President of the Senate and Chairman of National Assembly Bukola Saraki should be congratulated on his first anniversary in the powerful positions. It has been a stormy year in office for him, and it promises to be stormier. He has been unable to still the storm, despite his desperate efforts to do so. Ironically, he triggered the turbulence himself, perhaps underestimating its force and overestimating his own capacity to manage it.
Saraki’s statement marking the thought-provoking anniversary, titled “8th Senate: The journey so far”, was an ego trip. This is how he started his statement: “One year ago today, the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was inaugurated. That inauguration marks a further consolidation of our democracy and opens a new chapter in the practice of government by representation in our country. Let me congratulate all my colleagues not only for the time we have spent in the legislature, but also for all that we have achieved together and all that we have planned to achieve for our peoples and our country as the highest legislative body in the land.”
It is a misinterpretation and misrepresentation of demonstrable reality to suggest that the 8th Senate is built on a democratic foundation. The country certainly doesn’t deserve a legislative commander that emerged in a morally controversial manner, and whose emergence was coloured by a colourless subversion of his party’s position.
Only a dysfunctional decoding of the concept of party supremacy could have encouraged the circumstances that brought him to the helm of affairs at the Senate, an ascendancy he actualised through an unapologetic defiance of his party’s desire and decision.
It is noteworthy that the same warped twist resulted in a queer combination and cohabitation at the helm of the Senate. With Saraki of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party elected to power on the premise of progressivism, and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu of the unprogressive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the 8th Senate has a leadership that is ambiguous and confusing. Saraki made matters worse by rubbishing his party’s list for Senate leadership posts. It is, of course, worth mentioning that Ekweremadu is alleged to have attained his position based on a forged Senate standing order.
To compound the complications, Saraki became the first Senate President to face trial on corruption-related charges, and the ongoing trial may well be a journey for him. It remains to be seen where the trial would take Saraki.
A report said: “The Code of Conduct Bureau cited a 13-count charge of corruption against Mr. Saraki. In charge number ABT/01/15, dated September 11, 2015 and filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Saraki is accused of offences ranging from anticipatory declaration of assets to making false declaration of assets in forms Saraki had filed with the Code of Conduct Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state. He was also accused of failing to declare some assets he acquired while in office as governor, acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, and accused of operating foreign accounts while being a public officer.”
The report continued: “An official of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Peter Danladi, stated in a court affidavit that the investigation of the various petitions of corruption, theft, money laundering, among others, against Saraki in 2010, was conducted jointly by the officials of the EFCC, CCB and the DSS. “The EFCC conducted its investigation on the various petitions and made findings which showed that the defendant/applicant abused his office, while he was the governor of Kwara State and was involved in various acts of corruption as the governor of the state. The defendant/applicant borrowed huge sums of money running into billions from commercial banks, particularly Guaranty Trust Bank, and used the proceeds of the loan to acquire several landed properties in Lagos, Abuja and London, while he was the governor of Kwara State.”
This is the man at the head of the country’s federal legislature. This is the man who apparently continues to enjoy the support of the country’s federal legislators. This is how Saraki ended his first-anniversary statement: “Once again, I want to thank you for the unalloyed support I have and continue to receive from my colleagues in the last one year. This has been unprecedented and I don’t take it lightly. This unique support has been steady, bipartisan, and unconditional. Their support has been the bulwark on which my belief in the emergence of a greater Nigeria rests.”
He added: “The support has meant everything to me and I am more than ever determined to play my role as a leader to see to the emergence of a more virile National Assembly playing its constitutional role without fear or favour. I congratulate all Senators for all that we have achieved in the last one year. I am confident that when the history of this era is written, all of us would be amply remembered as the generation that played its part and did its best to make Nigeria a better place.”
Why does Saraki think he would last the distance? He has three years of his four-year term left. He is involved in a conflict that is nothing short of a domestic war of sorts. It is not for the faint-hearted. On Saraki’s side in particular, he will need a tremendous capacity to endure a war of attrition. Saraki must understand that in attrition warfare, the fundamental strategy is “to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses”.
He should understand what he is facing, or perhaps more aptly, the force of the forces ranged against him. How much can he take as his opponents pursue a strategy of attrition? How far can his backers go with him, considering that he is fighting what looks like a losing battle?
The significance of Saraki’s first-anniversary statement may well be its insignificance. It is lamentable that the position of Senate President, a public office of great democratic significance, has been reduced to insignificance in Saraki’s first year in the saddle.
NATION
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