By Garba Abdulrasaq
“ When the dust settles, Nigerians will see clearly that this charge (trial) is
nothing but a meretricious trash”. - Sen. Ekweremadu
I felt so sad, betrayed, and angry with myself as I read comments by the
spokesperson of the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa, after a closed-
door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday 21st July 2016.
They fooled me and us again, I said to myself.
The Senate
Asked by State House Correspondents if the charges against Saraki and
Ekweremadu could be dropped now that the Senate President has yielded to
their demands for “juicy” Standing Committees, Marafa said: “Yes, as long as
the party comes in and the will of the party is respected.
We are not at loggerheads with anybody. It is not like we hate somebody. The
current Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has been one of my very close friends
and senior in the 7th assembly. What you saw happen is what I will describe as
loyalty to the party. The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
recognizes only the party, it doesn’t recognize any individual.
“We didn’t go to court because we didn’t like the faces of those that emerged,
but this is the will of our party. During the 7th assembly, we accorded the
ruling party at that time the utmost cooperation and we knew the committees
that we were given that time. But now, we are in power it is our own time and
we should be accorded all the necessary cooperation. We should be seen to
respect the party. If the party says withdraw the case, we will go on to
withdraw the case”.
I even felt more aggrieved when a former neighbour in Lagos who now lives on
the same street with Senator Marafa in Abuja told me that Marafa even threw
an in-house party to celebrate his landing of the Senate Committee on
Petroleum (Downstream), considered by the Unity Forum to be very “juicy”.
Although many Nigerians asked, at the inception of Saraki’s trial, that could he
have been arraigned if he had allowed the big heads in his party and presidency
to have their way in the choice of Presiding Officers and Principal Officers of the
Senate? But my attitude was that Nigerians had suffered enough in the hands
of their so-called leaders. As such, whatever soul that sinned or whoever ate
pour yam, must face the law.
Sadly, the wailers and their ranks, which are now growing by the day, now
laugh last. It is not about the ordinary Nigerian or about democracy, after all. I
mean, to take the whole nation for a long, noisy, windy circus for 14 out of the
48 months of the first (and I pray the last) term of office by this administration,
in the face of excruciating economic pains, merely for power sharing and
profiteering, is just too ridiculous and atrocious for a party that soared to power
on the wings of “change”.
Regarding the Senate forgery, however, I must admit that I was never really
convinced that the invitation/petitioning of the police (an executive agency) by
the Senate Unity Forum enjoys the blessing of the constitution because it was
just some Senators inviting the police, rather than the Senate as an institution.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s ruling sometime last year that the issue of Senate
Standing Order is purely a domestic legislative affair was later to reaffirm my
opinion.
He went further to say that the option open to members aggrieved by any
breach of its Rules or wrong decision was to muster the number to reverse such
decision on the floor or cause the Senate to direct its Committee on Ethics and
Privileges to investigate the matter, after which the Senate as a body would
decide whether or not to invite the police and/or discipline any erring members.
But were we not so narrow-minded not to have known before now that we
were being fooled and that the whole shenanigan and grandstanding in the
Senate was about Committees? It is now that I recall clearly that members of
Unity Forum, the plaintiffs in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015 contesting the
authenticity of the Senate Standing Rule 2015, approached the Federal High
Court with an ex-parte application seeking to restrain the Senate leadership
from constituting the Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of Standing and Ad Hoc
Committees pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice” .
In refusing the application, however, Justice Kolawole, insisted that he did not
“notice any substantial infraction on the 1999 Constitution”.
According to him, “The court is not created to supervise the National Assembly
in its activities, but can only intervene where there is substantial infraction on
the constitution; where the NASS as the legislative arm of government is
alleged to have contravened its own rules, the court as the third arm of
government should be wary so as not to be seen as hijacking the powers of the
NASS in handling its affairs; Members of the NASS should be trusted to be able
to mobilise themselves to address issues on the floor”.
Now, relating Senator Marafa’s comments and the recent statement by the APC
National Chairman, John Oyegun, that “we all find it very, very difficult to
accept the emergence of a PDP person as his Deputy Senate President” (even
though the APC enjoyed and praised bi-partisan National Assembly leadership
under Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and also produced the current Speakers of Plateau
and Benue Assemblies where their party is minority), one begins to understand
APC’s hypocrisy. What is more, only a few days ago, the APC again produced
the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly where PDP is the majority. A
long-frustrated and embattled Alhaji Momoh-Jimoh Lawal of the G-15 threw in
the towel, while Umar Imam of G-5 was “elected” Speaker.
Much as these serial hypocrisy is condemnable, it nevertheless helps Nigerians
to see more clearly why the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, a former legal counsel to the Senate Unity
Forum, acted in a manner, which Justice Kolawole considered a “gross abuse of
legal process”, “in a desperate haste”, and “not in public interests” in arraigning
Saraki and Ekweremadu.
According to the Honourable Justice, “the said criminal charge dated 10/6/16
and attached as exhibit “B” to the Plaintiff’s ‘motion ex parte’ dated 23/6/16,
given the course of these proceedings as I had in detail, highlighted, can only be
seen as one that constitutes an ‘abuse of legal process’ to use the very words
in section 174(3) of the constitution”.
He lamented that whereas the AGF, by virtue of the Constitution, is compelled
to stop any such abuse of legal process, “The converse situation, which the
drafters of the constitution, perhaps never envisaged appears to have occurred
in this case as the 2nd defendant (AGF) who is required, by Section 174(3) of
the Constitution, to ‘discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any
such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other authority
or person’ where such proceedings constitute ‘abuse of legal process’, is in fact
the very person who initiated a criminal proceedings in a matter in which he
had, as a private legal practitioner, acted for the one of the ‘interested’ Senators
who had petitioned the 1st defendant (Inspector-General of Police) on 30/6/15".
In summary, it is not about us, after all, but about elites’ selfish interest. This is
another hope ruthlessly betrayed. In saner climes, heads would be rolling by
now, starting with that of the AGF. Of all people on earth, Nigerians are to be
pitied most. What a meretricious trash. Apologies, Ekweremadu.
Abdulrasaq writes from Lagos


cc lalasticlala mynd44

juicy

Friday was 22nd July not 21st

Na so. It's all about the benjamin