In a manner that was sufficiently self-indicting and far from being evocative of any painstaking commitment to screening the cabinet nominees, the Senate on Thursday finally screened former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi along with four others. But in continuation of the cat-and-mouse game that has marred the process; the nominees were not confirmed before the Senate adjourned to next Tuesday. The failure to confirm Amaechi came after the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges made two conflicting recommendations on petitions brought against him by senators from his state.
The committee dismissed the matter as subjudice and advised the Senate to ignore it; but noted that because it is subjudice; Amaechi’s screening should be suspended pending when the case is decided in court. This is unacceptable. The lamentation of an expectant public is loud: it is an embarrassment not only to Nigeria, but to democracy as a form of government. By this prevarication, the Senators have embarrassed themselves and betrayed the people’s trust. The least they can do to redeem themselves and the image of the red chamber is to clear Amaechi without any further delay. The headache that the issue has unleashed on Nigerians must stop.
To well-meaning Nigerians, the failure to confirm Amaechi is the highest level of double standards and abuse of separation of powers clearly defined in the constitution. To the extent that the fracas is over similar corruption charges which some other nominees who had been screened and cleared were accused of, this highlights the vicious political vendetta and self-seeking motives of the petitioners over and above the interest of their constituents and the country at large. Amaechi has stated his innocence of the allegations and has written to Senate President Bukola Saraki urging him to disregard the panel report that indicted him; dismissing it as a political witch-hunt; and arguing that the courts are the best place to address such complaints if they have bearing on criminality.
Since his nomination, Amaechi has been caught in the middle of the adversarial political relationship between APC and PDP, dating back to his days in Port Harcourt, when he fought running battles against known loyalists of the Jonathan administration led by Nyesom Wike, who tried and failed to oust him as president of the Nigerian Governors Forum. Amaechi was also the arrowhead of the political machinery that crystallized with the massive defections of PDP governors and legislators to the APC; laying the foundation for the party’s electoral victory in the last general election, where he was Director-General of the APC presidential campaign organization.
Amaechi’s sins are indeed many. He caused the PDP to lose power; playing a critical role in unseating an incumbent president to the anger of his South-south “brothers” who branded him a “traitor”. He upstaged Bola Tinubu from emerging vice-president and exposed Wike as pathologically corrupt for awarding contracts to himself and bolting away with huge mobilization fees. Amaechi damned the consequences and held on to his belief that change must come to Nigeria and the one man, who could do it, was Buhari. He gave his all and paid his dues and almost paid the supreme price for change. In the ensuing post electoral victory politics, Amaechi rejected a horse-trading deal for Rivers State senators to support his confirmation in exchange for APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside withdrawing his petition challenging Wike’s victory. Though Wike has denied interest in Amaechi’s ministerial headache, no one is fooled. Wike set up the judicial commission of inquiry whose report is raising dust over Amaechi’s political progression as a minister.
In point of fact and law, the Senate has no locus standi to rule on the petitions against Amaechi because the matter can only be decided by a court of competent jurisdiction. In the reckoning of legal experts, the Senate acted ultra vires when it decided to constitute itself into a court of law to try Amaechi on account of internal Rivers politics by people with vested interests out to torpedo what should have been a straightforward screening of the nominee. The courts have not convicted Amaechi of any offence and the petitions do not amount to convictions that could bar Amaechi from holding public office. Senators must stop playing to the gallery by refusing to understand the fundamental rights of a citizen to remain innocent until proven otherwise by a court of law. The Senate must also realize that it neither has the capacity nor the resources to dabble into the local affairs of each of the nation’s 36 states and must not use Rivers to set a precedence that could come back to haunt Nigeria in future.
While Amaechi’s case presents an interesting development in constitutional democracy, it is worth recalling that in a similar case involving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Supreme Court held that: “an indictment by judicial commission of inquiry or administrative panel is not sufficient for the purpose of preventing a person from holding a public office.” It is settled law that the Senate cannot stop Amaechi because the Supreme Court held that Section 182(1)(i) only enables a judicial commission of inquiry or administrative tribunal to determine the culpability of a citizen where it is alleged that such citizen has been in breach of standards of behavior expected in public life. Where such inquiry finds a citizen liable or culpable of a conduct bordering on criminality and the federal or state government accepts such a report through a published white paper, it is still not enough to deny a citizen eligibility to hold public office unless and until he is afterwards prosecuted in a court of law and found guilty.
The political and judicial intrigues triggered by the endless crisis in Rivers are, of course, unfortunate. It is incumbent on all parties concerned to bring sanity and reason to bear on this quasi-political and quasi-judicial problem. Rivers State has suffered enough in the hands of the political gladiators who have even unwittingly caused the shedding of innocent blood before, during and after the elections and it is high time the state moved on. Sadly, the key actors have presented themselves more as war-mongers than as gentlemen and exemplars of statesmanship who want the very best for their people. They need to cultivate a spirit of tolerance and understanding and stop being a bad influence on other politicians. The nation deserves a forward movement, following the successful conduct of the 2015 elections. The change Nigeria needs includes a change of attitude by all. The circus over Amaechi is one spectacle that has brought untold shame to the country but more importantly to each member of the senate. And the earlier this madness stops the better for the nation.
