 |
 |
|
|
Search Fo r | |
ARCHIVES |
SUBSCRIPTION |
APRIL 2, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 25 |
On the Hook
Finally, the Nigerian Senate seems to have gripped President OlusegunObasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar on the balls By Tony Egbulefu, Abuja Many looked up to Tuesday, March 20, with a good measure of anxiety. But for the seven-man Senate Review Commntee saddled with the task of having a second look at the report of the senate Ad-hoc Committee which investigated the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) scandal, it was no less than a day of great expectation. The review Committee, headed by Senator Umaru Tsuari which came into being on Tuesday, March 6, also had Senator Bello Yusuf, Timothy Adudu Sa’ad Mohammed, Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, John Azuta-Mbata and Chris Adighije as members. Tuesday, March 20, was a decisive date for the submisson of their findings and recommendations to be based on an insightful review of the Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba Ad-hoc committee report, submitted to the senate on February, 28. Though upon its constitution, the Senator Tsauri-led review committee was asked to round- off the assignment in a weeks time, it came back to the floor of the Senate eight days after March 14, to ask for a time extension. It got an added one week. It became needful to set up the review committee following the controversy and acrimony that trailed the report of the Ndoma-Egba Ad-hoc committee, which after its inquest into the PTDF defalcations by the President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar indicted the Vice President on abuse of office and with a recommendation for a commensurate punishment to be visited on him. And for what it observed as acts of breaches in the PTDF Act by the president, it recommended Obasanjo for rcprimand, observing that the projects the president authorized outside the PTDF mandate were laudable. The worry with these recommendations was that they were arrived at after what looked like surface scratching by the Ndoma-Egba Ad-hoc committee. As it were, many disturbing issues in the PTDF sleaze, were evidently side-tracked by the Ndoma-Egba panel. And as the chair of the Ad-hoc committee came under intense verbal assault, he blamed his discredited job on lack of adequate time. For an all-embracing job, Senator Tsauri who was holidaying in New Jersey, United States of America, was called back home for a save-our-soul (SOS) assignment by the Senate President. Ken Nnamani, who doubles as the chairman of the Senate’s selection committee. The review committee had just two terms of reference, namely: • To evaluate and assess the evidence, findings and recommendations of the Ad-hoc Committee in the light of any new information and evidence, with a view to proposing resolutions to be adopted by the Senate. • To take account of views and comments of senators during the debates and to update and improve the work of the Ad-hoc Committee in the light of new evidence or perspectives, presented during the debates. Those who looked up to the review committee with anxiety, hinged such a concern on a possibility of an entirely different complexion of findings and recommendations as well as the telling instruction of the Senate President to the review committee upon inauguration on Tuesday, March 13 to come up with "actionable recommendations”. This charge by Nnamani, coupled with the body language of some of the Senators, pointed to some dire directions, which included a desire by the Upper Legislative House to come up with indictments on both the President and his deputy consequent upon which the Senate may effect their impeachment or pass a vote of no confidence on the duo and cause them to step aside on the basis of a diminished integrity. What would have followed with either of the two approaches was a likely interim government, to be headed by the Senate President, for a period of three months, as approved by the constitution. Many Nigerians saw this possibility coming and indeed moved to fast track it. The National League of Veteran Journalists, for instance, made a plea to the National Assembly to immediately put a machinery in place for the establishment of a caretaker government that would see through the general elections. On their heels last week, were leaders of eight opposition parties-Action Congress (AC) All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Democratic. Peoples Party (DPP) and Democratic Front for a Peoples Federation (DFPF)-which visited the National Assembly last week to urge the Senate President to gear up to assume the presidency following the worrisome signals in the current political process. In another move, the NDP, though contesting the Presidency, went to court to order the national electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to desist ‘from carrying . out the April elections. Curiously, the NDP’s reason is that the time left for the conduct of the elections is too short to consummate a meaningful transition. Despite the public’s reading of the Senate and Senate President’s body language, Nnamani and the Upper Legislative House, grabbed every opportunity to distance themselves from the persuations. While the Senate said that there is no constitutional provision for a vote of no confidence on the President or the Vice, Senator Jonathan Zwingina, Tuesday last week, said that the Senate cannot swing an interim government arrangement and had not contemplated such, but rather is focused on guiding the political process to a logical conclusion. He spoke as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs. Zwingina: “Let me say this outright on behalf of the Senate. The Senate is very desirous of successful general elections and is working very hard towards it. The Senate met in close session last week and resolved to do whatsoever is possible to have the general elections conducted next month. "The Senate has no plan whatsoever for anything other than the conduct of the general election on April 14, 2007 for State elections and April 21, 2007 for Federal elections. The constitution does not anticipate any other form of arrangement other than the general elections. The interim government being touted is not within the contemplation of the 1999 constitution and its not within the contemplation of any Senator that I know and I do not know that any Senator has suggested it, it is suggesting it or will suggest it”. Speaking for himself, Nnamani told the leaders of the eight political parties, who came to urge him on, that it would not be his wish to see the political situation in the country degenerate to the level that he would have to step in to assume the country’s mantle of leadership, particularly when he has no ambition for such a position. “I repeat, I have no inordinate ambition. I would like to use this opportunity to say that though you mentioned the role of the Senate President on the impending situation, I pray that it does not come to that, but that we go through the thing (election) normally. Some papers are already speculating that I have a hidden agenda,that we are trying to get rid of the incumbent so that we can conduct election. I don’t think I am that very overtly ambitions”. Nnamani told the delegation of the political parties. What then was driving the Senate and the Senate President to get at the President and his deputy? Was it just the need to cleanse the Presidency of the PTDF Augean stable and bring those culpable to book as Nnamani said he desired? Or was Senate and the Senate President, playing politics in their denials to sack the Obasanjo and Atiku. The peoples’ quest to know the truth, drew all eyes to the Senate on March, 20, when the Senator Tsauri-led review panel was scheduled to submit its findings and recommendations. But as the Senate convened that day, Tsauri again, pleaded for more time. The reason this time, was that Otunba Oyewole Fasawe’s testimony to the committee the previous day, Monday March 19, called for deep impact analysis. Addressing his collegues and the Senate President on the Floor of the Senate on that day. Tsauri said: “Mr. President, I am coming under order 43 to explain that the review Committee that was due to submit its report today cannot do it. We had thought that we would finish our report on Monday. We invited Otunba Fasawe and he came with information, which completely changed the direction of our investigation. “We need more time to do a comprehensive work. We appeal to our colleagues to allow us more time. We shall submit our report anytime from now”. Nnamani overruled his colleagues, who insisted on a specific time frame from Tsauri and granted the Review Committee an extension to submit its report, “anytime from now” , as Tsauri pleaded. Fasawe’s most telling revelation was that President Obasanjo was a participant and benefactor to the Mofas account, which belongs to Fasawe, and had at a point, given him N700 million to pay into the account, when it was in red. Since the PTDF scath came to the open, the President has persistently denied that he knew anything about the controversial bank account belonging to Fasawe, from where the 2003 Presidential campaigns of the People Democratic Party (PDP) were funded, by the President and his Vice. This Fasawe revelation also lent credence to Atiku’s claim that both the Mofas account, which the President denied knowledge and that of Marine Float, were accounts dedicated to PDP’s 2003 campaign for the Obasanjo-Atiku joint ticket. And that the President knew too well about them. In fact, Atiku had made several claims that the President had diversely authorized withdrawals for his sidekicks from the accounts. Determined to imbed the Fasawe angle in its review and yet, submit its report “anytime from now”, as it requested, members of the committee retired to the seclusion of the White House in the National Assembly and kept their flOSC on the grinding stone till early morning hours of the following day, Wednesday March, 21, but even as they deprived themselves of sleep to assess the Fasawe testimony, they had about 8pm, same day they asked for extension, written and endorsed a resignation letter. Titled “Re: Resignation from Senate Review Committee on PTDF”, the seven-member committee stated thus: “We wish to inform the leadership that the Review Committee, set up by Senate to review the report of the Ad-hoc Committee on the PTDF, concluded its report as scheduled. However, considering the fact that the leadership is not certain about the time it would want the report to be presented, we members of the Review Committee, hereby respectfully resign our membership. We remain grateful for the honour of consideration to serve”. They made a dramatic come back from their resignition to present the report hours later. The Review Committee’s report, which was circulated in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon, is 44 page document, that embodies 12 “actionable recommendations”, on all the actors found complicit in the PTDF sleaze. For their respective roles in the Fund’s cash bonanza, the Review Committee, recommended that both Obasanjo and Atiku, should face trial in the Code of Conduct Bureau. Fasawe got a clean bill of health, but not so for the former executive secretaries of the Fund, Harnisu Abubakar and Hussaini Jab. Both, the committee said, should continue to face heat from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) until they are stripped of every filthy-lucre they cornered in PTDF. Though the President and his deputy were recommended for a Code of Conduct Bureau trial, it is instructive that the committee cleared Atiku on all the allegations, except that of 20 million dollar approval on October 14. 2003, without the authority of the President. The committee described the approval as “illegal” and thus recommended Atiku for trial. Same goes for the President. He was cleared on all the allegations except the one that has to do with the Fund’s projects he approved last year. The projects are: •Incorporation of Galaxy Bone (by Afe Babalola chambers) •Purchase of computers for civil servants under the computer for all Nigerians Initiative. •Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Rehabilitation. The President gave approval for these projects and had to get them ratified retroactively. The committee viewed this action as “illegal” and thus recommended the President for Code of Conduct trial. Though the Vice President testified that a verbal approval was given to him by the President in relation to the $20 million approval that nailed him, the President, who did not appear before the Review faulted the claim in a letter to the Senate, delivered by Senator Florence Ita-Giwa. This however, riled the Atiku Campaign Organization, which argued that the President ought to make his denial under oath so far as Atiku testimony was under oath. But of more worry to Nigerians is the likely impact of the resignation of the members of the Review Committee as well as the recess the Senate embarked on its heel, to reconvene on May 2 after the elections. Ndoma-Egba, who led the Ad-hoc Committee and who is also the chairman of Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said the recommended trial of the President and the Vice would be done by the new government that would be put in place by May 29. He also posits that it would be easier to put both men on trial then, since they would have lost their immunity. But of import is the fact that the Tsauri Committee recommendations would have no bite until it is presented at the floor of the Senate and debated by the Senators. The debate would determine whether the Senate would adopt the recommendations, amend or discard them. Ndoma-Egba also said the long recess, rather than take the steam off the Senate on the PTDF matter, would arm all Senators with ample time to study the recommendations and articulate a position. Indications suggest that it would however be unlikely for the recommendations to scale through the Senate debate, when it reconvenes. There are feelers that the powerful pro-Obasanjo senaters would shoot clown the adoption of the Review Committee recommendation on the President. Their daring move to either frustrate the discussion of the Tsauri committee’s report on the Senate or tinker with it according to the members of the committee, forced them to resign and in order to remain in the path of honour, rather than be associated with a discreditable job. Senator Ibrahirn Mantu, a President Obasanjo close ally and Deputy Senate President, it was gathered, started it all, Having got fore knowledge that the indictment and recommendation for Code of Conduct Bureau trial was extended to the President, Mantu went to work, mobilising pro-Ohasanjo forces in the Senate and the Presidency to frustrate the presentation of the report. Curiously, his endeavours had the blessing of the Senate Presidency. In unison, the entire Senate leadership canvassed for an advance copy of the report to be given to it, before the formal presentation at the Floor. And to the chagrin of the review Committee members, the scheduled discussion of the report on March 20, the day it was billed for submission, was for no declared reasons, deleted, by the Senate leadership. In fact, the presentation of the report was removed from the order paper and since the Senate was to proceed on recess a day after, Wednesday, Tsauri said, the best option for them in that case was submit the report and resign. Tsauri as the Senate chair on Rules and Business Committee, said he was sure and in the know that the tabling of his committee’s report was on the order paper for Tuesday March 20. How come it vanished from the Order Papers, without his knowledge? This is his question. With the mysterious removal of the tabling of report from last Tuesday’s Order Paper, Tsauri is pained that the report would only have to be considered after the Senate had reconvened in May. “What does that mean after we worked so hard?”, he queried. Tsauri against the belief in the pro- Obasanjo camp, said his committee did not work with a mindset to nail Obasanjo and Atiku to even scores for both leaders, but posited that, relied on Section 88 of the constitution, the PTDF Act and the Financial Management Control Act, which allow us to only expose corruption or wastage of public funds. So all we did was to recommend both the President and his Vice to the Code of Conduct Bureau, which should handle the case”. Apart from pro-Obasanjo forces in the Presidency and the Senate, the manner Tsauri elected to go about his assignment,would equally not earn him praise from the governor of his state, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who is also the Presidential flagbearer of the PDP. Yar’Adua, it was gathered brought pressure to bear on Tsauri for a soft-landing for Obasanjo, but as it were, it appeared that Tsauri was determine to effect a balancing act or has a strong sympathy for the Vice President. Either way, the president’s sympathizers believe that Tsuari was a wrong man for such a job that brooks no partisanship. To this camp, Tsauri was equally indiscrete in his efforts to swing events to the side of the Vice President. They cite the intimidation strategy of Senator Olasunkanmi, Senator Azuta Mbata and Senator Chris Adighije who dared to seek probing clarifications from Fasawe, during his testimony as having given Tsauri’s mindset away. And for Nnamani, Tsauri deserves harder knocks for his insistence on breaching the Senate’s Standing Rules and due process on submission of panel's report. The Senate President, who addressed the press on the Tsauri committee’s report and the members resignation before the Senate proceeded on recess last Wednesday, said his only sin was that he insisted on upholding the rules of the Senate, while Tsauri and members of the committee wanted to sidestep laid down rules. According to Nnamani, the procedure starts with the tabling of a report, after which follows the presentation and the debate. But in the case that led to the resignation of the members of the Review Committee, Nnamani said Tsauri for some undeclared reasons, decided to present the report to the Senate before laying it on the table, and that he had to stand his ground against the breach. Nnamani, however, blamed the action of the Review Committee on communication gap. Senator Saad Mohammed, a member of the Committee, on his own part, not only resigned his membership, he same day, decamped from the PDP to the rival AC.
|
|
|||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
Home Archives Subscription Advert Rates About Us Contact Us ©2006 The Source Magazine is published weekly by Summit Pulications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. |