Musings on Saraki’s Dilemma

By Efe Wanogho
These are not the best of times for Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Nigeria’s Senate President. His wife is being hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, while he is having a running battle with the Code of Conduct Bureau. A foray into the mind of Mr. Saraki would surely reveal a deeply disturbed man; no thanks to the new wave of CHANGE that apparently does not respect the high office of Senate President.
Since the return to power via the ballot box, of Muhammadu Buhari, the anti corruption agencies have suddenly woken up from a lethargic slumber. Ibrahim Lamorde of the EFCC is a new creature. For him and the EFCC, it is an era of INVITATION to all manners of politically exposed individuals, who seemingly adorned togas of invincibility in the last administration. Even the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, which took on a comatose disposition since its establishment, has been in the news for returning recovered funds to the public coffers. Agencies are suddenly alive to their responsibilities.
Whereas the reason for this new wave of activities by the anti-corruption agencies is not unconnected with the emergence of President Buhari as the new sheriff in town, with his towering anti-corruption personality, added to his ubiquitous and fear-inducing body-language; it remains to be seen whether any diligent prosecutions and convictions would follow.
Undoubtedly, the new Nigeria should be a country with a strict observance of the rule of law, where even the President of the Senate must be subject to the law. In the foregoing regard, therefore, the Sarakis of this world, should allow the natural course of justice to run. Their cases should be allowed to go to trial and thence be determined entirely on their merits. The era of obtaining frivolous injunctions, interlocutary, perpetual, or otherwise, must be permanently in the past. The Nigerian judiciary must reform itself so as to quit being part of the problem, when it ought to be part of the solution.
Now, whilst President Buhari deserves some credit for his “I belong to nobody” mantra and disposition; is it a coincidence or sheer happenstance that those presently feeling the heat of his administration’s war – or is it? – on corruption, are those who are on the other side of the political aisle or those who have fallen out of favour with him? Saraki went against the position of his party’s leadership and the President, in becoming the Senate President. Next thing you know, his wife is invited to be grilled by the EFCC. The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal, are suddenly alive as they remember previous infractions of the law that Mr. Saraki may have committed. The Department of State Services, DSS, stormed the Akwa Ibom Government House in some commando-style operation, as Akwa Ibom Government House, like those of Rivers and Delta States, cannot be controlled by the opposition?!
The questions are legion.
In the eyes of the Code of Conduct Bureau, and by the humongous amount of prosecutable information available to it, is Senator Bukola Saraki the first public officer that has been found to possibly lie under oath, operated foreign bank accounts while holding public office, or acquired properties outside the buying capacity of his legitimate earnings? Is the EFCC blind to the possible economic crimes that Babatunde Fashola may have committed, at least by his own admission in spending so much money on a website and spending equally offensive amount of money – if not more so – on the construction of boreholes? Is the EFCC unawares of the level of apparently incriminating information that the Integrity Group and the Rivers State Government have released on the alleged complicity of Rotimi Amaechi in misappropriation of public funds? Is anti-corruption a mere tool to whip people into “line” and stifle dissent?
It is my belief that even selective justice is justice, provided you don’t hound the innocent and pass them off as guilty. The criminally complicit cannot say that for them to be prosecuted, everyone else who’s complicit must be prosecuted. It is not for them to say. But public morality and public service demands better than that. President Buhari’s Government cannot afford to be like Obasanjo’s Government where the EFCC was used to hound only those who fell out of favour with the Government. Similarly, it cannot assume a do-nothing disposition when public resources are being misappropriated and mismanaged, as was the case under the Jonathan Presidency. For President Buhari to be the CHANGE that Nigerians voted into power, anyone who runs foul of the law should face justice, irrespective of whether he is a party man or a political ally of the President. The EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau should not wait for people to appear to be on the wrong side of Mr. President before seeking to bring them to justice.
As for Mr. and Mrs. Saraki, let the law run its natural course.