Before Buhari Damages Himself
The alleged unseen hand of the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, in the choice of leadership of the National Assembly could backfire, writes Ojo M. Maduekwe
Anational daily reported that the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, was against any politician vying for a position in the new government and has a case to answer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Specifically mentioned was the senate presidency.
Of the two main contenders for this position in the persons of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ahmad Lawan, Saraki is the one believed to have a case with the EFCC.
First, his family was accused of mishandling funds belonging to the Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN). In 2003, when the older Saraki was chairman of SGBN, the bank was investigated by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for alleged money laundering. The SGBN was also investigated by the EFCC.
Later, as the Kwara State governor, the younger Saraki was alleged to have pilfered funds of the state’s local government. Yet, not one of such allegations has been proven and established against him, either as an elected official with immunity or private citizen.
Before the 2007 elections, EFCC had compiled a corruption advisory list to political parties, but that list was later alleged to have been doctored to shield some governors, who were reportedly in the good books of then President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP.
Saraki was said to have been on the original list but went missing on the alternate version. Then as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Saraki’s family was described in the Wikileaks cable as “well-established in Kwara and Western Kogi State… Saraki’s family is also involved in some questionably illicit deals, and reportedly also had a hand in choosing current EFCC Chairwoman, Farida Waziri, as a way to protect his father from EFCC inquiry.”
Aside other extant factors (perhaps unknown to the public), this could be Saraki’s undoing in his attempt at the senate presidency, since Buhari derives mass support for his government through the pledge to fighting corruption. Naturally, Saraki in such an instance will be to Buhari what some appointees were to outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan – an indentation to all that he publicly stands for.
There is no doubting the fact that a majority of these stories or allegations are flying around and consistently too because some people do not just want Saraki as Senate President even when his public service record by far trumps some of those pushing for others or standing in his way.
Saraki is probably taking solace in the fact that none of such cases have been established against him but remain the conjectures of the mastermind and those who clearly have an axe to grind with him. A clean and free man he’s always been and that summarises his public service record.
Accepted that Buhari does not want to be seen to be promoting corruption or aiding those accused of the crime, he must also not be seen as a partisan president. In the race to who becomes the senate president of the 8th National Assembly, Buhari must play the role of a president of Nigeria, and not the president of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the core north as the race is now being narrowed down to.
Report has it that Buhari is allegedly supporting Lawan. Outgoing President Jonathan provides an ample example of what could befall a president (and his political party) that take sides. Put succinctly, if his preferred candidate for the senate presidency loses, such a loss would not only ridicule the reputation of the president-elect but further diminish his popularity.
Already, such is the lot of a former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, whom at first supported Senator George Akume for the senate president position, but upon reading Buhari’s body language, retreated to support Lawan, with the belief that Buhari will support his choice of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila for the position of House of Representatives speaker.
Besides the ridicule should his preferred candidate lose, Buhari’s alleged biased posturing is not the type that promotes a win-win situa- tion for the APC. Take for instance that Saraki is defeated as a result of the president-elect’s preference for Lawan, this, like in the case of the now opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will signal the beginning of a major crisis that could ultimately see to the demise of the APC.
It could be argued that the early signs of the downfall of the PDP began when the party, instead of allowing members of the House of Representatives to choose their leader, chose rather to zone and install a speaker that would do the biddings of the party. The rejection of Hon. Adeola Mukaila and the acceptance of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal was the beginning of the rejection and acceptance of the PDP and the APC respectively.
The same scenario played out during the NGF elections, when President Goodluck Jonathan weighed-in in support of the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang as against Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who was the choice of the other governors. There is no gainsaying the fact that Jonathan did not recover from the humiliation that arose from that experience. If he had listened to counsel of the more savvy politicians, the outcome would have been different, perhaps.
Already, there are early signs of factions in the ruling APC. According to THISDAY, “the degree of interest that has followed the choice for the senate presidency has not made a compromise easy for the contending parties, as the APC leadership is deeply divided over the issue.”
As it stands, the party chairman, Chief John Oyegun, and the governors of the party are said to have not hidden their support for Saraki as their choice candidate, and had taken it a step further by zoning the post to the North-central, where Saraki hails from. This naturally puts Buhari and Tinubu in another camp, as they are both rooting for Lawan.
Divisions aside, in the same way that it would have been anti-democratic for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have imposed Buhari on Nigerians, same way it would go against the dictates of democracy and the 1999 constitution for Buhari or the APC to impose Lawan on the senators, who must be allowed to elect their leaders.
Accepted that for Buhari to be taken serious in his campaign against corruption, he must not be seen to be frolicking with anyone accused of being corrupt, but, should Buhari have anything against Saraki, the president-elect must allow the law and the institutions take their natural course because as it is, Saraki maintains a very clean record.
Chapter V, Part 1, Sections 47-50 of the 1999 constitution, which deals with the composition of the National Assembly, states that “There shall be a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”
Section 50(1) of the constitution goes a notch up and states that “There shall be: (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”
For the avoidance of doubt, it is clear that from the above provision, the president or his party have no say in who becomes the senate president or House speaker and should therefore desist from hiding under zoning to perpetuate imposition which is the lot of Tinubu’s school of thought. Just in the same manner the legislature cannot dictate to the executive how to run its affairs, the executive cannot dictate to the lawmakers how to choose their leaders.
Whether Saraki were corrupt or not, Buhari should allow the lawmakers perform their constitutional duties, and the anti-corruption agencies do their work. He cannot be seen to be both the president and the judge. For a dictator turned democrat, this will be one way ill-advised to begin his government. He must steer clear. Whoever becomes the senate president of the 8th national assembly between Saraki or Lawan must be elected by their colleague senators.
These misgivings regardless, there is yet some good news. For the umpteenth time, Buhari has reportedly said he was willing to work with any leader of the Senate, irrespective of what part of the country he or she originates from. A statement released in Abuja Wednesday, stated that the president-elect has described as false, insinuations in the media that he was in support of any particular Senator’s emergence as Leader or that he belonged to any camp pushing for the emergence of a leader from a particular part of the country.
“I am prepared to work with any leaders that the House or Senate selects,” Buhari reportedly said, adding that, “It doesn’t matter who the person is or where he or she is from.” He added that the insinuations were probably borne out of people’s expectations based on the way things had happened in the past, but reminded Nigerians that CHANGE had truly come.
“There is due process for the selection of leaders of the National Assembly and I will not interfere in that process,” Buhari stated in the statement, adding that the media and the public should begin to get used to no more “business as usual”.
His words: “Nigeria has indeed entered a new dispensation. My administration does not intend to repeat the same mistakes made by previous governments,” he reiterated.
This is evidently some cheering news, not just for any of the contending camps in the battle for the soul of the National Assembly but the generality of Nigerians, who seek change in every facet of their lives and desire a manifestation of the promised change across the board, such that would not make “any animal more important than the other” or seek to massage the egos of some glorified godfathers at the expense of collective interest.