Last week, the SGF accepted to honour Senate’s invitation, having earlier shunned same, to explain some alleged irregularities in contract execution in the North East, in breach of the Public Procurement Act. This is in addition to the face-off between the Red Chamber and the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) on the one hand and the EFCC’s helmsman, Ibrahim Magu , on the other. TAIYE ODEWALE writes on the power twist and its implications on democracy
Within the last two weeks, it has been series of face-offs between the Senate and some notable appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari on issues of concern, the outcome of which led to the rejection of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the Senate and declaring the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Rtd Colonel Hammed Ali, as unfit to head public office.
That the Senate within the last two or three weeks has been having series of battles with some appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari is no news but issues behind such battles can still be played up in putting the face-offs in proper perspectives.
Problem for one of the appointees, precisely the EFCC Acting Chairma, Ibrahim Magu started in the Senate last year when the Department of State Service (DSS), forwarded a damming report against him when request for his confirmation was forwarded to the senate by President Muhammadu Buhari, upon which the Senate refused to screen, let alone, confirm him through a resolution to that effect on the 15th of December last year.
A decision the President reacted to by forwarding another letter to the Senate in January this year seeking for his confirmation upon clearance by him over the alleged DSS report which was however not to be , penultimate Wednesday when the Senate eventually screened and rejected him largely on the same DSS report.
On that fateful Wednesday, Magu, who was accompanied into the chamber by the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Senate) on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, at 11:50am was grilled for 1 hour 40 minutes by the lawmakers before he was asked to take a bow and go.
Magu began to face his journey to another round of rejection when the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweramadu, fired the first shot, asking him to explain to the Senate how he responded to the corruption allegations leveled against him by the DSS.
Ekweramadu told him that the explanation became imperative because President Buhari did not clearly state in his letter of renomination how he responded to the issues that convinced the him (Buhari) to renominate him.
From that moment, Magu lost his comportment and stammered throughout the two hours he was put under intensive scrutiny by the lawmakers.
Magu became jittery and restless, and was looking for possible chance to evade the question as he told the chamber that he responded in a written statement and that if he knew that it would come up, he would have brought the document.
He also said that talking about it would fuel acrimony between the two sister security agencies, that is the EFCC and the DSS, an excuse that the President of the Senate did not accept as he encouraged him to respond to the question to the best of his ability.
Again, preparing his mind to know that it would be difficult for him to survive the concluded case of his rejection, another Senator, Shehu Sani, reminded him of what transpired in the Roman Senate on the Ides of March, which is March 15, a day the Roman senators conspired and killed Julius Caesar.
Sani said, “today is the Ides of March, a very memorable day in the history of Roman Empire when Julius Caesar was executed when he came to the Senate. So, may the Lord be with you”.
Meanwhile, the last straw that broke Magu’s back was when Senator Dino Melaye, came up with the DSS report, which was forwarded to the Clerk of the Senate reaffirming the earlier report that indicted Magu of corrupt practices.
At the end of the screening hearing, Magu was asked to take a bow and go while the Senate resolved to plenary to report progress and vote on the screening. When the matter was put to voice vote, Magu was obviously rejected.
The matter has been eliciting commentaries in the public domain particularly among lawyers and public affairs analysts.
Another appointee of President Buhari, who is also being battled by the Senate is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal, who was asked by the chamber to resign his appointment for alleged misappropriation of funds earmarked for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Boko Haram devastated North East region.
The Senate passed the resolution on December 14, 2016, and also called on the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), to immediately commence the prosecution of the SGF, whom the Upper Chamber accused of abusing his office in the roles he played in the award of contracts in respect of the North East humanitarian crisis.
According to the lawmakers, the SGF violated some of the provisions of Public Procurement Act and the Federal Government Financial Rules and Regulations guiding award of contracts.
Following Lawal’s reaction to the resolution of the Senate on him, which the legislators described as derogatory, the apex chamber summarily called on President Buhari to sack and prosecute him.
However, President Buhari, in a letter to the Senate, read on January 23, 2017 by its President, Bukola Saraki, accused the apex chamber of acting in contravention of the principles of the rule of law in the course of its investigation.
He accused the Senate of failing to invite the SGF or his company, allegedly involved in contract execution in the North East, and said that such action negated the principle of fair hearing and amounted to violation of the principle of rule of law and the constitution of the land.
Buhari also said that the Senate made its conclusions and recommendations from an interim report, and argued that for such weighty allegation, the Red chamber ought to have waited for the final report to be presented to it upon which it would have made its final resolutions.
The President therefore, said that he would not sack Lawal based on the interim report, which in his thinking did not meet the fundamental tenets and requirement of a democratic government as enshrined in the constitution.
A submission that had no doubt made the Senate to back down a bit by giving the SGF a fresh invitation to face its Ad- Hoc committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East for self defence over alleged mismanagement Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE) funds meant for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the region seriously devastated by the boko haram insurgency.
But the SGF who supposed to have appeared before the committee on Thursday this week, failed to honour the invitation on account of other national engagement as stated in a letter dated 22nd March, 2017.
The letter addressed to the Chairman of the committee, Senator Shehu Sani reads: “Your letter of invitation to appear before the above committee refers.
I wish to kindly request that you draw the attention of the other members of the Committee that l will not be able to appear before the Committee primarily because of a pressing engagement of Government which clashed with the date and time of the hearing.
“I kindly request a rescheduling of the hearing, please”.
Another appointee of the President that had a running battle with the Senate is the embattled Comptroller-General of Customs, Rtd Colonel Hammed Ali who at the end of the day, had been declared unfit to hold any public office by the upper legislative chamber and therefore called for his resignation.
It would be recalled that Senate’s problem with Ali was triggered by new policy on import duty planned by the revenue generating agency, upon which Ali was summoned by the red chamber to appear before it in full uniform depicting the rank of Comptroller- General and explain in detail the purpose and implications of the policy for the country and her citizenry.
However, the retired military officer failed to honour the invitation of the Senate, in addition to allegedly making some denigrating and provocative utterances in the media about the institution of the Senate.
When he was eventually compelled to appear last week Wednesday, by the resolution of the Senate, the chamber turned him back for defiantly appearing in mufti to brief it as summoned.
Despite Ali’s argument that there was no law to his knowledge, that he should wear uniform as the Comptroller-General of Customs, the Upper Chamber directed him to reappear before the it in plenary on Wednesday this week in full Customs uniform as mandated.
Obviously from the highlighted incidences so far, it is evident that the Senate is indeed engaging the Executive under President Muhammadu Buhari in a subtle war to keep it in check to avoid progression to dictatorship and also, to assert the independence of the Parliament, which was highly subjugated to the whims and caprices of the Executive under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
