- Given the cloud of wrongdoing over his head, the Senate President has no moral
basis to continue as Nigeria’s top lawmaker
SENATE President, Bukola Saraki, pelted left and right by severe financial scandals, digs deeper and deeper into infamy. But what to do is to make an honourable exit — and the time is now.
By willy-nilly trying to stay afloat, Dr. Saraki and his senatorial gang have brought the highest legislative chamber in the land to hitherto unknown odium. That is evidenced in the silly on-going attempts to amend both the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Law and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) of 2015. It is as if a band of criminals are holding the Senate captive; and would think nothing of subverting the law, just to save the fast sinking Saraki.
Amending the CCB Law would, in their skewed thinking, offer Saraki some rogue comfort and protection, since he is currently undergoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). But which serious legislature makes laws, in their own sole interest? Besides, on April 15, Saraki’s latest gambit to evade justice hit the rocks, with a court in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, talking him to go face trial at CCT.
As it is now, amending the CCB Law would appear an exercise in futility, since that would be amending the Constitution. Even if the senatorial gang succeeds in their plotting, they would still need two-thirds of state legislatures nationwide to endorse such an amendment. That, they are not likely to get.
The more dangerous gambit is amending the ACJA. To start with, it is incestuous for a band of senators to attempt to rig the law, to favour one of their own. That is a monumental betrayal of trust, which this polity must not tolerate. Again, by their skewed thinking, these senators figure amending ACJA would avail Saraki the opportunity to stall and stonewall, so that his CCT trial can last virtually forever, while he clings on to office in disgrace.
It is true: those the gods want to destroy they first make mad — and these misguided senators, by so brazenly attempting to skew the law, manifest nothing but arrant insanity. So, they must be brought to book before profaning, beyond measure, Nigeria’s highest legislative chamber.
Amending ACJA, to dubious ends, must not be allowed to happen. ACJA would appear one of the few good legacies of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency. It is also on this all-important piece of legislation that the prosecution of public sector thieves, that have evaded justice for too long, is being anchored. Such rascality, if allowed, would spectacularly undo this fine reform of Nigeria’s criminal justice system.
But even in the unlikely case that the amendment comes on stream, President Muhammadu Buhari must veto it. That would be the most logical thing to do, given his administration’s war against corruption. Afterwards, the nation would have the opportunity to face-off rogue senators, who can muster the two-thirds majority vote to countermand the veto.
Preaching honour and nobility to Dr. Saraki, with his present intolerable level of desperation, would appear tantamount to yelling at the deaf. Yet, we would be damned if we sat back and allowed the Senate’s institutional integrity to be further rubbished, just because of a senate president notorious for a condemnable sense of entitlement.
The Senate is hollow without honour; and when its president luxuriates in infamy, and yet insists on keeping his job, then something has gone terribly wrong. It is true Saraki has not been found guilty of any crime. But when the head of the Senate is accused of fraudulent declaration of assets, and also named in the Panama Papers of allegedly buying a shell company off his wife for £3 million, while as Kwara State governor, his rotten personal morality is blighting the institutional grace of the Senate.
At this critical juncture, it ceases to be a matter of hollow legalism. There is a perception of muck and dirt, which does not sit well with the head of any legislature — and Dr. Saraki is not only the president of the Senate, but also chairman of the National Assembly. This heavy perception of muck casts a pall over the National Assembly. Therefore, Dr. Saraki should gracefully remove himself and help stop this monumental national embarrassment.
To force Saraki out, crucial institutions of state must also speak out: the Presidency, the Council of State and every patriot that feels the Saraki disgrace. Even the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on whose platform Saraki sits, must disown him. Enough of this aberrant solidarity of saying nothing, while an individual and his gang undo the National Assembly!
Dr. Saraki must go. He has disgraced the National Assembly enough. The time to go is now!
