Winners and losers in Saraki’s triumph at CCT

Over the years, the ruling class has seen the Nigerian masses through and through. The political class has seen that the electorates are a bunch of lily-livered and gullible people who have no voice even in the face of rape and tyranny.

Over the years, politicians have continued to take the people for a ride. The ruling last Wednesday by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), acquitting Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, of all charges against him over the alleged false declaration of his assets after all the rigmarole, was part of the insensitivity of the ruling class to the feeling of the masses and their narrow definition of governance.

When the trial began, many Nigerians screamed foul; they accused the Executive and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of pursuing a vendetta. Observers had said at the time that Saraki’s ordeal stemmed from his emergence as the president of the Senate contrary to the preferences of the powers that be in the ruling party. Saraki’s supporters at the National Assembly also believed that he was being given a bad name to hang him. They strongly believed the trial was the handiwork of Aso Rock and some powerful elements in the APC.

That was why most of the senators volunteered to accompany him to court each time the case came up.

Although the Presidency and APC leadership continued to deny their involvement in Saraki’s ordeal, it was evident that it was simply a matter of “Esau’s hand but Jacob’s voice.”

The matter came to a head on April 18, 2018, when Danladi Umar, chairman of the CCT, like a hangman who had received order to carry out an execution, announced to the chagrin of many that Saraki’s trial was thenceforth going to proceed on day-by-day basis.

Umar said: “According to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, trials are to commence from day to day. And that’s what will happen now from 10am to 6pm.”

The Senate president also made several attempts to prevent the continuation of his trial, forcing the tribunal chair to sound a note of plea to the defence counsel, urging them to deviate from prolonging the trial, without due reason.

Although Umar later stood down from his earlier stance, the proceedings had taken toll on the activities at the Senate. Critics at the time had alleged that the game plan was to see if Saraki was going to be impeached as a result of his inability to preside over the proceeding at the Senate. Some of those on the opposing side of the Senate president also made a bone of the retinue of senators that usually accompanied him to the court.

The upper legislative chamber decided that Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy president, should begin to preside over its activities until normalcy returned.

The fight, until Wednesday, has terribly affected a lot of things in the country. There are many winners and losers as Danladi Umar’s CCT released Saraki from the bondage.

 

The winners

Saraki: The Senate president is unarguably the greatest winner of his triumph at the CCT. What the development has shown is that the Kwara-born politician is like a lean meat that you do not chew and swallow in a haste. It shows that his traducers had no genuine case ab initio.

 

His supporters

While the case lasted, there were some of his colleagues who stuck with him despite being bad-mouthed by those with opposing views. These supporters of his went with him in and out of the court rooms, and bore shame and agony associated with the ordeal. The Saraki case brought some of his supporters into serious confrontation with some leaders of the APC. Dino Melaye is a good example.

 

The opposition

With the development, members of the opposition can now boldly say that the APC is not a saintly-populated party after all. While the case lasted, the PDP believed it was a mere distraction and a vendetta against Saraki. The umbrella organisation in crisis, had also wondered why the APC would not put its house in order and manage its unexpected victory at the 2015 general election. Today, the PDP has been vindicated for holding that view.

 

Nigerian democracy

It is always said that truth must triumph over evil and that no matter how fast lie travels, truth must overtake it. While the shenanigan was going on, analysts cried aloud that democracy was under threat. Many observers could not understand why the APC would want to impose all the principal officers on other members of the National Assembly.

 

The losers

The Executive: Despite the alleged grandstanding by the Presidency, which insisted that the Senate President must go through the trial, it may have chickened out. The development has cast the presidency in the mould of an institution that pursues vengeance as a policy.

 

APC & chieftains

The APC, which insisted that Saraki must be tried despite public outcry against it, may have scored a low mark in all of this. It all shows that the broom party is not any different from the PDP which also elevated vendetta to a political culture, particularly during the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo in Aso Rock. That the APC, despite its posturing would now allow the case to go in Saraki’s favour is an indication that it has eaten the humble pie and can go to any length to seek to hold on to power.

 

The Nigerian masses

The much-neglected masses of this country are the biggest losers.  The time the Senate President should have used to think about moving the country forward; the time other federal lawmakers should have invested in legislation, they were going in and out of courts over matters that were contrived in the first place. The money that was supposed to be used in providing democracy dividends were wasted on prosecution and settling certain elements while the case lasted; the movement of a large number of people in and out of the court room resulted in wear and tear of the facilities at the court. The Executives abandoned governance in pursuit of “Saraki must sink” agenda.

 

The economy

While the trail lasted, Saraki did not pretend he was angry over the ordeal foisted on him by some powerful elements in the system. In what appeared like tit-for-tat, he began to pay the Executive arm in its coin. He refused to confirm a number of those nominated by the President for some positions. He dawdled on the passage of budgets and other oversight functions that should have speedily enhanced the job of the President. While the fight lasted, the economy took a dangerous dive under their watch.

Fight against graft

The triumph of the Senate President, whose corruption allegation was a household issue, may have put a question mark on the Muhammadu Buhari administration. The belief out there at the moment is that the fight against graft may have suffered a terrible fracture.

Zebulon Agomuo