THESE
are not the best of times for Bukola Saraki, Senate President and chairman of
the so-called 8th National Assembly that has done virtually nothing about its
law-making responsibilities, but has continued to rip Nigerians off collecting
huge allowances for practically sitting on its palm and watching the sun go
down each day since it was inaugurated last June.
Mr. Saraki’s
National Assembly has spent more time on recess than in the chambers of the
Assembly, no thanks to the leadership struggle that has bedeviled the place
since the intrigue that brought Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, his counterpart in
the House of Representatives, into office.
As if that was
not enough, Saraki has now been dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for
failure to fully declare his assets as required of elected officers.
For failing to
appear before the CCT on the day slated for hearing the case against him,
chairman of the CCT, Justice Danladi Umar, has ordered the arrest of Saraki via
a bench warrant that the police claims it is yet to receive. Saraki has himself
taken the preemptive action, through his counsel, Joseph Daudu, of challenging
the jurisdiction of the CCT to hear his case.
Saraki’s latest
troubles started on the rather fateful day of September 11, 2015, when the
Federal Government filed a 13-count charge against him before the Code of
Conduct Tribunal. Among other infractions, Saraki was accused of failure to
declare ownership of properties on choice locations in Lagos and Abuja.
These include
property on Plot 2A, Glover Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; Plot 2482, Cadastral Zone A06
at No. 1 Tagus Street, Maitama, Abuja and Plot 2481, Cadastral Properties
Limited at No. 3 Tagus Street, also in Maitama, Abuja. Although Saraki is also
required to declare his assets as part of the process leading on to his
election as two-time senator before his election as senate president, the
infraction for which he is being called to account now dates back to his terms
as governor of Kwara State.
That means Saraki
has been required to declare and must have declared his assets a number of
times since he made the declaration that is now proving troublesome for him.
This cannot but
lead to the reasonable question of what the Federal Government, or more
appropriately, what the Code of Conduct Bureau has been doing all this while
asking no questions of Saraki? Did they just wake up to the realisation that
the man didn’t make full disclosure when he declared his assets years back as
governor of Kwara State?
Or is the CCB
like the Economic and Financial Crime Commission that has suddenly woken up
from its deep slumber and is now going after its prey after years of ignoring
them under the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan- is the CCB like
the EFCC merely doing the ‘eye-service’ of supporting the Muhammadu Buhari
administration’s fight against corruption? What was this body doing all this
while, Nigerians would be asking?
In a country
where the rumour mill is never silent and where conspiracy theories are not in
short supply- in fact they are the first refuge of scoundrels with houses not
just cupboards full of skeletons- in such a country like ours where meanings
are quickly read into actions no matter the merit of such actions, people have
been peddling stories of Bukola Saraki being a victim of persons more powerful
than him in the polity.
High on the
conspiracy list is the president, Muhammadu Buhari who has been accused of
showing barely-concealed disdain for Saraki’s leadership of the National
Assembly. First to tow this line of argument is the People’s Democratic Party,
whose spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, himself under serious accusations of
corruption by members of his own party, has accused the Buhari presidency of
despotism bordering on a desire to annex the powers of the legislative arm of
government, and disdain for the principle of separation of powers.
The reason the
PDP would argue in this fashion is not difficult to see. It all dates back to
the self-same intrigue that brought Saraki, a member of the All Progressives
Congress, into office with the active connivance of his erstwhile comrades in
the PDP, his former party. This was against the position of his party that had
names of other party members penciled down for the leadership of the National
Assembly. The APC therefore demanded their resignation to no avail. While the
party was able to reach a compromise with Dogara at the House, the situation in
the Senate has since been deadlocked with no solution.
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