This is a press release by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi,Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs.
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 confortably 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.