Will APC Give Saraki a Breather Now?

President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki

With his conduct so far, the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, deserves a breather from his All Progressives Congress party, writes Shola Oyeyipo

Last week’s Court of Appeal judgment in the suit filed by the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, did not come to many as a surprise. A surprise would have been caused to happen if the judgment had gone the other way. But in what has now come to be known as a re-writing of the constitution, the justices of the appellate court in a split decision of two to one ruled that Saraki should go and face trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal despite the fact that the tribunal as presently constituted is made up of two persons – the chairman and one other person.

Section 15(1) of the 5th schedule of the 1999 constitution states: “There shall be established a Tribunal to be known as Code of Conduct Tribunal which shall consist of a chairman and two other persons.” And in Section 1 (3), the Constitution affirms that “If any other law is inconsistent with the provision of this Constitution,; this Constitution shall prevail. And that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.”

In delivering its judgment, the appellate court had said, “Although the Constitution is silent on the quorum, the Interpretation Act, a veritable legal tool had smoothly settled the matter with a provision that two members can sit in a tribunal matter.”
But like an informed position had interpreted that provision, before the talk on quorum can be brought up for a debate, it is imperative that the law regarding the composition must be fulfilled. Therefore, the issue of composition must first be settled. And what the law says is that there shall be a Chairman and two other members but that is not the case as the CCT as presently constituted has not fulfilled this and that makes the tribunal unconstitutional.

However, the fear on the likely turn of the Appeal court judgment might have been justified following its initial suspension. Recall that when the matter came up sometime in September, the judgment was suspended indefinitely. But opinions were divided over what might have informed the decision. While a lot of people believed that the matter was essentially political and a mere persecution of Saraki because of the manner he assumed office, there were others, who believed too that even if the matter was political, the merit of the case should be looked into and the matter determined accordingly.

Also instructive is the fact that Saraki personally subjected himself to the rule of law by going to the Tribunal for the trial to proceed while also seeking the intervention of other courts to ensure that the Tribunal follows due process in the trial and more importantly, that his fundamental rights are protected.

It is for reasons like this that the trial puts to test, the ability of the present administration to proceed on corruption trial without also contaminating the system. But the decision of the Court of Appeal to not grant the interim order for stay of proceedings sought by Saraki’s lawyers while insisting that the defendants be served all the relevant papers and processes so that they could defend themselves was curious.

It is worthy of note too that the court promised that the matter would be expeditiously dealt with and judgment given so that the CCT could get the right bearing to either continue with its proceedings or finally discontinue. But after both parties had addressed the court, the appellate court fixed judgment on the issue of competence and jurisdiction of the CCT to hear the Saraki case for October 19, at exactly 2 pm.

On the appointed day, however, 30 minutes to the commencement of the reading of the judgment as promised to the parties, with Saraki’s lawyers firmly seated, a clerk of the Court reportedly walked into the court room and announced that the Court would no longer give its judgment that day and that the parties would be informed of the new date. This was reportedly done with no reason, thus raising instant suspicion of foul play.

Immediately, the clerk went ahead to start locking up the windows and doors to the court room and that remained the situation for almost two weeks before the court curiously announced last Friday as the date for judgment. Indeed, there were fears that the judgment might have been ‘arrested’ because the failure of the Court of Appeal to read its judgment meant that it had also not given the right direction to the Tribunal on whether it should continue with its proceedings or that the proceeding had become unnecessary.

It was no wonder therefore that 48 hours after the Court of Appeal’s refusal to give judgment, the Tribunal too sat and decided to await the judgment of the higher court. But instead of adjourning indefinitely, the Tribunal fixed November 5 and 6 as dates to reconvene and review the situation or resume hearing as the case may be, following happenings at the Court of Appeal.
But since the Appeal Court had given its judgment, it might be easier to hazard a guess on the direction the tribunal too may head except the Supreme Court chooses to save the day.

Beyond the legal fireworks is also the place of politics in all that is playing out. There is a swirling belief amongst members of the public that the trial is political and every inch of the way, there are more than convincing indications to prove that the Saraki trial has more political colourations than a genuine desire to tackle corruption at whatever hint.

This is why observers hold the view that if the bone of contention is the loyalty of the Senate President to the government and the cause of the party given the manner he emerged; he has in the past weeks proven to be a true APC member, also in the manner he had so far conducted himself, especially during the screening exercise.

Not only has he shown that he is a loyal party man, who enjoys the respect of his colleagues across party lines and that he also can be relied upon to rally the Senate behind party positions, Saraki has equally proved that there is nothing the President wants from the Senate that he cannot help him get. It is now incumbent on the presidency and the party leadership to reciprocate this new gesture and consolidate the new cooperation between the executive and the legislature.

The presidency and the party should, as a matter of fact, help to open a new window of peaceful relationship between the National Assembly leadership and the Presidency and it is certain that the gesture would be imbibed by other powerful forces in the APC, who are aggrieved by the manner the Senate leadership emerged.

But this appears impossible except the said external influences being brought in on the Saraki case cease their fireworks. The President has a responsibility to find a political solution to the issue as many believe everything about the case smacks of politics and orchestrated persecution. Furthermore, the President should help to create an atmosphere conducive enough for unity to thrive in APC, the National Assembly and the country by living true to type of personal examples.

Although there were speculations a few weeks ago that the leadership of the APC had stepped into the matter with a view to stemming the tide, such an intervention must be seen to have been truly done. A national daily had reported that some leaders of APC, who were impressed with the way Saraki handled the screening and confirmation of all the 36 ministers at a go – the first time in contemporary history – now want the trial to end, even as they seek to reconcile Buhari and Saraki.

A source in the party was quoted as having told Sunday Tribune that the party chiefs were impressed that Saraki got the Senate to clear all the nominees, despite some real bottlenecks laid on the path of some of them.

“You can see that even in the days when the PDP had overwhelming majority, it was not always certain of getting all the ministerial nominees through the Senate. Most times, the Senate, even with an overwhelming majority of PDP members used to reject nominees of PDP presidents. But with a slim majority in the current Senate, the Senate President secured clearance for all our nominees. This is a good omen,” a leader of the party said.

The party chiefs also said in the process of securing confirmation for all the nominees, Saraki also helped the APC secure its most needed unity in the Senate, thus ensuring that the majority secured by the party was put to good use.

“It was the unity among APC senators that ensured the confirmation of Chief Rotimi Amaechi. If the division had remained, we won’t be able to achieve that, because all the PDP senators needed was just a few dissenting voices from the APC. I have it on good authority that leaders of the party are insisting that one good turn deserves another and that they will work on Buhari in the new week to ensure that the party reciprocates the gestures shown by Saraki. The man has given indication that whatever the APC policies are, they can rely on the Senate as an ally,” Sunday Tribune quoted a source saying.

As welcoming as the idea sounds, it is important the APC puts it to a good use and ensure a close knit house in the life of the administration because the unity of the two arms of government is critical to the successes of the government. Already, government has wasted too much time setting up a cabinet but Saraki played a good role in making sure that the nominees did not have problems with their clearance, knowing full well what it has taken the president to put the team together.

This is not in any way kicking down efforts at containing corruption, but where the processes of prosecution is evidently fraught with defective processes ab initio, the outcome is sure to have the problem of acceptability as a mindset might have been formed already. The fact that the Saraki matter has a very close bearing with political underhand is the reason government must strive to put an end to the distractions but form a synergy with the legislature in common and collective interest.