioner and Law teacher at the University of Lagos, noted that although the senators being investigated and prosecuted are presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, it is naturally impossible for Magu to receive fair hearing before the Senate headed by Saraki and composed of others being similarly tried and investigated.
The solution
A lawyer, Joel Chukwuma, argued that President Buhari possesses the capacity to overcome the challenge currently posed by the Senate to the success of his anti -graft war.
“If the President is serious about achieving success in his fight against corruption, he needs to act. He cannot just sit there and pretend things will fall in place. In politics, particularly under our clime where it is seen as a game of life and death, things do not fall in place on their own.
“Honestly, I am disappointed in the turn of events. It betrays the president’s political naivety. How did President Buhari expect a Senate, led by someone (whose name is associated in almost everything negative) and populated by individuals (who are either being probed or prosecuted) to support him in fighting corruption?
“It is either the President learn to act appropriately, by taking the necessary measures, which I believe he knows, or we forget about the ant-graft war,” Chulwuma said.
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Magu, Senate and ‘Ichabod’ Presidency
“Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has departed from Israel’ because the ark of God had been captured and because of her (woebegone) father-in-law and her husband.”-1 Samuel 4:21, The Holy Bible NKJV.
The audience of the theatre of the absurd always suffer the peculiar dilemma of not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the spectacle before their eyes. So it is with the Nigerian public which has been forced to witness the farce that was the two unsuccessful attempts by President Buhari to get the statutorily mandatory Senate confirmation for his anti-corruption czar Ibrahim Magu. In the discordant din of whether or not Mr. Magu was a ‘performer’ and/or whether or not the Senate was right in its decision, what appears lost on the vast majority of Nigerians is the true purport of the event: a most egregious example of a disorientated, indecisive and indeed probably irredeemably disabled Presidency.
The United States President Donald Trump famously dismissed Jeb Bush and some of his other opponents for the U.S. Presidency last year as being of ‘low energy’. In keeping with his own self- proclaimed high energy persona, he had his cabinet choices ready before his inauguration for office. It struck me at the time that merely a day after his inauguration Mr. Trump had got the United States Senate to confirm his defence secretary (minister), and who was already at the Pentagon to start work the following day (a Saturday).
The loquacious Mr. Trump would certainly be short of words were he to categorise his Nigerian counterpart who took over six months to assemble his nondescript cabinet. Given that candidate Buhari could be said to have run for, and was elected to, the Nigerian Presidency on only one major issue of anti-corruption, the least expected was that he would have been ready with his choice of the person to drive the fight against corruption immediately upon his assumption of office. However President Buhari took all of seven months to appoint Mr. Magu as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC], the lead anti-corruption fight agency. As incomprehensible as this tardiness was, the President made matters worse by the strategic error of not promptly getting Mr. Magu confirmed and in the event did not send his name to the Senate for confirmation until after another seven months in July 2016. Even then, the deed was done by the Vice President Osinbajo as Acting President at the time President Buhari was overseas on medical vacation.
Meanwhile, Mr. Magu who had been in occupation of the office in an acting capacity appears to have been uncompromising in his pursuit of our too many larcenous politicians and business people who seem hell bent on stealing the rest of us into extinction. With the National Assembly, especially the Senate, seemingly the natural habitat of a great percentage of these characters, Mr. Magu even at the best of times was always going to find it very difficult obtaining the senatorial confirmation. As it turned out, the Department of State Security [DSS] appeared on the scene as a willing and effective agent provocateur.
Beyond the persistent rumours of a civil war within President Buhari’s kitchen cabinet, it became starkly clear to all perceptive observers that there was no love lost between the DSS and EFCC when the latter testified before a National Assembly committee that it was beyond the DSS remit to raid judges’ homes supposedly to stamp out judicial corruption. The problem had obviously gone beyond understandable inter agency rivalry. However, whatever the state of the relationship between both agencies it was inconceivable in the circumstances for the DSS to author a report which trenchantly denied Mr. Magu’s fitness for the office of EFCC Chairman. But that is what happened in the event.
In the foregoing vein it is a safe, even probably irrebutable, presumption that Mr. Magu enjoyed the President’s trust and approval in the circumstances, otherwise which he would not have been appointed in the first place. Similarly, it is axiomatic that the DSS and EFCC are not only agencies of the Executive branch/Presidency, they share special kinship in the sense of being merely different manifestations of the law enforcement responsibility of the Nigerian state. And both are under the superintendence of the National Security Adviser. Given these facts therefore, and assuming that its position was not considered ever before the nomination, the least expected in the circumstances was that the contrary report of the DSS on Mr. Magu should have first gone through an internal bureaucratic filtration process and by which, depending on the substance of the case against Mr. Magu, either the report would have been discarded or the nomination quietly withdrawn. That way, the President would have been saved the monumental and unprecedented embarrassment and very public humiliation.
Instead of an adequately decisive response, and reiterating the stupidity of any person holding or thinking of holding the tiger by its tail, the President rather like a punch-drunk boxer ponderously announced his mandate to the Attorney-General of the Federation to investigate the allegations levelled against Mr. Magu in the DSS report. Rather predictably, the Attorney-General returned a ‘not guilty’ verdict, Nigerians were told, and upon which Mr. Magu’s name was resubmitted for senatorial confirmation. Yet again, the DSS stuck to its guns that he lacked the requisite integrity and was not fit for the office.
The Senate’s humiliating rejection of Mr. Magu of course cast him in pathetic light; it is always a sorry sight watching the hunter being hunted down. But the matter is way beyond Magu the person. News reports were recently awash with the spectacle of one young man who had the temerity to sit on the stool of the Tor Tiv during the monarch’s installation ceremony in Markurdi. According to newspaper reports, he has since been promptly tried in a court of law and sentenced to some years imprisonment. I do not know the specific offence he was charged with but it certainly revolves round his perceived disrespect, desecration even, of a revered stool. However, those who enabled or conjured President Buhari’s predicament in the Magu palaver did worse: they contrived to undress the President in public.
It beggars belief that President Buhari and his handlers apparently do not realize the dreadful and lasting damage inflicted upon his Presidency in the circumstances of the Senate’s rejection of Mr. Magu. Decisive remedial measures were required to be taken to reassert the Presidency’s severely besmirched image and authority. I made the point at the time, and became even more convinced by subsequent events, that President Buhari had no justification at all resubmitting Mr. Magu’s name to the Senate without first sacking all those in the DSS involved in penning and sending the anti-Magu report to the Senate. Nothing less would do.
Resubmission of Mr. Magu’s name for senatorial confirmation and retention of the DSS leadership were, and remain, mutually exclusive unless the design is to turn government into a sick joke. Indeed if Mr. Magu is found to be corrupt, as alleged by the DSS, then the matter should go beyond promptly dropping him from further consideration for the job but he should also be prosecuted. At any rate, and given the heavily polluted water under the bridge in this case, it is inconceivable for the headship of both the EFCC and DSS to remain unchanged. Corruption-manifesting mainly in economic and financial crimes-may well be the biggest extant threat to Nigerian national security and there is therefore considerable coalescence in the objectives of both organisations.
That there must be complete cooperation between them is therefore an article of faith for the Nigerian state. However, the headship of the EFCC and DSS are burdened by deep seated mutual distrust and have freely and openly exchanged charges of lack of integrity. It is thus unquestionably in our overall national interest that at least one must be sent away from office. The coach of a professional football team cannot have his two central defence partners not talking to each other and expect anything other than calamitous results. One, if not both, of the central defenders must be sold for the team to make any progress.
One lesson observable from the unfolding tragedy of the Buhari Presidency is that is that the problem is all self-inflicted. There were loud protests when President Buhari insouciantly restricted his kitchen cabinet to what could be called a band of ‘Kanuri-Daura and allied’ irredentists. As so insensitively lopsided as the appointments were, I had counseled the exercise of patience and understanding for the taciturn infantry general. If only his kinsmen and women and those of his mother are the persons who would best assist him in getting Nigeria on the right track, then so be it. Well, the jury has returned and the verdict is devastating. Team Buhari is failing spectacularly and it appears the major reason is his insularity and nepotism.
It does appear that the members of the President’s inner circle of power and influence acknowledge at a subconscious level that they did not need any qualification more than close family or such ties to him to occupy their exalted offices. Hence, their seeming lack of determination to justify themselves on the basis of stellar performance and overall merit. It is against this background of insouciance that we can understand why exalted officers of state would be so oblivious of the responsibilities of appearance on the national stage, and choosing to indulge in their petty personal and or clannish quarrels to our collective detriment. In this free-wheeling, ethics-free milieu it becomes a legitimate question if the fight against corruption is still alive. The buck however stops on President Buhari’s desk. At the news of Governor El Rufai’s letter of admonitions to him and listening to Emir Lamido Sanusi’s repeated advise on how Buhari could pick up the baton-which has so obviously fallen from his grasp-one becomes hopeful that the falcon may yet hear the falconer. Otherwise, we may discover to our collective doom that time may have passed for the best advice to Buhari, and which would have been that offered by Cardinal Wolsey to Thomas Cromwell:
“Mark but my fall, and that that ruin’d me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels;…..be just and fear not. Let all the ends though aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.”-Shakespeare, Henry VIII; act III, sc.2.
- Okoli, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is a past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch.
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Senate on edge
Recent events in the Senate are putting the upper legislative chamber under severe strain. Like a city on edge, the Eight Senate is, no doubt, passing through one of its worst moments – from the heavily criticised rejection of the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the controversial invitation of the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ali.
The equally contentious invitation of the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, and the touchy suspension for six months of former Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume; The investigation of Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki for alleged complicity in the importation of an SUV Range Rover with fake papers and the probe of Senator Dine Melaye for alleged certificate forgery.
It is not in doubt that the ripple effects of all these have placed the Senate on edge.
As if the listed issues were not enough, the majority All Progressives Congress (APC) senators and their minority Peoples Democratic Party counterparts are battling to save their caucuses from implosion.
The fear of implosion in their fold may have informed the Tuesday caucus meeting of the APC and PDP.
Far reaching decisions to save the souls of the two caucuses were said to have been taken at the closed door meetings.
APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, led other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to the meeting to smoothen rough edges between the Presidency and the Senate.
On the other hand, the PDP caucus meeting held in the Asokoro residence of the Minority Leader, Senator Godwill Akpabio, was basically for soul searching and to mend what seemed a crack in the caucus.
The PDP caucus is said to be worried that some of its members have formed the habit of using its name to “feather their nest and fight vendetta wars.”
Reference was said to have been made at the meeting to a recent claim that the caucus met to take important decisions on EFCC when no such meeting took place.
To underscore the fact that the caucus was done with discordant tunes in its fold, the caucus appointed Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe as its official spokesperson.
For effect, the caucus did not just appoint Abaribe as its spokesperson but went ahead to warn that any statement purporting to emanate from the caucus must be cleared by the Abia South lawmaker.
The appointment of Abaribe was said to have been unanimous giving further credence to the fact that the caucus was actually troubled by debilitating cacophonous voices in its fold.
For APC caucus, it was principally to create harmonious relationship between the Presidency and the National Assembly.
Chief Odigie-Oyegun underscored the fact when he called for ceasefire “in terms of the kind of abuse that is used all round on one institution of government or the other.”
Saraki insisted that institutions of government must be respected to sustain a healthy democratic system in the country. For Saraki, the Senate is focused on its core mandate and must not be distracted
“It’s unfortunate but the most important thing is that a lot of stakeholders must respect these institutions. These institutions are there now and they are going to be there after and we should not allow our selfish interest to ridicule the institutions. The institution is what we have and we must ensure that we respect that.
“But for us in the Senate, we are focused. We will continue to do the work. Today, we are talking about meningitis, looking at how we are going to find funding for that. So, none of these issues is distracting us from that. And I think we’ve shown that over the last few weeks,” Saraki told reporters after the meeting.
Oyegun also said after the peace parley: “I want to take tribute to the National Assembly for the degree of cooperation that they have been extending to the executive in spite of seeming differences under the surface.
“I want to say that we have now completed our consultations with the National Assembly and we are going to move forward from now.
“One appeal I have to make: it is necessary for all levels of government to maintain some level of respect and civility one to the other and my appeal is as we start now the process of reconstructing relationships and consultations, there should be what I will call a ceasefire in terms of the kind of abuse that is used all round on one institution of government or the other.
“Once that is done, I can assure the nation that in the next couple of weeks we will have a new level of amity, cohesion, cooperation and mutual respect between the different arms of government and the party; the executive, the national assembly and the party.
“We have assurance that the budget is going on and it is going on very well. I might as well say it and I should have said it when we are inside that the report I get or the briefing I get from the Minister of Budget is that the National Assembly has been very, very cooperative in the interactions between both his ministry and also between the different ministries and the National Assembly.”
No matter how some of the issues troubling the Senate are papered, they are likely to hunt the upper chamber for quite a long time. Some of the issues appear to be deeper than the face value given them.
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Buhari should stick with Magu as EFCC chief – The Nation poll
Respondents in The Nation online poll have asked the Senate to confirm Mr. Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for his confirmation as anti-corruption arrowhead.
The Senate had twice rejected Magu’s nomination, citing the Department of State Service (DSS) report which indicted the anti-graft czar for “integrity flaws.”
The upper legislative chamber claimed Magu lacks integrity to lead the EFCC.
However, Nigerians have urged President Buhari to stick with Magu in order not to jeopardize the administration’s anti-corruption crusade.
In all, 3, 262 readers responded to the poll question – “Should President Buhari replace acting chairman of EFCC Ibrahim Magu as demanded by Senate” – posted on our website – www.staging.thenationonlineng.net
The readers were required to pick from three options – (a) Yes, (b) No and, (c) I don’t know.
While 824 readers or 25 per cent of the total respondents voted “Yes” indicating that the President should dump the Borno-born administrator, 2, 366 or 73 per cent asked President Buhari to ignore the senators and stick with Magu.
The remaining 72 readers or two per cent of the total respondents picked “I don’t know.”
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The shame of a diminished Senate
INCREASINGLY obsessed with sleaze and scandals, it is unknown how many of our conniving senators still have the presence of mind today to ponder history. Those who do would perhaps have encountered the name Oliver Cromwell, the British general, who turned England a republic and taught it puritan values.
Convinced the parliament had transmuted to the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah by the middle of the 17th century, the new lawgiver did not hesitate to dismiss the assembly. But not before he made a searing speech at the House of Commons on April 20, 1653, the echo of which must have haunted the buccaneering lawmakers for the rest of their lives. His words:
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
“Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? “Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?
Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. “In the name of God, go!” Well, the perfidies and iniquities Cromwell lamented in the Long parliament in the 17th century Europe would seem very much alive in Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber today as personal interests are shamelessly camouflaged as public cause.
To be fair, even in mature democracies often held up as model for the fledgling ones, the legislative chamber is never always the best place to find angels. But elsewhere, there is always a concerted effort to hide, to conceal the dirty linen, out of respect for public sensibilities and shared commitment to preserve the corporate integrity of that very space. Certainly, nowhere is venality and rascality so glamorized as we are beginning to see in the Nigerian Senate lately.
Legal titan, Professor Itse Sagay, is the latest to be dragged into the seedy arena. The chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Tuesday took an unprecedented step by issuing the Senate an ultimatum to eat its words, failing which he would slap it with a suit for daring to as much as contemplate subpoenaing him over an earlier comment that the senators acted “childish and irresponsible” by refusing to screen 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners over President Buhari’s retention of Ibrahim Magu as acting head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Predictably, the law professor has meticulously outlined the futility of Senate’s plan in a statement, citing legal authorities to back his argument. Whether the Senate sticks to its guns and Sagay resorts to court is, however, not the issue. Rather, what is invariably exposed is the obsession of certain elements at the Senate to impose their own will on the nation and the ridiculous length they will travel in pursuit of a personal agenda.
To be sure, this writer is sold on the imperative of the independence of both the legislature and the judiciary as the surest institutional valve against executive tyranny. But in the present circumstance, those deploying such fine argument in defence of the ongoing Senate intransigence however suddenly turn dumb when reminded of the underlining certainty of blackmail in the Magu blockade.
By describing the senators as “childish and irresponsible”, Sagay could, in fact, be accused of being too charitable. By harbouring a nest of former governors standing trial for massive theft while in office, failed contractors, certificate impostors, a practising bearded pedophile, a fugitive who jumped bail in London and one “drug baron” absconding from American justice, Nigerians who choose to view the red chamber as presently constituted as a den of shifty characters cannot therefore be accused of libel or hyperbole.
It is, therefore, more in the interests of these “suspects” that a hard-tackling Magu is prevented from continuing at the EFFC than the advertised fixation on the so-called disabling memos by the DSS. To argue otherwise is to assume all Nigerians are big fools.
Last week, Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno South, was thrown out of the chamber based on the report of the Ethics Committee that he had raised a false alarm over the imported bullet-proof SUV belonging to senate president Bukola Saraki and Dino Melaye’s counterfeit academic claims.
In short, they seemed to accuse Ndume of exaggeration. But exaggeration, as Khalib Gibran tells us, is only a truth that has lost its temper. What’s more, Ndume also happened to be Magu’s only vocal advocate in the chamber. What a clever way to silence that dissent once and for all. But without Ndume’s raising the red flag, how would we have known that an SUV imported for Saraki was cleared with forged documents?
Without SaharaReporters championing the public scrutiny of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) records, how would we have known that loquacious Dino entered the school with “incomplete” result and spent record eight years to graduate with a pass, yet again in the most shadowy circumstances, in what would have taken even a poorly endowed student four years to finish?
And that the chain of “Harvard, Oxford degrees” he used to flaunt on social media were actually not more than glossy letters acknowledging attendance of nothing more than a week seminar? For the temerity to impound on the highway the SUV meant for the use and comfort of the Senate president, our almighty senators had summoned Customs boss Hameed Ali and, to exact a pound of flesh, thought of the harshest humiliation possible for him.
He would not even be allowed a seat in the chamber until he wore the service uniform. Again, the Senate is diminished when the other side of Lawal Babachir’s grass-cutting scam is told. Sure, the yarn spurned by the Secretary to the Federal Government to absolve himself of complicity in the contract scandal is hard to believe.
Conversely, it does our senators no good either when Babachir’s apologists squealed that the Senate chose to blow the bugle and, in fact, asked Buhari to fire the government scribe only because he had insisted it was not the job of federal lawmakers to execute constituency projects. To be fair, among the irredeemable in the red chamber are a few conscientious senators.
But as the upper legislature continues to hobble from one scandal to another, they, unfortunately, are also vicariously liable and so lose respect in the eyes of the Nigerian people.
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Senate versus Ali
SIR: The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), according to reports, proposed the collection of duty on vehicles, without any just reason. That means, Kayode Adams would have to pay duty on a vehicle he bought over 10 years ago for no reason. The Senate and Nigerians at large considered this policy obnoxious. NCS was called upon to suspend the implementation of that policy, and Col. Hameed Ali (retd) was also summoned by Senate to come explain what the policy was all about. Ali was warned to appear before the Senate in his service uniform- because he has never worn it since he was appointed Comptroller-General of the NCS. Ali replied the Senate saying he will appear before the Senate but without his uniform. True to his words, Ali appeared before the Senate but without uniform and was denied audience by the Senators. This writer is ashamed at the Senate for ‘childishly’ sidelining the real issue for a mere ‘uniform’.
Though there is no section of the Constitution that mandates the CG of Customs to wear service uniform, at least whoever is CG should just wear it as a symbol of professionalism, especially when appearing before the Senate. Also, Ali should respect the institution of the Senate and wear his uniform, just to allow peace reign even if he would not wear it later on.
It explains another fact that Ali is just unnecessarily stubborn and showing a level of insubordination because he only reports to Mr. President. A lot of Nigerians have argued that the Senators are only trying to get back at Ali for seizing a N62m Range Rover imported by Saraki for not paying the required duty. This writer believes that assertion is wrong. How does pressurising Ali to wear uniform mean ‘getting back at him’?
As at the time of writing this, Ali was said to be seeking legal advice on the matter. We hope to see where this ends.
- Kayode Adams
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Lawyers reject senators’ call for withdrawal of Saraki’s trial
Lawyers on Wednesday rejected calls by some senators for the Federal Government to withdraw the false asset declaration charge against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Some senators loyal to Saraki reportedly made the demand during the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus meeting with party leaders.
The senators described Saraki’s trial as political, saying withdrawing the false assets declaration charge would help thaw the relationship between the executive and the legislature.
But, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Charles Uwesuyi-Edosomwan, said it would be wrong to withdraw the charge for political convenience.
According to him, institutions should be allowed to do their jobs without any form of interference.
He said: “We can’t do that. We need to strengthen the institutions. We cannot trade forgiveness of alleged crimes for political sagacity or convenience.
“We can’t begin, in our constitutional development, to start encouraging a culture of trading political favours for crimes i.e. whenever we have political logjam, we just forgive criminality.
“Institutions must be strengthened on their own; on the pedestals of legality, constitutionalism and morality.
“On the basis of law, it is illegal to say because there is a political impasse, you want to forgive crimes that should be tried; you cannot also, because of convenience, raise a particular individual over an institution, like they’re trying to do with (Ibrahim) Magu.
“So, let the Senate do its job; and let the other institutions and structures also do their jobs.”
Founder/President of a human rights group, the Crusade for Justice, Mr. Richard Nwankwo, said Saraki’s trial should run its full course.
He said withdrawing the charge for political reasons would mean that some persons are above the law.
“That will mean giving a different meaning to the definition of justice. If we are all equal before the law, we want to see the equality from a practical point of view.
“If they (executive) are convinced that they have something concrete against Saraki, I think there is no moral justification for abandoning such as campaign. The beauty of justice is that nobody lives above it.
“Once you start dispensing justice in a manner that makes it discriminatory, it no longer falls within the confines of the definition of justice,” Nwankwo said.