Acting President, exercise caution!

As Acting President Yemi Osinbajo steers the ship of the country, one thing he must learn fast is not to reignite a face-off with other arms of government.

One needs not study rocket science to know that the Acting President is a unifying factor as reflected not only in his visits to some parts of the country to calm frayed nerves but also his recent meeting with cross-section of leaders at the Aso Rock Villa over the three months quit notice issued to Igbos to leave the northern region by a coalition of Northern youths.

Just when the National Assembly seemed to have overlooked Osinbajo’s comments suggesting that Ibrahim Magu does not need Senate screening to be confirmed as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the parliament is not taking the recent remarks of the Acting President on the 2017 Budget lightly.

The Acting President had signed the N7.44trillion budget on Monday, June 12. But speaking the following day at the Old Banquet Hall of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja while flagging off the 2018 budget preparation, the Professor of Law had declared that the National Assembly had no right to introduce new projects or modify those contained in an appropriation bill.

The first poser that comes to mind is: was the Acting President under duress to sign the budget into law? The answer is obviously No, judging by the ‘letter’ by President Muhammadu Buhari to Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma Udo Udoma, directing the Acting President to sign the budget.

It bits my imagination that the Acting President would sign a document and turn around 360 Degrees to condemn same.

According to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the President has a 30-day window within which to assent to the budget. But he signed the document and turned around 24 hours later to rubbish same.

If he was not comfortable with the power of the National Assembly to revise estimates proposed by the executive arm of government, the proper thing to do was to approach the Supreme Court for interpretation of Section 80 of the constitution, which grants the National Assembly the power to approve appropriated public funds, rather than assuming the status of the Judicial arm of government by ‘interpreting’ the law.

Late President Umaru Yar’Adua approached the apex court in 2008 for interpretation of the same section of the Constitution but later sought political solution.

The present administration should do nothing less: approach the highest court of the land to settle the matter once and for all or seek political solution. The last option will not be a herculean task since the leadership of the National Assembly is from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Buhari government should not treat this matter like the anti-corruption war which has been won in the court of public opinion but lost in the law courts, judging by the high profile corruption cases dismissed by various courts so far.

From all indications, the National Assembly seemed to have bounced back to life, following the acquital of Senate President Bukola Saraki last week by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) of 18-count charge.

Saraki’s aides who spoke to me in confidence after the judgment by the Tribunal, heaved a sigh of relief at the judgment, saying his boss had been distracted in the last two years that the legal tussle lingered. “Now that the veil has been lifted, it is time to get to work,” he tells me.

A mild drama ensued at the CCT after the judgment as the picture of controversial senator Dino Melaye, lifting up Oga, went viral on the Internet last week. This is reminiscent of when a team wins a major tournament in football but the only difference here is that only one player, Melaye, is involved in his attempt to lift up the ‘coach’. But come to think of it, why didn’t the protocol officers and security men checkmate the excited lawmaker? What if a mishap had happened, like mistakenly throwing Oga on the floor?

Dino was not the only senator who could not control the surge of adrenalin following the judgment. Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio attributed the surge in the country’s equities market by 1.38 percent at the close of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday – same day the CCT judgment was delivered – to the victory of the nation’s Number Three citizen at the Tribunal.

Although one of the reasons that influence share prices is political factor, attributing the surge to the lawmaker’s acquittal is simply playing to the gallery. This could be attributed to the Acting President’s efforts at suppressing the raging drumbeats of war by regional groups in the country.

The upper legislative chamber has embarked on break and will resume on July 4, 2017.

 

 

Owede Agbajileke