The Nigerian
Senate has accused the Muhammadu Buhari-led government of “wanton abuse
of judicial processes” and seeking to bully the legislative arm of
government by targeting the institution’s leadership with phantom
criminal charges of forgery.
The senate said that Buhari government’s
aim is to cause a change of leadership in the upper chamber of the
Nigerian parliament by all means.
This allegation follows reports of criminal charges of conspiracy and forgery
of senate standing rules brought against the Nigerian senate
leadership, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, by the federal
government. Saraki is president of the senate while Ekweremadu is the
deputy senate president.
“We are compelled to alert the good
people of Nigeria and the international community, that our democracy is
in danger,” the Nigerian senate said in a statement signed by its
spokesperson, Senator Aliyu Sabi, and delivered to the press on Sunday,
June 19, 2016. “(This) is a return to the era of impunity and lack of
respect for due process which we all fought to abolish.”
The senate spokesperson said that the
issue of rules of the Nigerian senate was internal and provided by the
staff of the National Assembly. It said that the current senators had no
influence over the rules applied in the June 9, 2015 elections that saw
Saraki emerge as senate president and Ekweremadu as his deputy.
“The rules of the senate and how the
institution elects its leadership are internal affairs. The rules of a
new Senate are provided by the National Assembly bureaucracy. It has
always been so since 1999,” the statement read.
“After the inauguration of the senate,
if senators have objections to any part of the rules, they can follow
the procedure for changing it. Senators of the eighth senate have no
control on the rules applied in the elections of June 9, 2015 because
until after their inauguration, they were only senators-elect, and
therefore mere bystanders in the affairs of the senate,” Senator Sabi
declared in the statement.
Also charged alongside the two presiding
officers are former clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasu, and
his deputy, Benedict Efeturi.
The suit was filed on June 10, 2016
almost a year after Suleiman Hunkuyi, secretary of anti-Saraki Unity
Forum, petitioned the inspector general of police, demanding criminal
investigation into allegation of forgery of Senate Rules used for the
elections of the presiding officers last year, June 9, 2016.
Earlier, in a statement, Mr. Ekweremadu
stressed neither he nor Mr. Saraki was invited for interrogation by the
Nigerian police or indicted in its July 2015 report to the
attorney-general of the federation. He queried the basis for the fresh
charges filed.
Read the full statement by the Nigerian senate delivered to The Trent by email on Sunday, June 19, 2016.
1. After reading in the national
newspapers and online platforms of the planned charges of forgery and
conspiracy preferred against the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola
Saraki, his Deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, immediate past Clerk of the
National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa and the Clerk of the Senate,
Mr. Ben Efeturi and reviewing the circumstances leading to the filing of
these charges, we are compelled to alert the good people of Nigeria and
the international community, that our democracy is in danger and that
the attempt by the Executive Arm of the Federal Government to muzzle the
legislature and criminalise legislative processes in order to cause
leadership change in the National Assembly is a return to the era of
impunity and lack of respect for due process which we all fought to
abolish.
2. We urge President Muhammadu Buhari to
please call his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar
Malami, to order. The Senate of the Federal Republic voted freely to
elect its leadership into office and continuing attempts to change that
leadership through the wanton abuse of judicial processes cannot stand
in the eyes of the world. It is clear that the Attorney General and
party leaders behind this action either lack the understanding of the
underlining principles of constitutional democracy, the concept of
Separation of Powers, checks and balances and parliamentary convention
or they just simply do not care if the present democracy in the country
survives or collapses in their blinded determination to get Saraki and
Ekweremadu by all means necessary, including abuse of office and sacking
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
3. The Nigerian people have enough
economic hardship at this time requiring the full attention and
cooperation of the three arms of government, instead of these attempts
to distract and politicise governance. We are in a state of economic
emergency such that what the National Assembly needs at this time are
executive bills and proposals aimed at resolving the crises of
unemployment, currency depreciation, inflation, crime and insecurity.
What the National Assembly needs now are executive bills to build and
strengthen institutions to earn revenues, fight corruption and eliminate
waste. Instead, we are getting hostile actions aimed at destabilising
the National Assembly, distracting Senators from their oversight
functions and ensuring good and accountable governance.
4. We must make it clear here to the
individuals in the Executive arm and party leadership behind these plots
not to mistake the maturity and hand of co-operation being extended to
the Presidency by the legislature as a sign of weakness. The National
Assembly bent backwards to accommodate various infractions and
inefficiencies in pursuit of inter-arms co-operation and national
interest. We did not follow up the various infractions because we
believe there are bigger issues which the government has to attend to in
order to ensure that every Nigerian have food on his table and live
comfortably in a secure environment. We know that the country is
actually in a state of economic emergency and all hands must be on deck.
5. This latest plot is directed at
forcing a change of leadership in the Senate or, in the extreme case,
ground the Red Chamber of the National Assembly. Or how do one interpret
a move in which the two presiding officers are being set up to be
remanded in Kuje Prison or incapacitated from sitting at plenary through
a day-to-day trial on a matter that is purely an internal affair of the
Senate.
6. This obviously is a dangerous case of
violation of the independence of the legislature, undue and unnecessary
interference in the internal affairs of the Senate and blatant abuse of
the judicial process. The matter now being criminalised was brought to
the plenary of the Senate in session, over a year ago. And because it
had no support, it was overruled and roundly defeated in chambers. To
now take a matter that was resolved on the floor of the Senate to the
police and then make it form the subject of a criminal prosecution of
freely elected legislators beats all imagination of free thinking men
all over the world. The implication is that any matter that fails on the
floor of the National Assembly will now be taken to the Police, thereby
endangering every Senator and House member. This current move clearly
runs contrary to the Doctrine of Separation of Powers and Checks and
Balances which are fundamental to the successful operation of the
Presidential System of government. It runs counter to the principle
outlined by the Supreme Court in the Adesanya Vs Senate case where it
was held that nobody should seek to use the courts to achieve what he or
she has failed to push through on the floor of the National Assembly.
7. This present efforts, therefore, is
clearly a coup against the legislature with the ignoble aim to undermine
its independence and subject the law making institution to the whims
and caprices of the executive. It is a plan to return Nigeria to the
dictatorial era which we have, as a nation, voted to reject. It is a
dangerous trend with grave implications for the survival of our
democracy and the integrity of the component institutions. This rule of
men as against the rule of law is also the reason why the War Against
Corruption, one of the cardinal objectives of the present
administration, is losing credibility because people perceive it to be
selective and, in most cases, aimed at settling political or partisan
scores.
8. The Rules of the Senate and how the
institution elects its leadership are internal affairs. The Rules of a
new Senate are provided by the National Assembly bureaucracy. It has
always been so since 1999. After the inauguration of the Senate, if
Senators have objections to any part of the Rules, they can follow the
procedure for changing it. Senators of the Eighth Senate have no control
on the rules applied in the elections of June 9, 2015 because until
after their inauguration, they were only Senators-elect, and therefore
mere bystanders in the affairs of the Senate.
9. We therefore urge all Nigerians and
the International Community to rise up and condemn this blatant attempt
to subject the legislature to the control, whims and caprices of the
executive. If the Legislative branch falls, democracy fails as there
will be no other institution empowered by the Constitution to check and
balance the enormous powers of the Executive branch. We also call on the
judiciary as the last hope to save our constitutional democracy and
stand up for the rule of law, by doing that which is right in this case.
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