Ministerial screening aftermath: Saraki in fresh dilemma

The controversial end to the screening and confirmation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees may have confronted the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with the dilemma of choosing between the devil and deep blue sea, writes EZREL TABIOWO

Political analysts who followed the ministerial screening exercise by the Senate over the last couple of weeks observed that the Senate President finally bowed to party supremacy, while kicking to the curb internal democracy, which has been his style of leadership since he assumed office as the Presiding officer of Nigeria’s Senate.
They also point that the Senate President at this time, following his decision to bow to party supremacy, will have to choose where lies his stronghold and support base between the two political parties that constitute membership of the Red Chamber.

Recall that Senator Saraki had emerged as Senate President against the wishes of his party, the All Progressive Congress, a development which led to a frosty relationship between him and key leaders of party.
Saraki, who against all odds contested the Senate Presidency, outsmarted the party’s preferred candidate, Senator Ahmed Lawan during the June 9 election which saw him elected unopposed.

His decision to defy the party’s directive which prevailed on him to drop his Senate Presidency bid, analysts noted, was responsible for some of the woes which befell him just months into his tenure as President of the eighth senate.
Also, in his bid to stamp his authority as the number three citizen of Nigeria, one which some stalwarts within APC were yet to accept, Saraki, yet again rebuffed the overtures of the party when he brushed aside APC’s recommendation of Senator Lawan for the position of Majority Leader of the Senate.

The Senate President, in response to the party’s request, had explained that his hands were tied over influencing Lawan’s candidacy, a situation which subjected his nomination to the resolution of Senators of the North East caucus, the region where the position was zoned to, and where Senator Lawan hails from. Unfortunately, Senator Ali Ndume was instead nominated by members of the caucus for the position of Senate Majority Leader.
Saraki’s disposition, which was interpreted by his party as one which flagrantly disregarded party supremacy, however, enjoyed the support of Senators belonging to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, all of whom had thrown their weight behind him during the June 9 election that saw his emergence as Senate President.

Also, the overwhelming support given Saraki by PDP led to the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President of the eighth Senate during the June 9 election.
Clearly frustrated by, and displeased particularly with the opposition retaining the Deputy Senate President position, the All Progressives Congress with Daggers drawn, moved to have Saraki’s head on a tray by ensuring his removal from office.

Out of the blues, the Senate President’s wife was haunted by corruption charges leveled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Toyin Saraki, was alleged by the commission to have diverted sums of money running into billions of naira, to companies she had connections with, during her husband’s tenure as governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.
Similarly, barely two months after his wife’s invitation by the anti-graft agency, Senator Saraki was himself roped into a 13 count corruption charge brought against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal over false declaration of assets.

Determined to fight back, the Senate President approached the court of Appeal to stop the tribunal from having him arraigned since it lacked jurisdiction to so do. The court, which severally delayed judgment in between when the upper chamber was engrossed in the screening exercise of the ministerial nominees, finally gave the tribunal the nod to proceed with Saraki’s trial a day after the Senate confirmed President Buhari’s nominees.
Political analysts have posited that the delay by the court of Appeal to deliver its judgment was a political maneuver by APC to get Saraki to confirm Buhari’s ministerial nominees.

The party, according to analysts, having achieved their aim, decided to abandon the embattled Senate President to face the charges brought against him by the tribunal.
Even worrisome is the fact that the strong support base of Senator Saraki, consisting of 49 PDP Senators was last week dismantled following a disagreement which ensued over the screening and confirmation of one of the ministerial nominees, Rotimi Amaechi, who presently is in court over allegations of corruption leveled against.

Saraki, in his bid to placate and mend fences with the leadership of his party, embraced party supremacy but he refused to accommodate calls by PDP lawmakers who demanded a stay of action on the screening of Rotimi Amaechi.
Recall that the Integrity Group, based in Port Harcourt, had written a petition to the Senate wherein it was alleged that Amaechi diverted over N70 billion state funds during his tenure as governor of Rivers state.

The Upper Chamber, in line with investigating the matter, had referred the petition to the Senate Committee on Ethic, Privileges and Public Petitions.
Nevertheless, the Senate on receiving the report of the Senator Samuel Anyawu-led committee last week during plenary failed to consider same before going ahead to screen Amaechi.
However, the decision to so do was protested by the Peoples’ Democratic Party Senators last week, as the opposition lawmakers staged a walk out following a move by the APC led chamber to confirm Amaechi’s nomination.

The lawmakers had kicked against Amaechi’s confirmation as a minister since the nominee had gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the content of the petition and the White Paper of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
The disagreement between APC and PDP Senators was however sparked off on the floor when Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South), raised a point of order, drawing the attention of the Chamber to the fact that some of the 18 ministerial nominees listed for confirmation had pending reports on petitions against them, yet to be discussed before their confirmation.

The President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, however, deferred the imminent furore by asking her and the entire Senate to stay action on the issue raised by Olujimi, until it was time to consider ministerial confirmation.
Immediately after the confirmation of the INEC appointees, the Leader, sensing the impending commotion, moved that the Senate should go into an executive session. The Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, seconded the motion, and the Chamber went for the closed door session.

After the session, which lasted for one hour and fifteen minutes, Saraki announced that the Senate reviewed the consideration of reports on the petitions against some of the nominees as well as the confirmation of the nominees.
The Senate President called on any Senator who had observations or comments to make same known before the commencement of the confirmation. Akpabio said that the Senate should proceed to confirm them, while such observations or comments should be made at the point of a nominee’s confirmation.

When it got to the nominee from Imo State, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, Senator Akpabio noted that there was a petition against him; but the Senator who brought the motion, AthanAchonu, told the Senate that the petitioners had asked him to withdraw the petition, and that ended the matter.
On getting to Amaechi, the President of the Senate called on the Chairman, Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator, Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East) to read the recommendations of the report for Senate consideration.

Anyanwu while reading the report told the Senate that the Committee found out that the issues upon which the petition was based was pending in court for judicial decision.
He further said that the Committee observed that neither the Senate nor the presenter of the petition, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, knew that the matter being presented on the floor of the Senate was already a subject of litigation in an Appeal Court in Port Harcourt.
He also said that, since the matter was already a subject of litigation in a competent court of law, and since the Senate could not work contrary to its own rules, as contained in Order 41(7), the Committee was constrained from taking any further action.

Accordingly, the Committee recommended that the Senate should not consider the confirmation of Amaechi, urging the Senate to honour the report of the Committee since its findings and decision were based on the provisions of the Constitution and the Standing Orders of the Senate.
But APC senators asked the upper chamber to dismiss the committee’s report, and go ahead with the nominee’s confirmation saying since the matter was already in court.

The PDP lawmakers, however, pointed that going ahead to confirm Amaechi would place a moral burden on President MuhammaduBuhari especially since he was yet to be acquitted by a court of law over the corruption allegation leveled against him.
Sensing the refusal of their colleagues to be swayed by their argument, the PDP senators staged a walkout, leaving APC senators to complete the nomination.
However, the 17 nominees earlier confirmed before the rowdy session include: Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) Professor Anthony Gozie Anwuka (Imo), Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia), Muhammadu Musa Bello (Adamawa) and Ms. Aisha Abubakar (Sokoto).

Also confirmed were: Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim(Yobe), Prof. Claudius Daramola (Ondo), Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu), Brigadier Mohammed Dan-Ali (Zamfara), James Ocholi (Kogi), Zainab Ahmed(Kaduna), Mustapha Shehuri (Borno), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa) Prof. Isaac Adewole (Osun), Usani Usani Uguru (Cross River), Abubakar Bwari Bawa (Niger) and Adebayo Shittu (Oyo).
Speaking to newsmen after the walkout, Akpabio said it was unfortunate that Saraki towed the path of APC senators, adding that staging a walkout was their only of expressing their dissatisfaction with the process.
He, however, played down the issue of PDP senators turning their back against the Senate President, explaining that since he was elected unopposed, the issue of supporting him does not arise.

“We were shut out when we wanted to react to the report when it was laid. There was a little bit of something we don’t think it is in conformity with morality. Once a case is before a competent court of law, any action on that matter is subjudice and the committee was able to establish that the issues that were brought against the nominee are already issues that were adjudicated upon by the court of Appeal and other courts of competent jurisdiction”, he said.
Consequently, with the show of displeasure demonstrated by PDP Senators last week, analysts have expressed strong concerns that Senator Saraki may very well be up against tough times.

With the loyalty of 49 PDP Senators shaky and uncertain, same leaves the Senate President with a support based that is purely constituted of lawmakers from the All Progressive Congress, and all of whose affiliations are divided along two groups – The Like minds, a Pro-Saraki camp; and Unity Forum – an Anti-Saraki group.
As Saraki’s trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal continues only time will tell if his political sagacity has the stamina to withstand the turbulence already brewing from his romance with the Peoples Democratic Party. Also, events in the following months, analysts say, will determine whether or not the APC has the ability to sustain Saraki’s leadership of the upper chamber without recourse for vendetta that sees to his eventual exit.