RIGHT OF REPLY
PENDULUM BY DELE MOMODU
By DR ABUBAKAR BUKOLA SARAKI
My dear brother Dele, let me thank you
most sincerely for your article last weekend, “My Candid Letter to
Saraki.” I take everything you said in that article to heart and I must
commend you for your candidness indeed and the sincerity of your
intentions.
As you said in your article, you are
someone I have known more by reputation than by any personal
relationship, until recently when we struck up some personal
acquaintance based on our shared political interests, especially during
the last presidential election. However, I understand why you had to
sound so defensive for knowing me at all and had to publicly map the
boundaries of our relationship. We have got to that point in our country
when we no longer believe that anyone could stand for anything based on
principles and convictions alone. Moreover, in the growing culture of
media crucifixion and presumed guilt; it is rare to find a voice like
yours that calls for fairness and justice.
I would have simply sent you a text message or call you up for your
candid advice to me, which I take seriously. But I feel the need to make
some clarifications on some of the issues you raised. One of them was
that in seeking to be Senate President, I struck a deal with the PDP and
made it possible for one of them to be the Deputy Senate President. I
know this is the dominant narrative out there, but it is far from the
truth.
I did not do any deal with the PDP. I did not have to because even
before the PDP Senators as a group took the decision to support my
candidature on the eve of the inauguration of the 8th Senate, 22 PDP
Senators had already written a letter supporting me. What I did not
envisage was a situation where some members of my party would not be in
the chambers that day, especially when the clerk had already received a
proclamation from the President authorizing the inauguration of the
Senate. Pray, if a team refused to turn up for a scheduled match and was
consequently walked over, would it be fair to blame the team that
turned up and claimed victory? I believe those that made it possible for
PDP to claim the DSP position were those who decided to hold a meeting
with APC senators elsewhere at the time they ought to be in the
chambers. What the PDP Senators did was to take advantage of their
numerical strength at the material time. They simply lined up behind
Senator Ike Ikweremadu while those of us from APC voted for Senator Ali
Ndume. It was a game of numbers, and we were hopelessly outnumbered. If
the PDP had nominated their own candidate for the Senate Presidency
position that day, they would have won. It was as simple as that.
Secondly, I don’t know if you were aware that in the build up to Senate
inauguration, the National Working Committee of the APC sent two
signals. The first signal specified how leadership positions in the
National Assembly have been zoned. While we were trying to give effect
to this decision, the second signal came, which contained names of
people to which these zoned position had been allocated. What was not
acknowledged was that the President of the Senate is not an executive
president. He is primarily one of 109 senators. Therefore, I cannot
decide by myself who gets what in the Senate. Therefore, when they said I
defied party directive in the choice of principal officers, they are
invariably ascribing to me the power that I did not have.
My dear brother, most people talk about the Senate Presidency position,
but this was not my only offence. I have also been accused of helping to
frustrate some people’s opportunity to emerge as President Muhammadu
Buhari’s running mate. But I have no problem with anybody. My concern
was that it would not be politically smart of us to run with a
Muslim-Muslim ticket. I doubt if we would have won the election if we
had done this, especially after the PDP had successfully framed us a
Muslim party. I felt we were no longer in 1993. Perhaps, more than ever
before, Nigerians are more sensitive to issues of religious balancing.
This, my brother, was my original sin. What they say to themselves,
among other things, was that if he could conspire against our ambition,
then he must not realize his own ambition as well. For me however, I
have no regrets about this. I only stood for what I believed was in the
best interest of the party and in the best interest of Nigeria.
Now to the substantive issue of my trial. As you rightly noted, this
trial is not about corruption. And I am happy that since my trial
started, people who have followed the proceedings have now understood
better what the whole thing is about. I have had opportunity to declare
my assets four times since 2003. Over those years, the Code of Conduct
Bureau had examined my claims. There was no time that they raised any
issues with me on any item contained in my declarations over those
twelve years. This is why you should be surprised that while I am being
tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, the witness and the evidence
supplied against me were all from EFCC.
Like you, I have an abiding faith in the judiciary. May God forbid the
day that we would give up on our judicial system. However, the onus is
not on me to prove that I have confidence in the judiciary; the burden
is on my prosecutors to prove to the world that justice is done in my
case. If the process of fighting corruption is itself corrupt, then
whatever victory is recorded would remain tainted and puerile!
Some people have wondered, why has Saraki been “jumping” from one court
to another instead of facing his trial? To those people, I would say
that I have only gone to those courts in search of justice. Strange
things have happened, and they are still happening. For example, Section
3(d) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act states that the
Bureau shall refer any breach or non-compliance to the Tribunal.
However, where the person concerned makes a written admission of the
breach, no reference to the Tribunal shall be necessary. It was on this
basis that the case against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was dismissed in 2011,
by this same judge in this same Tribunal on the grounds that he was not
given an opportunity to deny or admit to any breach before he was
brought before the tribunal. This was the ruling that I relied on in
making my case. But what did the judge say? That he had judged in error
in 2011 and he had since realized his error and departed from it. My
question is whether a Tribunal of first instance has the power to
reverse itself. I should expect that everyone would be worried if
justice is applied differently to different people. However, in spite of
my fears, I remain hopeful. Why? Because the judiciary does not end
with this Tribunal.
Do you know the genesis of my real problems with President Goodluck
Jonathan? I have had a touchy relationship with him, but the turning
point was in September 2011 when I moved a motion on the floor of the
Senate that exposed the N2.3 trillion fuel subsidy racket. I remain
proud that I was the Senator that blew the lid on the most elaborate
corruption scheme ever in this country. But after that I became a marked
man. My security was withdrawn. I was invited and re-invited by the
EFCC and the Special Fraud Unit. I was even declared wanted at a point. I
believe I am still one of the most investigated former governors in
this country. I have no doubt that if the Jonathan government was able
to find anything against me, they would not have allowed me to go
unpunished.
Let me make this point clearly. I do not expect to be shielded from
prosecution because of my contribution to APC, if there was genuine
basis for such action to be taken against me. But I have every reason to
expect not to be persecuted by the party that I contributed so much to
build. The New PDP may not have given APC victory in 2015, but it was an
important factor in the dynamics that produced that victory. And with
all sense of modesty, I was an important factor in the formation of New
PDP; in leading that group to the APC; in ensuring our group’s support
for the candidate during the primaries and in mobilizing substantial
resources for the election. For these, I have not expected any special
compensation. Rather, I only expect to be treated like every loyal party
member and accorded the right to freely aspire!
Some people have complained that I have been taken Senators with me to
my trial. But I did not force them to follow me. The Senators have
freely accompanied me to the Tribunal not because they are loyal to me
as Abubakar Bukola Saraki, but because they are committed to the
principle that produced me as the President of the Senate. The same
principle that produced Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President and
produced Ali Ndume as Majority Leader. They see all of us in the Senate
leadership as manifestation of their jealously guarded right to freely
choose their own leaders. Because they know they made us their leaders
without any external interference; they are confident that they retain
the power to remove us whenever they so wish. They also know what this
trial is all about. They believe I am being victimized because they have
expressed their right to choose their own leadership. This is why I am
not in any way perturbed by my absence in the chambers during this
trial. Because I was not imposed on the Senate, I feel confident that
the Senate will protect its own choice whether I am present or not. It
is never about me. It is about the independence of the legislature. It
has always been so since 1999. It is so today and it would be so in
2019, it would be so in 2023, and as long as we practice a democracy
that operates on the principle of separation of powers.
My dear brother, let me end by observing that I am not alone in this
trial. On trial with me in this process is the entire judicial system.
On trial with me are our entire anti-corruption institutions and our
avowed commitment to honestly fight corruption. On trial with me is our
party’s promise to depart from the ways of the past, a promise that
Nigerians voted for. And I dare say, on trial with me is our media; and
their ethical commitment to report fairly and objectively. In the end,
it is my earnest hope that whatever we do will ultimately ennoble our
country.
Dr. Saraki is President of the Senate, Federal Republic of Nigeria
ThisDay
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