Saraki and Tinubu
Saraki
Saraki and Tinubu
Saraki to Tinubu: Despite Your Smear Campaign and Hatred
for Me, You Should, At Least, Dwell on Facts
1. Yesterday, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, released another of his
now well expected quarterly vicious attack on the person of Dr.
Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate. In the
statement, one could see the master of media spins getting ensnared
in his own game as he struggled to extricate himself from the
narratives about the contest for leadership positions in the Ninth
National Assembly.
2. Since we have taken it for granted that Tinubu’s attack on
Saraki every three months (Quarterly) will come as expected, we
would just have ignored his statement but for the fact that it was
filled with untruth, fallacies and misrepresentations. The
statement was another effort to sell a concocted narrative about
the Eighth National Assembly and its leadership.
3. First, he alleged that national budgets were delayed,
distorted, padded, new projects introduced, funds for projects
reduced, “to halt progress of government”. It is unfortunate that a
man like Tinubu who had been in the Senate (though for 22 months
and under a military regime) should have a better understanding of
how the legislature works. The passage of budgets is definitely not
the exclusive responsibility of the leadership of the Senate. Most
of the work is done in the various committees. These committees are
headed by Senators representing different parties. It is the level
of co-operation between the committees and the MDAs in the timely
defence of the budget proposals and the ability of the two chambers
of the National Assembly to reconcile their figures that usually
determine how soon the budget is passed. To put the blame of budget
delay on the Senate President or Speaker can only be mischief, or
at best, playing to the gallery.
4. It is also a known fact that any so-called delay in the
passage of budgets under the Eighth National Assembly is traceable
to the refusal of heads of MDAs to defend the budget proposals for
their agencies on time. Last year, the President himself had to
direct the Secretary to Federal Government to compel heads of MDAs
to appear before the National Assembly committees following the
report made to him by Dr. Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. So, if
a man like Tinubu is spreading this falsehood about budget passage
and delay being deliberately orchestrated by the National Assembly
leadership, one wonders whether he tries to even understand what
happens in the federal legislature at all or is that the only thing
that is of interest to him is “jockeying and maneuvering for
influence”, as he puts it.
5. To further make the points here clear, we invite Tinubu to
look at the records of the time of submission of budgets and their
passage since 2010 and he will see that with the exception of the
2013 budget which was passed on December 20, 2012, all the budgets
have been passed between March and May of the same fiscal year.
This should give him a better understanding of the fact that the
date the Appropriations Bill is submitted to parliament and the
readiness of the MDAs to defend the proposals submitted as well as
timely agreement on the figures by both chambers of the National
Assembly are the main determining factors in when the budget is
eventually passed. So, Tinubu should see that the facts cannot
support his spins and fake narrative.
6. In all the three budgets already passed by the National
Assembly, we challenge Tinubu to make specific reference to where
Dr. Saraki and the leadership of the National Assembly “sought to
pad with pet projects” as he alleged. Tinubu should be graceful
enough to substantiate this allegation. We consider that allegation
careless, irresponsible and callous. We therefore demand that he
should withdraw it.
7. However, there is need to let him know that it is the
constitutional responsibility of the National Assembly to review
the proposals sent by the executive and where it deems necessary,
it is within the power of the legislature to make changes. A good
example, is the decision by the National Assembly to include in the
2018 budget the one percent of the total budget, amounting to N33
billion, as allocation for Universal Health Coverage as provided by
an extant law, which had been hitherto observed in the breach. Is
this what Tinubu considers as budget padding? And this was a
decision which was praised across the world as a real benefit to
ordinary people across the country.
7. Tinubu also claimed that the Senate leadership “stymied APC
legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious
reactionary and self interested legislation on the nation”. We
wonder what these “legislative initiatives” are because in the four
years of the Buhari administration, it has only forwarded 11 bills
to the Senate, apart form the routine annual appropriations and
supplementary budget proposals. Two of these bills, the Mutual
Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and the National Minimum Wage
Bill, have been passed. One of the bills, the Money Laundering
Prevention and Prohibition Act (amendment) Bill was withdrawn by
the executive following the disagreement between the Attorney
General and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC). Also, another one, the National Water Resources
Bill was rejected because it infringed on the rights of states to
develop their water resources. The remaining seven which are the
National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Establishment
Bill, Federal Institute of Industrial Research for the Development
of Micro, Small and Large Industries Bills, the Suppression of
Piracy Bill, Communications Service Tax Bill, 2015; Federal
Institute of Industrial Research Bill, 2017; Raw Materials Research
and Development Council (Repeal and Re-enactment Bill 2018; Nigeria
Natural Medicine Development Agency (Establishment etc) Bill, 2018-
are at various stages of passage.
8. As a leader of the Eighth National Assembly, Dr. Saraki is
proud that under his watch, the Senate has surpassed the records of
all previous Senate in the number of bills passed, the significance
of these bills to the revival of the economy, the fight against
insecurity and corruption, improvement in the provision of health
service and the education sector, as well as better social service
delivery to the generality of the people. The bills passed, motions
moved, intervention made and frequent engagement with the people
were all directed towards addressing the day to day issues that
affect the lives of the ordinary Nigerians. This Senate has passed
282 bills (the highest any Senate had passed is 129 bills recorded
by the 5th Senate), among which is the Mutual Assistance in
Criminal Matters Act, Public Procurement Act (amendment) Bill,
Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Electoral Act (amendment) Bill,
Police Reform Bill, Police Trust Fund Bill, Nigeria Railways
Authority Bill, Company and Allied Matters Act (amendment) Bill,
Secured Credit Transactions Act, Whistleblowers Protection Bill,
constitution amendment bills, Discrimination Against Persons With
Disability Bill, Electronic Transaction Bill, Bankruptcy and
Insolvency Act, North East Development Commission (NEDC) Act,
Witness Protection Programme Bill, Credit Bureau Reporting Bill,
Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institution Bill and
Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, National
Financial Intelligence Agency Act, Federal Audit Services
Commission Bill, among others. It will be good to know which of
these Bills Tinubu believes is “self interested” and not in the
interest of Nigerians.
9. We will like to point the attention of Mr. Tinubu to the fact
that most of the bills listed above got international and national
endorsement from stakeholders who lauded the Senate for the move.
For example, the Financial Intelligence Database Agency (Ultrascan)
commended the Senate for passing the NFIU Act which enabled the
country to be re-admitted into the Egmont Group. Also, the Nigerian
Police leadership have praised the Senate for passing the Police
Reforms Bill and the Police Trust Fund Bill. Again, when the
National Assembly in the 2018 budget gave effect to the law
allowing one percent of the budget to be devoted to Primary Health
Care Delivery, it got kudos from Bill Gates, Bono, Dr. Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO, and various national groups who believe
the move would bring health care delivery to the poor people across
the country. The passage of the UBEC Act (amendment) Bill was
praised by Pakistani child education campaigner and youngest Nobel
Laureate, Yousafzai Malala. When the PIGB was passed, APC led by
Tinubu, National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE),
among others, hailed the Senate for a good job. Even, the World
Bank commended the National Assembly for the passage of the Company
and Allied Matters Act and Secured Transactions in Movable Assets
and Credit Bureau Reporting Act. Of course, all these initiatives
will be ignored by a man who is still sulking because his vow in
2015 that Saraki and Dogara will never lead the National Assembly
did not materialize.
10. Tinubu and his mob have been sponsoring the narratives in
the media that the emergence of the present leadership of the
National Assembly was a mistake. We hereby submit that Dr. Saraki
and other leaders of the National Assembly were democratically
elected by their colleagues. And it is because they are the choice
of their colleagues that they have remained in office for the past
46 months, despite all the plots hatched by anti-democratic,
reactionary and fascist elements pretending to be ‘progressives’.
In fact, Tinubu should know that if there was any mistake made on
June 9, 2015, It was the miscalculation by himself and his small
cabal in the APC who felt they could decide for the Senators-elect
and House of Representatives Members-elect. When they failed after
their grand-standing that they could always got whatever they
desired, they resorted to undermining the institution of the
legislature and waging a campaign of calumny against the law making
body. It is now clear that those who took Senators away from the
chambers contrary to the directive contained in the proclamation
signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 9, 2015 are ‘mistake
personified’. It is obvious that If they repeat that arrogance
during the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly, they will
fail again because Nigeria is greater than them. The institution of
the legislature is bigger than the over-bloated egos of these power
mongers and dirty schemers.
11. Let us repeat again that we know that a Machiavellian
politician like Tinubu will forever agonize over his erroneous
belief that Dr. Saraki frustrated his ambition from becoming
running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari through a Muslim-Muslim
ticket in 2015. In his usual cavalier manner, he will stop at
nothing to punish Saraki for that. We know that this attack is not
about the interest of the nation or that of President Muhammadu
Buhari. It is about his 2023 ambition and it is obvious in the
statement as he struggled to explain this away.
12. However, Tinubu should leave Dr. Saraki out of his schemes
and manipulations towards 2023. It is obvious his arbitrary and
tactless interference in the process for the emergence of the
leadership of the Ninth Assembly is already falling through. The
frustration from this experience might have been responsible for
this needless and baseless outbursts. Our only advice for him is
that if he is interested in the stability of the National Assembly,
he should allow the members to elect their leadership in
consultations with the party leadership. He should stop treating
the legislators like hapless pupils receiving orders from a
cane-wielding headmaster. A situation where he, Tinubu, is
dictating to elected legislators and ordering them to either comply
with his directives or get out of the party will not augur well for
the legislature in the next dispensation. History should have
thought him that only a leadership that truly enjoys the support of
members can help the President and his administration to achieve
their objectives. It is a good development that the candidates for
the various positions are already reaching out to their colleagues
and forging alliances. We can see that after he realized that he
has misfired, he is trying to retrace his step and in his usual
devious manner, he is looking for scapegoats. We advise him to
leave Dr. Saraki out of his manipulations and “jockeying and
maneuvering for influence and power”, as he termed it.
13. The Eighth Senate has done very well and will leave a good
legacy. Despite all the underhand tactics to undermine the
legislature by outsiders and the public posturing, members have
always worked as a team on critical issues that have benefits for
our people and our nation. That is why hitherto unachievable
legislations like the PIGB, Police Reforms Act and other bills or
amendments to existing laws were passed with ease because the
members and the leadership know that they are elected as Senators
of the Federal Republic not as party representives.
14. Tinubu should know that while we await his attack for the
next quarter, we can only advise him to stay on facts.
Signed
Yusuph Olaniyonu
Special Adviser (Media and Publicity to Senate President)