Senate in rowdy session as 83 members back Saraki

 

Senate President, Bukola Saraki

THE Senate, expectedly, had a stormy session on Tuesday as some members of the upper legislative chamber protested the passing of vote of confidence in the Senate president, Olusola Saraki, by 83 senators.

Tuesday was the Senate’s first plenary since the arraignment of Saraki by the Code of Conduct Bureau for false asset declaration. The senior lawmakers had been on break since August 13.

Members of the House of Representatives, however, on Tuesday, said they had chosen to support the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, conveyed the position of the House in an address to lawmakers as they reconvened in Abuja after a six-week annual recess.

There was uproar in the Senate as the senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District, Kabir Marafa, complained that he was denied the opportunity to air his own view before the Senate president subjected the confidence motion to vote.

Senator Babajide Omoworare also protested the inclusion of his name as a co-sponsor of the confidence vote in Saraki.

Omoworare, representing Osun East Senatorial District, said his consent was not sought even as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business.

He later, in a statement, dissociated himself from the vote of confidence passed in Saraki.

In an electronic mail to one of our correspondents, Omoworare said he was not contacted before his name was included in the list of 84 senators, who passed votes of confidence in Saraki.

He had then moved that his name should be struck out of the motion.

The motion for the lawmakers to pass vote of confidence in the Senate president was moved by an All Progressives Congress member representing Niger East Senatorial District, David Umaru, on behalf of 83 others.

The motion, reportedly endorsed by 48 Peoples Democratic Party senators and 35 APC senators, was passed by overwhelming shout of ‘ye’ by the lawmakers.

It was the second confidence vote in Saraki in as many as two months. Eighty-one out of the 108 members of the Senate passed a similar vote on July 28

Umaru, while moving the motion, had noted alleged interference in the affairs of the senate “by detractors and media propaganda against senators, the senate and its leadership for selfish politicians.”

He said the Senate would not allow itself to be distracted and that it would not succumb to blackmail in the course of carrying out its constitutional responsibilities.

He therefore called on innocent Nigerians, groups and political associations not to allow themselves to be used by any person or persons to intimidate or blackmail the Senate and its leadership.

But Marafa,who is the spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, a group opposed to the leadership of the Senate by Saraki, caused an uproar by noting that Saraki was only calling on his supporters to contribute.

Marafa, who was later recognised to speak after Saraki had ruled on the motion, cited order 53 (5) of the Senate Standing Rule, which forbids the Senate from discussing any issue before the court.

The insistence of Saraki that Marafa should also read the provision of Order 53 (6), which equally forbids any senator from raising any issue upon which the Senate president had ruled upon, degenerated into an open confrontation between the two lawmakers.

While Marafa argued that Saraki deliberately denied him an opportunity to talk before he ruled on the issue, the Senate president stood his ground and ruled the Zamfara senator out of order.

An angry Marafa consequently stood up and accused Saraki of giving only his loyalists the opportunity to speak on the floor and the resultant reactions from both pro- and anti – Saraki senators disrupted the deliberation on the motion on the outbreak of cholera moved by Senator Soni Ogbuoji.

An APC member representing Bauchi Central, Senator Issah Missau, climbed his seat and shouted on Marafa to “shut up and sit down” and Marafa responded by threatening to beat up Missau.

At the height of the confusion in the chamber, the immediate past Senate president, David Mark, stood up and quietly walked out.

In the ensuing confusion, Saraki called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring the proceedings to order but some of Marafa’s colleagues in the SUF, led by Senator Ahmad Lawan, sent back the Sergeant-at-Arms, saying the situation was under control.

Marafa was thereafter led out of the chamber by some senators who took him to the office of Senator Olusola Adeyeye (Osun Central) and barred him from speaking to journalists.

The aggrieved senator later returned to the chamber and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, apologised on his behalf to the Senate.

The Senate spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye, while addressing journalists after the plenary, lamented “the unruly behaviour of Marafa” and warned that the Senate would take necessary disciplinary action against him in future if he repeated such attitude.

Melaye said, “The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in session, apologised to Nigerians for the unbecoming attitude of Senator Marafa. That act is disgraceful, unacceptable and condemnable and that the senate regrets that.

“We want to assure Nigerians that this will be the last time that the Senate will condone such misbehaviour. His action contravenes Section 56 of the Standing Rule of the Senate but his misbehaviour is regrettable.

“The Senate will do everything within its powers to ensure that the situation does not repeat itself and where it is repeated, it would be met with stiff adherence to the rules of the Senate.”

Saraki alleges external influence

Saraki on Tuesday fingered “certain individuals outside the Senate” as responsible for his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

He spoke while addressing Senators in plenary.

He said, “I wish to reiterate my remarks before the tribunal, that I have no iota of doubt that I am on trial today because I am the president of the Nigerian Senate, against the wishes of some powerful individuals outside this chamber.

“But what is clear to me also is that the laws of Nigeria and the rules of the National Assembly give consideration only to the wishes and desires of those of you who are here today as members of the Senate; to elect as you wish, one of your peers as President of the Senate.

“This, in your wisdom, is what you have done by electing me to be the first among all of you who are my equals. The laws of Nigeria do not give any consideration to any other forces outside the Senate in the election of its president.

“To yield the ground, on this note, is to be complicit in the subversion of democracy and its core principles of separation of powers as enshrined in our constitution.”

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to interfere in the election of the National Assembly leadership even in the face of enormous pressure on him to do so. He said Buhari had “proved quite concretely that he is indeed a born-again democrat.”

“Too many people have fought and died for the democracy that we enjoy today,” he noted.

He said the senators would not be honouring heroes and heroines of democracy and their memories if they should allow the sad chapters of our history to continue to repeat themselves.

He said, “As for me, I am prepared to do my duty in the defence of our democracy and in safeguarding the independence of the National Assembly.

“My duty, as I see it, is to do justice and honour to the memory of those who have paid even higher prices to give us this democracy and this Constitution. Primarily as a senator of the Federal Republic and as the Senate President I owe it to this Senate to stand strong in the face of relentless persecution.’’

House votes for anti-graft

The House of Representatives said on Tuesday that it wholly supported the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government and its decision to cleanse the polity of sleaze.

But, the House urged “great circumspection” in the ongoing prosecution of the Senate president over alleged corruption charges “in order to maintain proper focus in the pursuit of the common good.”

The House commended Saraki for submitting to the jurisdiction of the CCT.

Dogara, who spoke on behalf of his members, said, “The barometer of the polity has been on the rise of late because of certain developments concerning the arraignment of the President of the Senate.

“While commending the President of the Senate for submitting himself to the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal in the recognition that no person is above the law, I wish to caution that there is need for great circumspection in times such as this in order to maintain proper focus in pursuit of the common good.

“In this regard, I wish to commend you, my dear colleagues, for the maturity of avoiding further escalation through media commentaries.

“We commend and fully support the effort of government towards sanitising the polity through the war against corruption, impunity and other vices.”

Dogara noted that the House expected institutions created by Acts of the National Assembly to be fair and ensure that justice was seen to have been done at all times.

He noted that acting to the contrary could be a stain on the success of democracy.

The Speaker added, “As legislators with the mandate of making as well as reforming the law, we expect that these institutions, which are the creation of these laws, would prove their capacity for fairness, justice and strict adherence to the rule of law in order not to endanger our democracy.

“I am confident that our justice system has the capacity to do justice to all citizens. In any case, the legislature remains the bulwark in defence of our democracy, fundamental human rights and rule of law.”

To his colleagues, Dogara reminded them of the fact that they must lead by example by being above board to be able to perform their duties of over-sighting ministries, departments and agencies of government.

“We must at all times remind ourselves that we are equally been over-sighted by the people whose mandate we hold and indeed ultimately by God.

“We will therefore do well to adopt the righteous doctrine of leadership by example, only then shall we be able to face accountability with confidence,” the speaker said to his colleagues.

‘Confidence vote not consequential”

Reacting to the development in the Senate on Tuesday, the Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, described the confidence vote in Saraki as “unfortunate and tragic.”

Adeniran said the development confirmed that the legislature was made up of people who might not allow Buhari’s anti-graft war to succeed.

He said, “It is a very sad development, no doubt. Of course, they even knew that the gentleman had several corruption and fraud allegations against him before they elected him, and that is the tragedy in which Nigeria has found itself; to have a legislature that has a preponderance of people of doubtful integrity and that will water down whatever dream that the executive led by President Muhammadu Buhari has.

“Well, they can go ahead and pass any vote of confidence that they want to pass but I believe that at the fullness of time, Nigerians will rise against all the looters and they will stone them on the street.”

A former Chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani, described the action of the lawmakers as “disgraceful and one targeted at further rubbishing the country’s image in the comity of nations.”

Ubani said, “The way we behave in this country is sometimes very disgraceful. We should stop making ourselves a laughing stock in the comity of nations. What is the meaning of vote of confidence? If a man has any criminal issue to sort out with the judiciary, what effect does that have on the judicial process? It has no effect whatsoever; they are just wasting their time.

“If the man has a case to answer with the judiciary, he should go and clear himself. If the judiciary says he is guilty, anybody can go and pass a vote of confidence; it will go to no issue.”

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Seni Adio, also said the vote of confidence passed in Saraki had no bearing on his trial at the CCT.

“What is happening in the National Assembly has no bearing on what is happening in court. The senators are not judicial officers and they are not a court of law. It is for the court to pronounce on the innocence or otherwise of a suspect,” Adio said.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Onueze Okocha, said what happened in the National Assembly would have no effect on the judicial process at the CCT.

He said, “What happens in court is different from what happens in the National Assembly. Whatever happens within the precinct of the National Assembly is basically a legislative activity and the legislators are at liberty to proceed as they see fit based on what their rules and order of proceedings indicate.

“The standard in every legislative house is that if the members of the house no longer have confidence in the elected leaders, the honourable thing for those leaders to do is to resign. It happened recently in Australia, where it led to the Prime Minister losing his position. It is a standard in legislative houses across the world; if lawmakers lose confidence in their leader, it naturally follows that the end of the road has been reached for that elected leader.”