Wonders, they say, shall never end. In spite of several calls on the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to step down from office and face the charges against him, he is busy running around to stall his trial and destroy the law enabling the institution currently trying him. The worse is even coming from his colleagues in the red chambers of the National Assembly who have so far been a disappointment in all respect.
In a show of solidarity of partners in crime, the senate is in a mad hurry to pass a Bill to remove the powers of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to try criminal cases. Only last week, the Senate unanimously endorsed the second reading of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Amendment Bill. It has also set today (Tuesday April 19) to begin deliberation on another bill meant to amend the Administration of Criminal Justice Act that will remove the powers of the CCT to try criminal cases.
While the mad rush to speed up the passage, one of the Senators said “if you don’t assist your neighbour when his house is burning, it will extend to yours.” Sadly enough, this is the spirit driving the senators, which means if any one of them is fingered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corruption and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to have perpetrated corruption and is charged to court, these senators of the 8th National Assembly would commence an accelerated amendment of the ICPC Act 2000 or EFCC Act 2004. Nigerians cannot afford to fold their hands and watch while these senators toy with the destiny of the nation.
In my considered view, the commencement of the amendment of the Act, establishing the CCB and CCT by the Senate, had exposed the intention of the country’s legislators to encourage corrupt practices and shield corrupt leaders from prosecution.
What is happening in the Senate is an absurdity, an aberration and self-serving. Even when one wise Senator, Yahaya Abdulahi from Kebbi State drew their attention to how Nigerians would perceive them, the Presiding Senator Ike Ekweremadu who has always shamelessly led PDP senators to the court and tribunal to show unnecessary solidarity to Saraki simply said the Senate was constituted to make laws for the nation and that is what they were busy doing.
But there are so many laws begging for the Senators’ attention and they have deliberately refused to work on them. Nigerians have been clamouring for the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is needed for the reform and overhaul of the sector. The 8th senate has done nothing about it. This is a country that depends largely on crude oil sales to finance budgets of the three tiers of government over the years, yet the Petroleum industry is being governed by obsolete laws which have since lost touch with modernity and current dynamics of the industry. Even the presidency recently made serious moves to reform the industry by balkanizing the NNPC and its subsidiaries which led to protests from the public that there is no law backing the action of the executive arm, yet the Senators have not seen the urgent need to put all of that into a Bill and call it PIB and give it accelerated hearing.
What about the Mutual Legal Assistance Bill that the lawmakers need to pass very urgently to boost the anti-corruption war of the federal government? This Bill, when passed into law, would help in the repatriation of looted assets back to the country to finance development. The most recent Panama Paper leaks which also named the same senator Bukola Saraki as one of the Nigerians hiding money in safe haven is a typical case that such a MLA law would be needed to address. One can now better appreciate why a Senate led by Saraki and Ekweremadu would not want such important piece of legislation to see the light of day.
Instead of giving Nigerians the right legislations, they are in a hurry to pass the Saraki CCT Bill for who to sign? Nigerians must rise up and speak in one voice to call on these crop of senators to stand down that CCT amendment Bill forthwith.
While carrying out their brazen act of amending the CCT Law, they seem to have forgotten that history lay ambush with a notepad. Sponsor of the obnoxious Bill, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North) may have been radiant to his colleagues while moving the evil motion on the floor of the senate, but he remains, a disgrace to his constituents. The seven senators; Dino Melaye (Kogi West); Barau Jibrin (Kano North); Samuel Anyanwu (Imo East); Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South); Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe); Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir (Sokoto East); and Ekweremadu (Enugu West) who supported the bill are a disaster, not only to their constituencies and the nation at large, but to their generation. Their names would go down in history as those who took desperate steps to promote corruption in the land and kill institutions established to fight the ills in our country. Their names is being etched in the scroll roll of infamy.
Saraki is facing criminal prosecution for alleged false and anticipatory asset declaration during his tenure as the Kwara State governor between 2003 and 2011 and he should face it squarely. He had instituted serial suits at the Federal High Court in Abuja, where he had challenged the constitution of the CCT to try his case. He also instituted a suit challenging the jurisdiction of the CCT to try him. The Senate President pursued the suits to the Supreme Court but lost. Another of his suits sought to stop his trial before the CCT on the basis that the trial violated his fundamental human rights. Only last Friday, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, dismissed his application seeking nullification of his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). The trial judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati, held that the CCT was a constitutional body, in the discharge of its legal obligation which should not be interfered with by a court of law.
Justice Kafarati said that he found that none of the claims fell within Chapter Four of the Nigerian Constitution and that the court could not interfere with the proceedings before the Tribunal. All of these amount to the abuse of court process with brazen impudence. It is only in a country like Nigeria that this kind of abuse can happen. It is a case of people without shame. Many of us have continued to advise Bukola Saraki to eat the humble pie, instead of towing that path, he chooses to attempt to kill the CCT.
But one thing is clear; he and his cohorts have forgotten that even if they manage to get the Bill passed and use a two-thirds to veto it by fire, by force it will certainly not take a retroactive effect. It will not affect any case currently in court or the CCT itself, that the long arm of the law will definitely catch up with him. He should brace up and face his ongoing trial. Saraki has a duty, before the law and Nigerians, to prove his innocence, otherwise, he should be prepared for his culpability.
His trial at the CCT for alleged false asset declaration and fraud makes it a serious case that by now, what his colleagues ought to do is to get a replacement for him to have enough time to answer his charges, instead of this daily soap opera with the courts akin to a Nollywood assizes. Nigerians are united in demanding that Senators of the 8th National Assembly must stop the CCT Amendment Bill now!
• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
