Effort by the All Progressives Congress to broker peace between
the executive and the legislature over their disagreement on the
sacking of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has ended in a stalemate, The PUNCH
reports
The latest in the series of meetings, which began last week, was
held at the Presidential Villa late on Sunday.
It was gathered that the party leadership, at the end of the
latest meeting, could not convince the executive and the Senate to
change their positions on Magu.
Osinbajo had, in an interview in April, ruled out the
possibility of Buhari replacing Magu, whose nomination was rejected
by the Senate twice.
He had argued that the confirmation of the Senate was not
necessary for Magu to function as head of the EFCC.
The acting President’s statement drew the ire of senators, who,
on Tuesday last week decided to withhold all requests for
confirmation from the Presidency.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Monday that the party
leaders had met with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Senate
President Bukola Saraki separately over the disagreement on Magu’s
confirmation.
A top member of the party, who confided in our correspondent on
Thursday, said a solution had not been found to the face-off.
The source, who attended the meeting, stated, “We are between
the devil and the deep blue sea. Consultations and discussions are
still ongoing. We were not consulted at the beginning and this
thing was allowed to degenerate to this level.
“What we are doing is damage control. We had to intervene
instead of waiting to be left with offering explanations for
something we know nothing about.”
The source added that the Acting President and his boss,
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently away in the United
Kingdom on medical vacation, were on the same page on the issue of
Magu.
He said, “The matter is still on. What is happening is that the
Acting President, who is fiercely loyal to his boss, does not want
to do anything to betray that trust. The last time he spoke to the
boss, the boss wanted Magu and as a lawyer, he does everything to
protect his client that is his attitude.”
The source explained that the senators argued that once Magu was
disqualified by the Senate, he was not qualified to act as the EFCC
chairman.
“They are insisting that in the real sense, not only the EFCC
chairman, any public officer that is subject to Senate
confirmation, what disqualifies his confirmation by the Senate
automatically disqualifies him from acting in that capacity,” the
source said.
According to him, the Senators also argued that the executive
had so far failed to lobby the legislature as it is done in all
civilised democracies across the globe.
The source stated, “In any democracy in the world, lobbying is
allowed. You lobby the legislature, you lobby members of
parliament.
“In this case, the Department of State Services was supposed to
have sent its security report to the President, but it didn’t do
that; it sent it directly to the Senate. This never happens
anywhere.”
The source recalled that a similar scenario played out during
the former President Olusegun Obasanjo era.
He explained that the then President sent a nominee from one of
the northern states for confirmation but the then DG SSS, (Col.
Kayode Are (retd.), sent an unsolicited damning security report to
the then Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani.
Obasanjo was said to be unaware of the report.
The then Senate subsequently decided to ignore the security
report and went ahead to confirm the nominee.
The source recalled that senators at that time argued that the
report ought to have been sent to the President to decide whether
or not to go ahead with the nomination.
According to him, since the issue of nomination is the
prerogative of the President, he ought to have been the one to
decide whether or not to attach the report to his letter nominating
anyone for confirmation.
He said that it was considered an act capable of undermining the
President’s authority for the SSS, at the time, to forward such a
report directly to the Senate behind the Commander-In-Chief.
The Senate, under David Mark, also ignored a so-called security
report on Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.) and the late Mr. Polycap
Nwite to confirm them as ambassadors.
The source added, “In Magu’s case, the President (Buhari) was
embarrassed that there was such a report from the DSS which was
sent to the Senate without his knowledge but he did nothing.
“The Senate is now capitalizing on this. Now the bigger problem
we are having is that every corrupt and potentially corrupt person
in this country wants Magu out. What do we do?
“Who is more powerful? Is it the Presidency of the corrupt
cabal? The corrupt cabal is more powerful because the corrupt cabal
is using the Senate to shut down government. That brings us to a
point where we can now say, is it worth all the trouble?
“That is the dilemma. We are talking, but we want the Acting
President to get in touch with his principal to see if he can find
an alternative.
“If this happens, we are faced with another perception problem;
it means corruption is winning. For us to be seen as a government
that bows to corruption will not be good for this nation.
When contacted, the APC National Chairman, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, said, “A lot of work is going on that is what one
can say now. A lot of people are doing a lot of good work to cool
down the polity. It is not what we want to trumpet yet but I can
assure you the results will soon be evident.”
Also, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji
Abdullahi, while expressing a personal opinion in a telephone
interview with The PUNCH, explained that the issues at stake
provided an opportunity for judiciary to help deepen democracy.
“For me, I would like to look at the positive side and the
positive side is that the more of this type of situation we have,
the more the opportunity we have to test our constitution,”
Abdullahi stated.
Punch
Effort by the All Progressives Congress to broker peace between
the executive and the legislature over their disagreement on the
sacking of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has ended in a stalemate, The PUNCH
reports
The latest in the series of meetings, which began last week, was
held at the Presidential Villa late on Sunday.
It was gathered that the party leadership, at the end of the
latest meeting, could not convince the executive and the Senate to
change their positions on Magu.
Osinbajo had, in an interview in April, ruled out the
possibility of Buhari replacing Magu, whose nomination was rejected
by the Senate twice.
He had argued that the confirmation of the Senate was not
necessary for Magu to function as head of the EFCC.
The acting President’s statement drew the ire of senators, who,
on Tuesday last week decided to withhold all requests for
confirmation from the Presidency.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Monday that the party
leaders had met with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Senate
President Bukola Saraki separately over the disagreement on Magu’s
confirmation.
A top member of the party, who confided in our correspondent on
Thursday, said a solution had not been found to the face-off.
The source, who attended the meeting, stated, “We are between
the devil and the deep blue sea. Consultations and discussions are
still ongoing. We were not consulted at the beginning and this
thing was allowed to degenerate to this level.
“What we are doing is damage control. We had to intervene
instead of waiting to be left with offering explanations for
something we know nothing about.”
The source added that the Acting President and his boss,
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is currently away in the United
Kingdom on medical vacation, were on the same page on the issue of
Magu.
He said, “The matter is still on. What is happening is that the
Acting President, who is fiercely loyal to his boss, does not want
to do anything to betray that trust. The last time he spoke to the
boss, the boss wanted Magu and as a lawyer, he does everything to
protect his client that is his attitude.”
The source explained that the senators argued that once Magu was
disqualified by the Senate, he was not qualified to act as the EFCC
chairman.
“They are insisting that in the real sense, not only the EFCC
chairman, any public officer that is subject to Senate
confirmation, what disqualifies his confirmation by the Senate
automatically disqualifies him from acting in that capacity,” the
source said.
According to him, the Senators also argued that the executive
had so far failed to lobby the legislature as it is done in all
civilised democracies across the globe.
The source stated, “In any democracy in the world, lobbying is
allowed. You lobby the legislature, you lobby members of
parliament.
“In this case, the Department of State Services was supposed to
have sent its security report to the President, but it didn’t do
that; it sent it directly to the Senate. This never happens
anywhere.”
The source recalled that a similar scenario played out during
the former President Olusegun Obasanjo era.
He explained that the then President sent a nominee from one of
the northern states for confirmation but the then DG SSS, (Col.
Kayode Are (retd.), sent an unsolicited damning security report to
the then Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani.
Obasanjo was said to be unaware of the report.
The then Senate subsequently decided to ignore the security
report and went ahead to confirm the nominee.
The source recalled that senators at that time argued that the
report ought to have been sent to the President to decide whether
or not to go ahead with the nomination.
According to him, since the issue of nomination is the
prerogative of the President, he ought to have been the one to
decide whether or not to attach the report to his letter nominating
anyone for confirmation.
He said that it was considered an act capable of undermining the
President’s authority for the SSS, at the time, to forward such a
report directly to the Senate behind the Commander-In-Chief.
The Senate, under David Mark, also ignored a so-called security
report on Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.) and the late Mr. Polycap
Nwite to confirm them as ambassadors.
The source added, “In Magu’s case, the President (Buhari) was
embarrassed that there was such a report from the DSS which was
sent to the Senate without his knowledge but he did nothing.
“The Senate is now capitalizing on this. Now the bigger problem
we are having is that every corrupt and potentially corrupt person
in this country wants Magu out. What do we do?
“Who is more powerful? Is it the Presidency of the corrupt
cabal? The corrupt cabal is more powerful because the corrupt cabal
is using the Senate to shut down government. That brings us to a
point where we can now say, is it worth all the trouble?
“That is the dilemma. We are talking, but we want the Acting
President to get in touch with his principal to see if he can find
an alternative.
“If this happens, we are faced with another perception problem;
it means corruption is winning. For us to be seen as a government
that bows to corruption will not be good for this nation.
When contacted, the APC National Chairman, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, said, “A lot of work is going on that is what one
can say now. A lot of people are doing a lot of good work to cool
down the polity. It is not what we want to trumpet yet but I can
assure you the results will soon be evident.”
Also, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji
Abdullahi, while expressing a personal opinion in a telephone
interview with The PUNCH, explained that the issues at stake
provided an opportunity for judiciary to help deepen democracy.
“For me, I would like to look at the positive side and the
positive side is that the more of this type of situation we have,
the more the opportunity we have to test our constitution,”
Abdullahi stated.
Punch
Read more http://nairalaw.com/magu-apcs-intervention-in-presidency-nassembly-feud-deadlocked/