Whenever the history of the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is written at the end of its session on the 9th of June next year, the travails encountered by its President, Bukola Saraki, will no doubt be sufficiently captured.
TAIYE ODEWALE examines the travails, both the ended and subsisting ones.
Beginning of Saraki’s travails The beginning of travails for Senator Bukola Saraki, which he personally affirmed at different times, was his emergence as the President of the 8th Senate on the 9th of June, 2015 against the wish of leadership of his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the national level.
It would be recalled that prior to the official inauguration of the 8th Senate on the 9th of June, 2015, by the Clerk to the National Assembly then, Alhaji Salisu Maikasua, the APC had conducted a mock election, which saw to the emergence of Senator Ahmed Lawan now the Senate Leader, as preferred person for the presidency of the 8th Senate.
The in – house election was conducted with the supervision of APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose interest in who becomes the leader of the both chambers of the NASS was obvious.
But at the day of inauguration, Saraki with the support of Senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), totalling 49 then, and a small fraction of those elected on the platform of the APC under the aegis of ‘like minds’, emerged as the President of the 8th Senate unopposed with unanimous yes votes by all 53 Senators available at the time of inauguration.
That development did not go down well with the leadership of the ruling party (APC) and 33 out of 59 of its senators then, who were at the International Conference Centre (ICI) Abuja.
However, that did not stop the emergence of Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as President and Deputy President of the 8th Senate respectively.
False assets declaration saga Like a bolt out of the blues, after two months of futile attempts to fight Saraki’s leadership of the senate within the confines of the hollow chamber through APC senators under the aegis of Senate Unity Forum (SUF) then, judicial dimension was brought into the fight, through alleged 15-count false assets declaration slammed on him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) by the Attorney General of the Federation.
Instructively, at the commencement of his trial on the charges which were later increased to 18 in September 2015, Saraki in his ‘not guilty plea’ said: “This trial is politically motivated.
If I did not emerge as President of the 8th Senate few months back, these charges wouldn’t have been filed against me but I believe that at the end of the day, I would prove my innocence on all the charges”.
Like a foretold prophecy, three years after the trial, the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court on Friday last week , acquitted and discharged him from all the charges, including counts 4, 5 and 6 the Court of Appeal, declared in December last year that he has case to answer.
Valedictory statement Little wonder that after his acquittal by the apex court last Friday, Saraki in a personally signed lengthy statement said:”At the end of a tortuous journey of 1018 Days, counting from September 22, 2015, when the case began at the Tribunal, I am happy that I have been vindicated.
“The Supreme Court has affirmed that there is no evidence of false declaration of assets.
The court also observed that certain agents took over the responsibility of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in this trial, and one can infer that this was done towards a predetermined end.
“This outcome has gladdened my heart and further strengthened my belief in this country and as well as my faith in the Almighty Allah, who is the righter of all wrongs.
God has vindicated me today before the judgement of man, and I am most thankful and humbled at His grace and infinite mercies.
“Through it all, I refused to be shaken, knowing, as Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
said, that the arch of the moral universe may be long, but it bends towards justice.
I knew the day would come when justice would prevail and I would be exonerated.
“I have always believed in the infallibility of our Judiciary, secure in the knowledge that our courts – the last refuge of the oppressed – would never condemn the innocent.
This outcome is also a vindication of my belief in the rule of law.
“As I said in my first appearance at the CCT, this is a politically motivated case.
The case was trumped up in the first instance because of my emergence as the President of the Senate, against the wishes of certain forces.
Ordinarily, I doubt anyone would be interested in the asset declaration form I filled over 15 years ago.
“What we have seen is the opposite.
Instead of working together in the interest of the nation and to seek to do better for our people, we are fighting one another and using legal instruments to mount baseless accusations against one another.
“Instead of exhibiting the need for unity and working day and night for that purpose, we are stoking the fire of division and rancour.
I maintain that, above all else, my CCT trial has been a flagrant vilification of my person, and shows that some people are after their personal interests rather than the national interest.
Enormous wasted of state resources “As a result of the war of attrition, various arms of government have wasted resources needlessly.
It has been three wasted years across board in this country.
Three years that would have been devoted to tackling issues affecting Nigerians, including: economic recovery, insecurity, youth unemployment and strengthening national institutions – were wasted on malicious prosecution.
“People were ready to tradeoff three years that would have been devoted to fostering cooperation, unity and economic progress for their selfish ends.
It is my hope that those who are behind my persecution will see the handwriting on the wall and leave me to do the work for which I was elected, so I can continue to give my all to this great country of ours.
“As many have rightly observed, it is plain to see that the anti-corruption fight is being prosecuted with vindictiveness, to target perceived political opponents.
I believe in the need to fight corruption, but I will never be party to the selective application of the law or the rhetoric of an insincere anticorruption fight.
“I believe in fighting corruption and I have made my own humble contributions to the fight against corruption in this country.
As a presidential aide, I initiated the process that led to the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
FG’s dubious subsidy scam “I was the first governor to establish the Price Intelligence Unit, which later metamorphosed into the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) at the federal level.
In the history of this country, the highest fraud, the most brazen corruption has been the Fuel Subsidy scam.
No one wanted to talk about it or confront entrenched powers.
“As a Senator on the platform of the ruling party at that time, I sponsored a motion on the floor of the Senate calling for investigation that led to the unprecedented exposure of the massive corruption in the fuel subsidy regime.
“I thank Nigerians for standing by me through the difficult period of this trial.
The support of ordinary Nigerians and their faith in me, as well as their sophistication and discernment in seeing this case for what it was, has been a source of strength to me.
“I am most grateful for the support of my Distinguished Colleagues and the Honourable Members of the 8th National Assembly, for their unflinching support and regular attendance at the various proceedings.
“They were unfairly criticised for accompanying me on court appearances, but it is now clear that they did so because they believed that injustice to one, is injustice to all.
They have been the true embodiment of esprit de corps.
I thank them for banding together in the face of an unconscionable attack on the institution of the legislature”.
With the CCT trial and the earlier withdrawn forgery trial, out of Saraki’s way, can it be said that his judicial travails have ended, bearing in mind, the two cases he has with Police as regards alleged link with some of the suspects involved in the Offa bank robbery and cultists said to be on payroll of Kwara State Government and Mandate Office, widely known to be Saraki’s political outfit in Kwara State? Time will definitely tell.
