By @DemolaRewaju

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro served his state and country at the highest legislative office in the hallowed chambers of the Senate between 2003 and 2007. On the 9th of February ten years ago in 2005, Obanikoro moved a motion calling for an investigation into the destruction and disrepair of the Velodrome at the National Stadium in Abuja. In January 2014, Obanikoro was nominated by the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to become a minister and he was duly screened and confirmed as a Minister by the Senate which included members of the newly formed opposition party APC and those of the then governing party PDP.

After serving as Minister until October 2014, Obanikoro resigned to contest for the PDP gubernatorial ticket in Lagos, lost it to Mr. Jimi Agbaje and was recalled by President Jonathan to return as Minister. This recall threw up a small legal dilemma with some legal experts saying Obanikoro did not need to be screened and confirmed by the Senate having undergone same procedure about a year before while others said another round of screening and confirmation was necessary. In complying with a need to be above board, Obanikoro’s name was sent to the Senate for screening.

In June of 2014, Ekiti had gone to the polls to elect a governor and the PDP candidate Ayo Fayose soundly and roundly defeated the then incumbent Kayode Fayemi in a free and fair election. Kayode Fayemi is a highly cerebral man but whose interactions with the Ekiti people he governed proved to be his undoing as he was seen as haughty and arrogant. Fayose on the other hand was down-to-earth. Fayemi conceded the elections and congratulated the man who defeated him but his party insisted that Ekitis had voted for ‘Stomach Infrastructure’. Not done yet, the party claimed further that INEC had colluded with PDP and used a special ink that disappears once a voter votes for APC while replacing it with PDP – these allegations were thrown out by the tribunal.

The last strand of reality denial by APC was an audio recording, alleging that the voices were those of candidate Ayo Fayose and others including Obanikoro. These recordings made no reference to rigging and if anything, one of the voices actually alleged that the military was colluding with the incumbent Governor Fayemi to sabotage the election. This recording became the casus belli of a few senators to oppose Obanikoro’s second nomination as minister, despite the fact that it was unverified and inadmissible as evidence by any law court. This recording was never tendered as evidence at the Ekiti gubernatorial tribunal and Fayose’s election was not only upheld by the Appeal Court but the man subsequently proved his dominance of Ekiti politics by leading PDP to victory in EVERY election thereafter.

Obanikoro reached out to all his party members in the senate for support and secured it. He further reached out to two Southwestern Governors who had served alongside him in the Senate between 2003 and 2007 and were now governors of their states. They supported him and the ranks of the APC senators were broken.

On the day of the screening as Obanikoro walked in among his former peers, Senator Oluremi Tinubu stood and unleashed derogatory words on him as he graciously bowed to her and strolled away to the podium. Senator Mudashiru Hussein took off his cap and headed towards the PDP side of the senate as if to attack Senator Smart Adeyemi who was making his point. At the end of the day, few APC Senators walked out, the Senate President took a voice vote and Obanikoro was confirmed. Several APC senators remained sitting to participate in the voice vote.

The case against Rotimi Amaechi are allegations of corruption and cannot be compared with that of Obanikoro. The case against Amaechi is a matter that was investigated by a Senate Committee and the report was clear in its submission. The entire PDP Senate caucus rose in opposition to Amaechi’s confirmation, they neither participated in his screening nor in his confirmation as they all walked out, leaving the APC alone in its negation of the campaign promise of Change.

That APC can recall acts of PDP as justification of its own actions is a misnomer in itself – where then is the change? How is it change if the best defence of APC actions are neither logical nor commonsensical but a spurious and condescending “PDP also did it”? If PDP realistically admitted to a culture of patronage as a reality of political horsetrading and APC condemned it to the highest heavens, why then would a President elected on the APC platform take four months to prepare a list that compensates those who worked for him in not only the 201 elections but as far back as the 2003 elections!

The standard for judging APC can not, must not be what PDP did or did not do but rather the standard that it set for itself – its own campaign promise of Change for which 15 million Nigerians voted for them while a little more than 12 million voted for PDP. APC was not voted into office to perfect whatever PDP was doing but to deliver a #PromiseOfChange. So far, this is looking like a #ChangeOfPromise.

http://www.opinionriver.com/how-obanikoros-senate-screening-differs-greatly-from-that-of-rotimi-amaechi-writes-demolarewaju/

I hate Buhari

You are graciously saying thrash.

OP, PDP and their wailing nonesense.

If you say all the pdp senators walked out, what about the deputy Senate President.. Abi he's no longer in pdp?

"Innocent Until Proven Guilty” - Mar 11th 2015

Responding to the grouse of the APC Senators, the spokesman for the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said although there were allegations against Senator Obanikoro, there was no court decision, condemning Senator Obanikoro for any crime.

“Well, what we know as a matter of fact is that there were allegations against Senator Musiliu Obanikoro

“But in our law and the Constitution of Nigeria, anything that is a mere allegation, that is not in any way a court decision, is nothing but a mere allegation and every citizen of Nigeria is deem to be innocent until proven guilty.

“And even the Senators, who addressed the press conference and spoke about the qualification and non-qualification of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro are enjoying this privilege because some of them have EFCC cases and they are still in the Senate because of this privilege of being innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

Senator Abaribe said that the APC Senator’s statement was an attempt to convict somebody when the person had not been convicted in a court of law.

“They cannot enjoy that privilege themselves and sit in this Senate and then turn around and say that somebody else cannot enjoy that privilege.

“And the laws of Nigeria is very clear. You are innocent until you are proven guilty and that is what played out on the floors of the Senate.

“The senate in its wisdom, having known that this is the law of Nigeria and this is the Constitution of Nigeria, and that every Nigerian is entitled to this privilege, went ahead to do what it is supposed by law to do which is confirmation of somebody that is on the floor of the Senate who has not been convicted of anything,” he stressed.

http://www.channelstv.com/2015/03/11/apc-senators-expresse-concerns-over-obanikoros-confirmation/

PDP can continue their Selective Memory Loss. Nigeria will pay them back with the same disdain they meted on Nigeria masses.