Following the failure to secure a safe landing for
Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal penultimate week, members of the
upper chamber of the National Assembly appear to
be closing in on a successor in case the inevitable
happens, SUNDAY ABORISADE reports.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his army of
supporters across the two main political parties in
the red chamber, the Peoples Democratic Party and
the All Progressives Congress, would definitely had
wished that the cup of this week should pass over
them. The Code of Conduct Tribunal has fixed March
11 to start the trial of the number three citizen of
Nigeria who is the head of the federal parliament.
The Code of Conduct Bureau is prosecuting Saraki for
alleged false declaration of his assets. Virtually all
legal and political steps taken to stop Saraki’s trial by
the Danladi Umar-led trial appeared to have hit the
rocks.
For instance, a last-minute hope of securing a judicial
remedy through an Abuja Federal High Court after a
devastating blow from the Supreme Court which
allowed the CCT to continue with the trial, was
dashed penultimate week, when the court failed to
heed a fresh prayer seeking to stop the trial.
The Senate President had sought an order quashing
his trial before the CCT on ground, among others,
that he was denied fair hearing in the course of
investigations leading to the charges preferred
against him.
While necessary judicial solutions were being
explored by the Saraki’s team of legal experts, his
friends and political associates within and outside the
National Assembly had equally intensified efforts to
lobby the presidency to prevail on the CCT to stop
the case.
Part of the thinking of Saraki’s lobby team was that
since an outright dismissal of the case would
generate serious public outcry, especially when the
case involved an alleged act of corruption, a
deliberate delay through long adjournments of
hearing dates could make Nigerians and the
international community lose interest in it, while the
Senate President enjoys his tenure. But feelers from
some heavyweight politicians involved in the lobby
showed that major political actors in the presidency
claimed that their hands were tied on the matter
because all facts were already in the public domain.
A senator who claimed to be privy to the lobby
option told SUNDAY PUNCH on condition of
anonymity that Saraki’s emissary to the presidency
said attempting a political solution at this stage would
cause a setback for President Muhammadu Buhari’s
anti-corruption crusade.
A presidency source had said, “If Saraki’s hands were
not tied when he rejected the party’s nominations for
the principal offices of the National Assembly,
perhaps the rope would not have been tied tightly on
our own hands at this moment too.”
Saraki’s loyalists in the Senate, however, saw an
opportunity to save their colleague when Umar
appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary
to defend the 2016 budget of his tribunal
penultimate week.
A senator, who would not want his name mentioned,
confided in our correspondent that the Senate
committee raised some issues in Umar’s budget and
gave him a date to come back to defend the queries.
The senator however said the plan failed when Umar
refused to show up for the budget defence until the
deadline for the submission of committee reports on
MDAs budgets lapsed last Monday.
Since the grand plot to bring Saraki and Umar
together at the upper chamber failed, Saraki’s
loyalists at both chambers are now allegedly
mounting pressure on the House of Representatives’
Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions to intensify
its probe of the alleged bribery allegation against
Umar.
Both chambers of the federal parliament had asked
their ethics committees to investigate an allegation
contained in a petition by the Anti-Corruption
Network that the CCT boss allegedly demanded and
collected a N10m bribe.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics,
Privileges and Public Petitions, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu,
told our correspondent last week that his panel
would await the outcome of the House committee,
which had already started work on the petition.
But the spokesperson for the camp loyal to Sen.
Ahmad Lawan, Saraki’s main opponent for the senate
presidency seat, Senate Unity Forum, Sen. Kabir
Marafa, said in an interview with our correspondent
that the trial of Umar was politically motivated.
He therefore reiterated his call for the resignation of
the Senate President in order to enable him to
attend to his case.
It was learnt that part of the strategies of the SUF
members was to constantly attack Saraki’s leadership,
using the proposed purchase of exotic cars at a time
when the Federal Government was finding it difficult
to pay theN5, 000 meant for jobless Nigerians.
But the Special Adviser to Saraki on Special Duties
and Intra-Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Moshood
Mustapha, described the public outcry over the
reported purchase of some vehicles by the National
Assembly for security operatives in the convoy of
principal officers of both chambers of the legislature
as “unnecessary.”
Mustapha said critics of the project vehicles were not
being fair to the federal parliamentarians, arguing
that nobody was raising eyebrows when the political
office holders in the executive arm of government
were allocated at least two vehicles each.
He said Saraki, for instance, had been using his
personal cars since he was inaugurated as President
of the Senate. He also cited instances where some of
the vehicles he inherited in the convoy of his
predecessor developed serious mechanical faults.
The pro-Saraki lawmaker said the car transaction was
purely between the National Assembly management
and the beneficiaries of the vehicles who are not
even lawmakers.
Mustapha said Saraki was entitled to two vehicles but
that only one was replaced in his convoy and that he
chose so, on his own, because of the economic
situation of the country and to minimise government
expenses.
Mustapha also said Saraki saved the country N5bn
when he rejected the N6bn put in the budget of the
Federal Capital Territory to build his official
residence and reduced it to N1bn just to exhibit
prudence.
“Left to other people, they would have allowed it to
go. As an individual, he doesn’t believe in that project
but because a lot of money had gone into it; he
believed that having N6bn in his official residence is
a waste and decided on his own to take away N5bn
from this project and put only N1bn.
“So, what is the N200m used to buy vehicles for
security personnel and protocol compared to the
N5bn he had saved the nation. I wonder why people
are talking as if the vehicles are his personal
property or for his children.”
He also said no form of bribery took place at the
upper chamber during the screening of the
ministers, contrary to insinuations in certain
quarters. He added that no form of corrupt practice
took place during the recently concluded budget
defence by federal government agencies.
Mustapha said, “Bukola Saraki had created the most
democratised, participatory and rigorous budgeting
process as we have all seen, this is perhaps the most
disciplined senate since 1999. We have ministerial
screening and budget approval process without
bribery and other forms of corruption. It is a scandal
free budget process. Nobody has ever said anybody
brought money or anything.
“Everybody has been busy doing his work and it was
through this painstaking process that we were able to
discover errors in the budget and even the president
himself had said it that there are errors and that he
would hold the culprits responsible.”
Neverthless, having considered the sensitive nature
of the case before the CCT, some senators were said
to have been making frantic efforts to shop for
Saraki’s successor.
Findings by our correspondent showed that members
of both the SUF and pro-Saraki senators under the
aegis of Like Minds Senators had started making
contacts on how to agree on an acceptable candidate.
Some senators were also said to have agreed that the
Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu,
would not be affected by the change as he would be
allowed to continue in office.
“However, senators from the anti-Saraki’s SUF group
were advocating the change of the principal officers
to reflect the position of the leadership of APC,” one
of those privy to the plan had told SUNDAY PUNCH.
If the SUF members should have their way, the
implication is that Lawan would take over from Sen.
Ali Ndume as Senate Leader, while Sen. Bala Ibn
N’Allah might lose his Deputy Leader seat to Sen.
George Akume, who has not been attending activities
in the Senate for some time. The newcomer from
Edo State, Sen. Francis Alimikhena, might also be
asked to vacate his seat as Deputy Whip for Sen. Abu
Ibrahim.
It is still not clear how the issue of principal officers
would be resolved but one of the Like Minds
Senators said Saraki’s successor might come from his
state or from the neighbouring Nasarawa State.
He said, “Both the SUF and Like Minds Senators had
agreed to support the emergence of somebody from
the North-Central geopolitical zone, a Muslim, who
will be a bridge builder and acceptable to every
senator.”
He also said the Saraki loyalists, who were in the
majority at the upper chamber, had insisted that his
successor must also be a member of the ‘New PDP’, a
breakaway faction of the PDP which joined the APC at
its formation.
The lawmaker said, “This issue had gone beyond SUF
or LMS. We are coming together as one to ensure a
rancour free arrangement that would lead to the
emergence of a new senate president. Most of the
people that we have consulted agreed that another
senator from Kwara North should take over the
mantle of leadership.
“It has been agreed that with this, the people of
Kwara would not feel too bad, while the current
arrangement in the red chamber will remain as it is.
”
Close watchers of the development at the senate
were of the opinion that the resumption of Saraki’s
trial at the CCT this week will obviously shape the
nation’s political history.
PUNCH
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