There is uncertainty over President Muhammadu
Buhari’s promise to form his cabinet at the end
of September as Senate President Bukola Saraki,
who will lead the screening of the nominees, is
facing allegation of false assets declaration,
It is not certain that the much awaited cabinet
expected to assist President Muhammadu Buhari
to implement policies aimed at developing the
country will be inaugurated before September 30
as promised by the President in many of his
public outings.
Four days before the end of the month, followers
of political activities in the country are worried
that the current ordeal of the Senate President,
Dr. Bukola Saraki, may force the President to
alter the deadline for the cabinet constitution.
According to them, having full cabinet members
in place involves sending their names to the
Senate for screening, confirmation and their
actual inauguration for allocation of portfolios by
the President.
For Buhari to achieve these processes before
the expiration of the September 30 deadline he
had given himself, commentators believe that the
President might need to mend the perceived
strained relationship between him and Saraki,
whose roles and those of his supporters are vital
to the screening of the would-be cabinet
members.
Saraki’s ordeal was believed to have started
when he emerged as the senate president
against the directive of his party, the All
Progressives Congress, which preferred another
candidate, Alhaji Ahmed Lawan, to occupy the
position.
The commentators said little did Saraki know
that his emergence as the Senate President
would haunt him not long after.
From then on, Saraki’s supporters are of the
opinion that the APC have yet to forgive the
senate president. According to them, the current
ordeal Saraki is passing through before the Code
of Conduct Tribunal over allegation of false
declaration of assets was deliberately planned by
the party’s chieftain to remove him from the
position of the senate president.
They said that Saraki was being persecuted for
defying his party’s directives on the zoning of
the senate leadership positions. Leading the pro-
Saraki supporters are 50 senators loyal to him,
who alleged that a cabal in the Presidency was
behind the senate president’s ordeal.
After painstaking arguments by both prosecution
and the defence teams over the nature of the
allegation, the tribunal adjourned trial till October
21, 22 and 23.
Political watchers are, however, expressing worry
on the implication of the CCB and Saraki saga on
the polity. A social analyst, Mr. Victor Iyoho,
sympathised with Nigerians who he said might
need to endure another four years waiting for the
change they had voted for to come. Hence,
Iyoho foresaw a shift in the constitution of the
cabinet members by Buhari.
He was not sure Buhari would get the cabinet
ready by September 30 as promised by the
president because the ministers must first be
nominated, screened and confirmed by the
senate before they could be inaugurated.
Iyoho said, “If Buhari fails to fulfil his promise to
constitute his cabinet by September 30, it will
not be a new thing. I don’t see him constituting
the cabinet as promised. According to the
constitution, for the cabinet to be constituted,
members must be screened by the senate and
as of now, the senate is not at peace or divided.
“When there is no peace, don’t expect any good
thing or healthy deliberation on national issues
from the senate. The senate president is trying
to fight the battle of his life; he has to survive
first before he thinks about Nigeria.”
The analyst believes that the involvement of
Buhari could not be completely ruled out in
Saraki’s ordeal and as a result the senate
president might want to retaliate.
Iyoho said, “We cannot completely rule out the
involvement of the President from what is going
on. I think Saraki too might want to draw his own
pound of flesh. One of the ways to do it is to
declare an indefinite recess for the senate. He
too will have to fight because the scenario
appears like an eye for an eye. If he survives this
now, he may definitely want to retaliate by
making sure that Buhari does not achieve what
he promised Nigerians.”
He said unless the frosty relationship between
the President and Saraki is mended now in the
interest of Nigerians, the citizens would continue
to wait for the change that might not come.
Iyoho said, “Unfortunately, when two elephants
fight, it is the grass that suffers. In this situation,
Nigerian masses will suffer because the current
crisis in the senate is not a good omen for
Nigeria. Even the APC will want to blame the
non-constitution of the cabinet on the division in
the senate.”
Explaining his understanding of cabinet
constitution, the analyst said, “It is about getting
the President’s team ready to work. Buhari is
just a man; he does not know it all. He needs to
bring in cabinet members as promised Nigerians
because they need to help him in their respective
capacity to actualise his political vision for the
country. Already, the country has lost four
months and if you take four months away from
four years, it means we have lost a lot of
ground.”
While agreeing with the anti-Saraki group that
the senate president’s ordeal was not a political
persecution but an attempt to fight corruption in
the country, Iyoho said, “The fight against
corruption should be systematic. The President
cannot just be fighting everybody at the same
time. If he thinks he can throw the dragnet and
get every corrupt person at the same time, he
would be heading for a bigger trouble.”
Similarly, a political scientist, Mr. Tayo Akinyemi,
said though the Presidency had denied
involvement in the Saraki’s saga, the timing of
the trial suggested otherwise.
Akinyemi expressed doubt that Saraki would be
willing to screen Buhari’s ministerial nominees
now going by the stress he is undergoing over
allegation of false declaration of assets.
He said, “It is necessary for Buhari to take his
job seriously now. If he is comfortable working
without ministers, he should tell Nigerians, but
there must be no excuse for failure.”
But a rights activist, Mr. Babatoyin Adeleye, did
not foresee any shift in the constitution of the
cabinet. He believes that the senate can still
screen the nominees if the President sends their
names to the Red Chamber within the next four
days.
Adeleye said, “Though Saraki may be angry with
the Presidency because of his current ordeal,
that does not mean he should abdicate his
responsibility as the senate president,
notwithstanding the battle of wit between him
and his party.
“What Nigerians demand from the government,
including the senate is a healthy anti-corruption
war devoid of intimidation of opponents either
real or perceived. So, if Buhari fails to constitute
the cabinet before the deadline the President
himself has set, I expect Saraki to prove his
maturity by pressurising the President to honour
his promise; I don’t expect him to declare recess
for the senate as a form of hitting at the
Presidency.”
Meanwhile, Saraki’s ordeal has elicited divergent
views in Kwara State where he was governor
between 2003 and 2011.
Many residents of Kwara State especially
members of the APC expressed their opinion that
the senate president was being persecuted
because of his stand on national issues. They
also said Saraki should not be distracted from
his avowed commitment to work with Buhari to
reposition the country, as the former governor
transformed Kwara from a civil service state to
an economic hub and flourishing economy in the
North-Central geopolitical zone of the country.
The pro-Saraki group include the National
President, Ilorin Emirate Descendant Progressive
Union, Alhaji Abdulhamid Adi; Saraki’s former
aide on Political Matters, Alhaji Kayode Yusuf;
the spokesperson for the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji
Salihu Woru; the Speaker, Kwara State House of
Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad; a former Speaker of
the state House of Assembly, Mr. Razak Atunwa;
and a Labour Party governorship candidate in the
last general elections, Dr. Mike Omotosho.
But many others, mainly from the opposition
Peoples Democratic Party differed over the
matter. Some of them even called for the
resignation of Saraki not only as the senate
president but as a senator representing the
Kwara Central Senatorial District.
The anti-Saraki campaigners include two former
PDP governorship aspirants, Mr. Dele Belgore
and Mr. Sunday Babalola; the state PDP
Chairman, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo and the state
PDP spokesperson, Chief Rex Olawoye.
Adi, a frontline pro-saraki voice in Kwara,
described the senate president’s ordeal as purely
politically motivated and wondered why the CCB
failed to raise any issue concerning his asset
declaration forms since 2003.
He said, “I see it more or less as a political
persecution. May be there are some political
opponents that are trying to get at him.
“We believe Saraki will come out of it. You are
presumed innocent until proven otherwise.”
Adi urged the CCB not to be used to achieve
personal political gains by some external
elements.
Yusuf, a former political adviser to Saraki, said
all residents of Kwara State were solidly behind
the Senate president in his current travail, adding
that nobody would even recall him from the
senate.”
He stated that the charges were only allegations
which were not enough reasons to call for his
resignation or even attempt to impeach him.
He said political upheaval was not strange to the
Saraki dynasty as Saraki’s father, the late
Olusola, had his own political challenges during
his time.”
However, Belgore said people’s concern should
be for the office rather than the occupier of the
office. He stated that it is the collective
responsibility of Nigerian citizens to protect the
office from being tarnished.
He said public officers take oath upon
assumption of office to protect the integrity of
their office and not to protect their own interest
at the expense of the office.
According to him, the issue right now is neither
about guilt nor innocence.
Belgore said, “Just in July this year, Lord Sewell,
the Chairman of the Ethics and Standards
Committee of the British House of Lords
resigned after a scandal over his private life.
“In his resignation letter, he claimed that the
question of whether his behaviour breached the
parliament’s Code of Conduct was a technical
one, but the bigger questions are whether his
behaviour is compatible with his office and
whether continuing in that office would damage
and undermine public confidence in it.
“He therefore chose to resign to limit and help
repair the damage to an institution he holds dear.
Lord Sewell was just a second-tier politician in
British politics. How do we want the rest of the
world to see us?”

www.punchng.com/politics/waiting-for-buharis-ministers-amid-sarakis-ordeal/

K

May the President live long...

We can't stampede/put Baba unda duress to announce his Minister. That thief Saraki must go.