In a conflict between the truth and lie, only those who want to play to the gallery will choose to be neutral. Bukola Saraki and Lawal Daura are like one egg Siamese twins who worship no other god than money. It is their unlimited appetite for money that unites them against Buhari's and APC anti-corruption drives which was openly demonstrated in the rejection of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the EFCC recommended by Buhari.
While agree with Professor Jibrin Ibrahim that the sanctity of the legislature is the foundation of liberal democracy, I will in opposition to Professor Jibrin Ibrahim add that neither the Executive nor any member of the legislature has the right to desecrate the legislature by illegal and unconstitutional behaviour. Clearly illegal is that Lawal Daura ordered armed DSS men to invade the National Assembly without seeking and obtaining the approval of the Acting President. In fact, Lawal Daura usurped the power of the President to order armed DSS men to execute the NASS invasion and that was illegal.
That aside, the greatest desecration of the National Assembly is the blatant violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by some members of the legislature. The freedom of all Nigerians to associate freely is enshrined in the Constitution. Thus, every Nigeria has the right to choose which political party one wants to belong at any point in time. However, the Constitution has unambiguously prohibited an elected person to shift to another party during the period for which the person is elected. To begin with, Section 65 (2) (b) of the constitution stipulates that for any Nigerian to be qualified to stand as a candidate in an election, he/she must be a member of a political party and the party must sponsor the person. The significance of Section 65 (2) (b) is brought to bear on the combined Section 68 (1) (g) and Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution which jointly stipulate that : A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected. The constitution does not say that Saraki and his ilk should not change political platform during the lifespan of the current House, but there is a consequence for their change of political base which is, they cease to be a member of the House when they cross from the APC to PDP with immediate effect. Saraki and his ilk have ceased to be members of the legislature by virtue of their deflections from APC to PDP and it is the duty of the law enforcing agencies to prevent their entrance into the Legislative Assembly or arrest them if they attempt to forcibly gain entrance.
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim overstretched the truth when he stated that Lawal Daura has learnt from President Obasanjo how to coarse a minority in the House to impeach a Governor. Daura is not a President but Obasanjo was. In the recent case of Benue, the twenty-two APC members of the Benue House of Representatives that crossed over to the PDP are no longer members of the House according to the Constitution and the remaining eight APC members are Constitutionally empowered to make laws and if they so wish impeach the party defecting Governor.
Investigation is ongoing on how Daura and Saraki colluded to execute the National Assembly invasion. All communication gargets such as computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices belonging to Daura are being analysed to track contacts between Saraki and Daura prior to the DSS invasion. Saraki himself is already insinuating that the ongoing investigation is aimed at incriminating him in the Daura led invasion saga. Much as the invasion of the National Assembly is a matter of concern, the most urgent subject of concern for debate should be if Saraki and his co-defectors are still legitimate members of the National Assembly according to the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria or not.
S.Kadiri
Skickat: den 10 augusti 2018 19:40
Till: USAAfrica Dialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Daura Affair
--The Daura Affair and Threats to the Democratic Order
Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday Column, Daily Trust, 10thAugust 2018
The decisive action taken by the Ag. President on Tuesday in dismissing Lawal Daura, former Director General of the State Security Service from office is a great plus for Nigerian democracy. The decision of Lawal Daura to invade and blockade the National Assembly might well be the most serious threat to the democratic order since 1999. The sanctity of the legislature is the foundation of liberal democracy and the executive branch of government cannot under any conditions carry out what the Ag, President has correctly called an "illegal act" by invading the complex and preventing legislators from accessing the place.
Since the drama on Tuesday, there has been lots of theories explaining the context of what happened. One set posits that Lawal Daura is the mole of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and that he carried out the action to embarrass the government of President Buhari who has been battling Saraki for a long time. The other narrative is that Lawal Daura has learnt from the script of President Obasanjo who during his time raided State legislatures and used Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chief to get minority legislators to gang up and illegally remove sitting governors. I find the second narrative more convincing. There are concordant reports that Lawal Daura and the APC Chairman met with APC Senators on Monday to plan the coup against the Senate leadership. If these reports are true, then it's difficult to make the case that Daura was working on behalf of Saraki.
Bukola Saraki is no angel but unconstitutional efforts to remove him is are building his credibility. I have in this column severally condemned the concerted action by Lawal Daura and Bukola Saraki to block the appointment of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC Chairman so I am not saying that the two cannot collude on matters that serve their joint interest. My argument is that when we review events surrounding Saraki's travails over the past three years, there have been persistent efforts by security to deal with him, the most prominent being through the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Indeed, Saraki has to be grateful to God that in his wisdom, President Buhari appointed someone who is very incompetent to head the SSS. Mr. Daura's tenure has been marked by reckless disregard for the rule of law.
We all recall his actions on October 7 and 8, 2016 when he orchestrated the invasion of the homes of senior judges across the country leading to the arrest of seven of them. While acknowledging that corruption had become deep and embedded with some judicial circles in the country, the raid was conducted in such a manner as to harm the reputation of the whole judicial arm of government and therefore became a threat to the democratic order the same way the siege on the National Assembly impacted the system. It was in this context that the National Judicial Council declared the invasion unconstitutional and condemned it as an affront on the judiciary and democratic order.
Mr. Daura has also been at the centre of flagrant disregard of court pronouncements over the detention of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and a leader of the Shiite movement, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky. In spite of numerous court orders, the two have been held in detention. The Shiite leader has been held in detention with his wife since December 2015 and have been refused access to overseas medical attention in spite of the serious bullet wounds they received the night of their arrest. It important to recall that the unconstitutional attempt to remove Governor Samuel Ortom in Benue State some weeks ago has also been traced to Mr. Daura. In that case, security was provided for eight legislators to seek to impeach the Governor in an Assembly with 30 members.
Lawal Daura was also notorious for detaining journalists and human rights activists. In recent weeks for example there has been a major campaign for the release of Jones Abiri a Nigerian journalist in Bayelsa State detained for years and only recently taken to court following an outcry from the public. It is therefore uplifting to hear the newly appointed acting Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Matthew Seiyefa, say on his assumption of the office yesterday that the service is reviewing all cases of alleged unlawful detentions and human rights abuses. He said categorically that: "We will not tolerate the abuse of freedom of Nigerians and we will not be intimidated nor cowed as we will protect our mandate," he said. It is high time that security agencies revert to the constitutional role of protecting the rights of citizens rather than violating them.
The point must be made that the Lawal Daura affair is a microcosm of a wider crisis in the Buhari Administration. It has been public knowledge for a long time that the key security operatives of the regime – NSA Munguno, COAS Burutai, DG Daura and Chairman Magu have been engaged in serious factional in-fighting for a long time including open fights when for example the EFCC tried to arrest a former DG of the SSS, Ita Ekpenyong. Public safety and national security cannot be guaranteed when security agencies are working at cross purposes. Lawal Daura was doing what he did because President Buhari allowed him to do it. There has been a breakdown in the operations of security agencies because President Buhari chose to allow then fight each rather than fight terrorists, bandits and criminals. We cannot have significant improvements in security provisioning unless and until President Buhari creates order and functionality in the security sector. He must urgently review the sector and appoint people who are ready to work together for the good of the country.
Professor Jibrin IbrahimSenior FellowCentre for Democracy and Development, AbujaFollow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17
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