Can Nigerian senators stop disgracing themselves and disrespecting Nigerian citizens at home and in diaspora. Some of us who lives outside Nigerian shore are embarrassed at what they sometimes consider as good legislation. How can any human being with any sense of decency and self-worth think that it is appropriate to change any part of the law on which the senate president is been tried on? It looks so bad and appalling because this lunacy is taking place in the middle of the trial of the senate president. What type of uncivilized behavior and impunity is this? The outside world is looking at what the senate is doing with shock and anger. Nigerian image is been tarnished by some irresponsible and self- serving people who are suppose to know better.
For people who are not following what the Nigerian senators are doing. The Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki is on trial before the Nigerian Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for non- declaration of all his assets as required by law for all public officials. The office in charge of all declared assets is the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). They are vested with the power to investigate assets declared by public official to ascertain if they are correct. Mr. Saraki has challenged the power of the CCT to try him. He filed lawsuit against CCT and alleged that they lacked the power to try him but the court ruled against him. He appealed the lower court’s decision before the federal Court of Appeal. The Appeal’s court ruled again ruled him. He appealed against the Appeal court ruling to the supreme court. The supreme court reaffirmed the lower and Appeal court ruling. It appeared for a moment that Dr. Saraki is out of options but he found another way to table another motion before the Court of Appeal which was struck out recently as lacking in merit and abuse of court process.
The senate president then called a meeting of like- minded senators in his house and they agreed to change the sections of the law he is been tried on. The argument of the like-minded senators is that CCT should not be under the office of the secretary to the federal government who is a politician capable of using his or her office to witch hunt political opponents. The senators want to move CCB, CCT to either the judiciary or to the National Assembly. How in the world do these senators think that CCT, CCT should be moved under the control of the National Assembly they are suppose to police? There is a good argument to move CCT, CCT and Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to a neutral agency who is totally independent of the executive and legislative branch but it should not be done in the middle of the trial. These agencies should be under the control of Nigerian Judicial Commission (NJC) or under another independent body so politicians or government in power will not use the above agencies to victimize the opposition parties and other citizens.
The senators want to go a step further by changing Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 which stopped endless appeals by Nigerians in-order to delay ongoing court trials. The act corrected a situation where ongoing trials are frequently interrupted by defense attorneys with endless appeal of all or parts of the law an individual is been tried on. I must mention that Nigerians including the politicians have been largely successful because a lot of criminal cases never get resolved due to the frivolous appeals. Sometimes judges throw up their hands in frustration and in some cases dismiss the case or just let it die a slow death. Dr. Saraki and some of his colleagues wants to change the reform so endless appeals will resume again.
I have questioned the timing of the senate president’s trial in the past because some of the offenses he is been tried for occurred during his tenure as governor. He was not charged when he became a senator but was suddenly charged after he crossed and outmaneuvered his party by conniving with the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party senators who are in the minority to get himself elected as senate president. The timing of his prosecution was questionable with echo of politics written all over it.
The fact that politics may have played a part in the timing of his Dr. Saraki’s prosecution does not justify what the senators are doing now. A better course for Dr. Saraki should have been to allow the CCT to finish their case against him and then appeal to the higher court. It appears that he may have a strong case before the Appeal’s court which may result in his exoneration. Hatching a plot to scuttle his trial by urging his colleagues to change the law will backfire. It is obvious to Nigerians that what is going on in the senator is not for the benefit of Nigerian citizens. The senators who are going along with this shenanigan will be reviled by Nigerians and will be held in great disrepute and contempt.
The path Dr. Saraki chose will cost him dearly. The little reputation he has left has gone. The impunity displayed by senators so far is beyond the pale and should be condemned by all Nigerian. I have supported due process for Dr. Saraki and even have some sympathy for his plight, but I no longer care or have any respect for him. He will get what he deserved. The senators who are supporting him should desist immediately from tempering with the law of the land at this time. They are telling the world that they can do whatever they please at any-time without consequences. Nigeria is worth more than one man. The lower courts and the Appeal court will decide the fate of the senate president.
For the opposition party, People’s Democratic Party who are spearheading the change in CCT, CCB and Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015, you are digging a deeper hole for yourself. You lost election partly because of monumental corruption which characterized your government. You should be trying to reform your party and cleanse the odor of corruption you left behind so Nigerians may consider your party in the next general election, but your party is turning Nigerians off. Your party may never smell power at the federal level if oil price rises to between $60 to $70 per barrel. PDP members has not learned any lesson from their defeat and appears to have no desire to reform itself.
For Nigeria, the rule of law must take hold for the country to survive. Business as usual cannot continue and corruption and embezzlement of public fund must be eliminated or brought down to the barest minimum.