Senate President Bukola Saraki faces three cruel choices, none of which is capable of redeeming him. One, he could be absolved of the 13-count charge slammed against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau, for which he has been facing a convoluted trial since September. Two, he could be found guilty, thus wrecking his political career and ruining his reputation for life. And, three, he could coax the government and everybody else involved in the case into a truly disingenuous political solution that could see him ending up neither innocent nor guilty, neither tried nor excused from trial. Left to him, he would have preferred that the case never came up in the first instance. Indeed, given the sordid and unpredictable choices facing him, there is no proof that in his solitude he would not want the hands of time turned back to enable him make different choices.
The Appeal Court, which reserved ruling in the case he filed some two weeks ago to disqualify the CCT from proceeding with his trial, has now ruled it could grant no such relief. The case will now continue except he can get the Supreme Court to come to his rescue. For reasons that are not too hidden, Senator Saraki seems determined that the case should not proceed. He has mustered overwhelming support from his colleagues across the political divide, and across the two chambers of the National Assembly. And he has managed to convince himself and his supporters that the merit of the case does not count as much as the politics of the case. According to him, he is in court fighting for his honour and reputation because he summoned the effrontery to grab power in the Senate. He deploys such expiatory words as political persecution, witch-hunt, and legislative independence to stultify the case and justify his relentless rigmarole.
This column is not privy to what Senator Saraki and his lawyers think of the case against him, whether he has hope of freedom or hopelessness of conviction. Given his determined effort to thwart the case, however, he gives the impression he fears the direction the case may take. He is alleged to have engaged in false declaration of assets and corruption. The allegations are distributed into 13 charges by the prosecution, which says it needs just two or three days to prove its case. Until the case is finally determined, however, no one can say how the pendulum would swing.
The choices Senator Saraki faces are appalling because the implications are far-reaching. Assuming he fails at the Supreme Court, and the trial proceeds but he is absolved at the CCT, the victory will strengthen his hand, weaken the bargaining hand of the ruling party, cause a drawn-out stalemate at the ruling party level until one party to the intra-party crisis surrenders, and possibly alter the country’s political dynamics in profound and unforeseen ways. If he is found guilty, the consequence is less ambiguous: he will leave his post as Senate President not only a vanquished and humiliated man, he will vacate politics entirely a broken man. This is an outcome he will be reluctant to contemplate. But if a political solution is cobbled together, as he hopes, he and his party may declare a draw, bury their pride, and put up a brave face and move on, perhaps a little shamelessly. Indeed, a political solution will not hurt both the party and Senator Saraki as it will hurt the president and damage the integrity of his anti-graft war.
Irrespective of the course of the CCT trial and the final outcome, Senator Saraki is unlikely to come out of the case smelling of roses. It will be remembered that he deliberately stymied the trial with legal and political shenanigans. It will be remembered that though he rhapsodises democracy and the rule of law, he nevertheless did everything in his power to undermine the case, notwithstanding the consequences to democracy and Nigeria’s political evolution. Rather than submit to the rule of law, he has cried political persecution and whipped up the National Assembly into a frenzied, divisive, unthinking and emotive assemblage of activists with cracked ethical compass. It was at first assumed that Senator Saraki was unwilling to submit to trial because it humiliated his office. The truth may be more nuanced. Had he been sure of his innocence, he would have helped advance the cause of justice and the building of institutions by submitting to a quick trial to shame the enemies he talks about so often, so engagingly and so garishly.
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