OPINION: Stop Holding Rotimi
Amaechi Hostage! If Saraki Can
Preside, Amaechi Should Pass
Editor’s note: The Abuja Court of Appeal has
just postponed indefinitely the ruling on the case
of the incumbent Senate president, Bukola
Saraki. Alfred Omolewa, the Naij.com contributor,
asks: why is Saraki still allowed to serve with a
corruption case brought against him by the Code
of Conduct Tribunal while the former Rivers state
governor, Rotimi Amaechi, faces stiff opposition
and criticism for being President Buhari’s
ministerial nominee?
The orchestrated delay by the Senate to
confirm the ministerial nomination of Rotimi
Amaechi is a brazen display of what happens
when open and honest process is brushed
aside so that the wiles of backroom and
vengeful politics may take control of a vital
constitutional function of the upper house of
our National Assembly. The rule of fair law has
been transformed into the rule of muddled evil.
They claim there is a petition against Rotimi
Amaechi, the immediate past governor of
Rivers state and a ministerial nominee. A court
order enjoining his nomination is also alleged
but no one seems to have seen it, and no one
can authoritatively state the name of the court
that wrote the phantom order. Now, we have a
phantom law and visible injustice.
This is but a slice of the bitter meal Senator
Saraki hopes to serve Nigeria if he is allowed
to continue to be the “chief cook” of the
proceedings of the National Assembly. This
ugly strategy against Amaechi shows the
disregard the PDP and its allies have for
constitutional and legal processes. To settle a
local political score that resides only in Rivers
state, they are willing to lay waste to the inner
workings of the national government,
particularly trashing the relationship between
the presidency and the National Assembly.
Not unusual in Nigeria
While we do not know from what court the
order comes from, we fear with good reason
that Saraki and company are turning the
National Assembly into a court of kangaroos.
There is a political gang-up against Amaechi
by those who were his enemies in Rivers state.
They were unable to touch him while governor;
now, they seek their pound of flesh.
We might expect this form of vindictiveness
from the abrasive and embattled Governor
Wike. Although, parading about with bombast
and bluster as the governor, Wike knows his
heavy skates are cutting into thin ice. The
selection process by which he came to office
cannot justifiably be deemed an election. If the
electoral tribunal does as it ought, Wike’s
tenure will be aborted. He will be removed from
the Government House and put on the streets.
This fall he can’t abide. He has nursed his
wicked ambition too long to have it pulled from
him after just as he is getting accustomed to
it.
Thus, he has set himself on a most selfish
mission. He has raided the cupboard of his
state to pull out some of its precious funds to
buy those senators who would be bought so
that he can distort the national process to
satisfy his parochial mission. Wike seeks to
hold Amaechi hostage as long as the electoral
case against him is pending. He hopes to trap
Amaechi among the worst of double traps. He
attempts to roadblock Amaechi. Amaechi must
somehow get the APC to abandon the tribunal
case or Amaechi’s nomination shall remain in
abeyance.
However, to jettison the tribunal, Amaechi
would have to beg the APC candidate as well
as President Buhari and the party leadership.
Not only would this be shameful, it would be
political suicide for it is such a toxic entreaty
that it has no prospect of success. Wike seeks
to make Amaechi so desperate as light himself
aflame politically.
Thus far, Amaechi has been smart and
disciplined. He has not put his neck in the
noose. While Wike’s scheme is cunning, it will
enjoy a short shelf life. The rumor of court
orders cannot stand. No federal court would
dare issue such an order because federal
jurists know that such an order would be an
improper judicial encroachment into what is
essentially a legislative function. Any order
from a state court is an automatic nullity
because federal institutions have primacy over
state organs. As a son should not dictate to
his father, a state court has no business
entertaining an issue concerning the
procedures of the National Assembly processes
and a state court is certainly not in the
position to enjoin the National Assembly.
Again, this not the rule of law; it is rule of the
lawless and the law of disorder.
While we should not be surprised at the craven
behavior of Wike, we should be taken aback
that the senate could allow itself to be brought
so low so swiftly. It is as if a stiff wind came
and blew the stony edifice down as if made of
crumbled paper and old rag.
Same rules for everyone
Ironic that Senate president Saraki would allow
this to happen. Amaechi and Saraki were close
allies as governors. That he would sell
Amaechi down the river for so cheap a
blandishment should give all other Saraki allies
pause. The man is so loyal and concerned
about self that he has no loyalty and concern
to bestow to others. To advance his cause one
inch, he will slice the political neck of a friend.
To be his ally is to begin to count the moments
when his self-interest will make him turn
against you.
Yet, in all of this, there is an even greater
irony. Saraki has climbed the summit of
hypocrisy. Amaechi has not been indicted
much less convicted of any crime. One cannot
be barred from high office merely by the
shadow of rumor and the craft of those who
monger them. In a chamber where the
presiding officer is undergoing a court trial for
corruption and where scores of other senators
are under investigations by various graft
agencies, they have no moral standing to
sidetrack Amaechi’s nomination.
Like the senators, Amaechi is yet to be tried
and found guilty by any court of law. Thus, he
stands innocent until proven guilty. He should
not be denied his rights and we, the people,
should be denied our right to the fair and
honest operation of the National Assembly in
the exercise of its constitutional duties.
The change the people voted for was that our
elected officials would abide the constitution
and rule of law. What we did not vote for is
that they would invent new, more odious ways
to shackle democracy and undermine
governance for all in pursuit of their narrowing
agendas.
If the Senate insists in not confirming Amaechi
because of the allegations against him, then
the Senate should begin to purge itself of
members in like circumstances. The extraction
should start at the very top. If the senators
cannot treat Amaechi’s nomination due to the
extra-judicial allegations against him, then the
Senate should suspend the Senate president
Saraki who actually has a formal corruption
case against him. Also, other senators who are
subjects of official investigations should be
relieved of their duties until their matters are
resolved.
Put another way: if the law protects Saraki and
others by regarding them innocent until proven
guilty, that same rule must also apply to
Rotimi.
Let it be a political precedent
The machinations surrounding the nomination
of the former governor of Rivers state show
that an unfortunate segment of the political
class still fails to realize that change has come
to Nigeria. They still seek the bankrupt politics
of old where money trumps right and affluence
means more than the rule of law and decency.
These people seek to keep us in the past.
Therefore, we must demand that the Amaechi
nomination is moved forward. We do this not
for Amaechi. Whether he comes or goes is, in
some ways, irrelevant. It just so happens that,
once again, he finds himself in the midst of a
constitutional and political maelstrom. Eight
years ago, the supreme court had to save his
governorship seat. They did so, not out of
personal favor to him, but to insert the rule of
law in place of the rule of naked power.
We come again now to a moment where
Amaechi is in the eye of the tempest but we
recognize that the issue transcends him. The
stakes are big.
We fight those who still believe they can
purchase our institutions because Nigerian
governance and democracy remain for sale. We
must say that they are wrong and that if they
persist in this misconduct, they will be facing
more than allegations. They shall face the
rebuke of the people and the close scrutiny of
our judicial system.
Before they decry the speck on Amaechi’s
shoes, they better clear the mud from their
own.
https://www.naij.com/608875-opinion-stop-holding-rotimi-amaechi-hostage-saraki-can-preside-amaechi-pass.html
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