Date: 2015-09-26

There is uncertainty over President Muhammadu Buharis promise to form his cabinet at the end of September as Senate President Bukola Saraki, who will lead the screening of the nominees, is facing allegation of false assets declaration, FISAYO FALODI and SUCCESS NWOGU write

It is not certain that the much awaited cabinet expected to assist President Muhammadu Buhari to implement policies aimed at developing the country will be inaugurated before September 30 as promised by the President in many of his public outings.

Four days before the end of the month, followers of political activities in the country are worried that the current ordeal of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, may force the President to alter the deadline for the cabinet constitution. According to them, having full cabinet members in place involves sending their names to the Senate for screening, confirmation and their actual inauguration for allocation of portfolios by the President.

For Buhari to achieve these processes before the expiration of the September 30 deadline he had given himself, commentators believe that the President might need to mend the perceived strained relationship between him and Saraki, whose roles and those of his supporters are vital to the screening of the would-be cabinet members.

Saraki's ordeal was believed to have started when he emerged as the senate president against the directive of his party, the All Progressives Congress, which preferred another candidate, Alhaji Ahmed Lawan, to occupy the position. The commentators said little did Saraki know that his emergence as the Senate President would haunt him not long after.

rom then on, Saraki's supporters are of the opinion that the APC have yet to forgive the senate president. According to them, the current ordeal Saraki is passing through before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over allegation of false declaration of assets was deliberately planned by the party's chieftain to remove him from the position of the senate president. They said that Saraki was being persecuted for defying his party's directives on the zoning of the senate leadership positions. Leading the pro-Saraki supporters are 50 senators loyal to him, who alleged that a cabal in the Presidency was behind the senate president's ordeal.

After painstaking arguments by both prosecution and the defence teams over the nature of the allegation, the tribunal adjourned trial till October 21, 22 and 23. Political watchers are, however, expressing worry on the implication of the CCB and Saraki saga on the polity. A social analyst, Mr. Victor Iyoho, sympathised with Nigerians who he said might need to endure another four years waiting for the change they had voted for to come. Hence, Iyoho foresaw a shift in the constitution of the cabinet members by Buhari.

He was not sure Buhari would get the cabinet ready by September 30 as promised by the president because the ministers must first be nominated, screened and confirmed by the senate before they could be inaugurated. Iyoho said, "If Buhari fails to fulfil his promise to constitute his cabinet by September 30, it will not be a new thing. I don't see him constituting the cabinet as promised. According to the constitution, for the cabinet to be constituted, members must be screened by the senate and as of now, the senate is not at peace or divided.

"When there is no peace, don't expect any good thing or healthy deliberation on national issues from the senate. The senate president is trying to fight the battle of his life; he has to survive first before he thinks about Nigeria." The analyst believes that the involvement of Buhari could not be completely ruled out in Saraki's ordeal and as a result the senate president might want to retaliate.

Iyoho said, "We cannot completely rule out the involvement of the President from what is going on. I think Saraki too might want to draw his own pound of flesh. One of the ways to do it is to declare an indefinite recess for the senate. He too will have to fight because the scenario appears like an eye for an eye. If he survives this now, he may definitely want to retaliate by making sure that Buhari does not achieve what he promised Nigerians." He said unless the frosty relationship between the President and Saraki is mended now in the interest of Nigerians, the citizens would continue to wait for the change that might not come.

Iyoho said, "Unfortunately, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. In this situation, Nigerian masses will suffer because the current crisis in the senate is not a good omen for Nigeria. Even the APC will want to blame the non-constitution of the cabinet on the division in the senate." Explaining his understanding of cabinet constitution, the analyst said, "It is about getting the President's team ready to work. Buhari is just a man; he does not know it all. He needs to bring in cabinet members as promised Nigerians because they need to help him in their respective capacity to actualise his political vision for the country. Already, the country has lost four months and if you take four months away from four years, it means we have lost a lot of ground."

While agreeing with the anti-Saraki group that the senate president's ordeal was not a political persecution but an attempt to fight corruption in the country, Iyoho said, "The fight against corruption should be systematic. The President cannot just be fighting everybody at the same time. If he thinks he can throw the dragnet and get every corrupt person at the same time, he would be heading for a bigger trouble."

Similarly, a political scientist, Mr. Tayo Akinyemi, said though the Presidency had denied involvement in the Saraki's saga, the timing of the trial suggested otherwise. Akinyemi expressed doubt that Saraki would be willing to screen Buhari's ministerial nominees now going by the stress he is undergoing over allegation of false declaration of assets.

He said, "It is necessary for Buhari to take his job seriously now. If he is comfortable working without ministers, he should tell Nigerians, but there must be no excuse for failure.

But a rights activist, Mr. Babatoyin Adeleye, did not foresee any shift in the constitution of the cabinet. He believes that the senate can still screen the nominees if the President sends their names to the Red Chamber within the next four days.

Adeleye said, "Though Saraki may be angry with the Presidency because of his current ordeal, that does not mean he should abdicate his responsibility as the senate president, notwithstanding the battle of wit between him and his party. "What Nigerians demand from the government, including the senate is a healthy anti-corruption war devoid of intimidation of opponents either real or perceived. So, if Buhari fails to constitute the cabinet before the deadline the President himself has set, I expect Saraki to prove his maturity by pressurising the President to honour his promise; I don't expect him to declare recess for the senate as a form of hitting at the Presidency."

Meanwhile, Saraki's ordeal has elicited divergent views in Kwara State where he was governor between 2003 and 2011. Many residents of Kwara State especially members of the APC expressed their opinion that the senate president was being persecuted because of his stand on national issues. They also said Saraki should not be distracted from his avowed commitment to work with Buhari to reposition the country, as the former governor transformed Kwara from a civil service state to an economic hub and flourishing economy in the North-Central geopolitical zone of the country.

The pro-Saraki group include the National President, Ilorin Emirate Descendant Progressive Union, Alhaji Abdulhamid Adi; Saraki's former aide on Political Matters, Alhaji Kayode Yusuf; the spokesperson for the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Salihu Woru; the Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad; a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Razak Atunwa; and a Labour Party governorship candidate in the last general elections, Dr. Mike Omotosho.

But many others, mainly from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party differed over the matter. Some of them even called for the resignation of Saraki not only as the senate president but as a senator representing the Kwara Central Senatorial District.

The anti-Saraki campaigners include two former PDP governorship aspirants, Mr. Dele Belgore and Mr. Sunday Babalola; the state PDP Chairman, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo and the state PDP spokesperson, Chief Rex Olawoye.

Adi, a frontline pro-saraki voice in Kwara, described the senate president's ordeal as purely politically motivated and wondered why the CCB failed to raise any issue concerning his asset declaration forms since 2003. He said, "I see it more or less as a political persecution. May be there are some political opponents that are trying to get at him.

"We believe Saraki will come out of it. You are presumed innocent until proven otherwise." Adi urged the CCB not to be used to achieve personal political gains by some external elements.

Yusuf, a former political adviser to Saraki, said all residents of Kwara State were solidly behind the Senate president in his current travail, adding that nobody would even recall him from the senate."

He stated that the charges were only allegations which were not enough reasons to call for his resignation or even attempt to impeach him. He said political upheaval was not strange to the Saraki dynasty as Saraki's father, the late Olusola, had his own political challenges during his time."

However, Belgore said people's concern should be for the office rather than the occupier of the office. He stated that it is the collective responsibility of Nigerian citizens to protect the office from being tarnished.

He said public officers take oath upon assumption of office to protect the integrity of their office and not to protect their own interest at the expense of the office. According to him, the issue right now is neither about guilt nor innocence.

Belgore said, "Just in July this year, Lord Sewell, the Chairman of the Ethics and Standards Committee of the British House of Lords resigned after a scandal over his private life.

"In his resignation letter, he claimed that the question of whether his behaviour breached the parliament's Code of Conduct was a technical one, but the bigger questions are whether his behaviour is compatible with his office and whether continuing in that office would damage and undermine public confidence in it.

"He therefore chose to resign to limit and help repair the damage to an institution he holds dear. Lord Sewell was just a second-tier politician in British politics. How do we want the rest of the world to see us?"