Nigeria has progressed from being a Federal Banana Republic under Jonathan to Federal Rotten-Banana Republic now, under President Mohammadu Buhari. The whole federal government political, economic and administrative set up is so decayed and rotten that one can hardly breath. Nigerians elected APC as majority members of the National Assembly but that majority has been subverted by the old and new PDP led by Bukola Saraki in the Senate and Doagara in the House of Reps. Constitutionally, one cannot contest to be member of the Senate or House of Reps without belonging to a political party which should sponsor one. The National Assembly is not supposed to be the rubberstamp of the President but when majority members of the Senate and House of Reps belong to the same party as the President, it means the programmes on which the party won elections would easily be backed up through law-making. Indeed, Saraki brought the Senate and himself into disrepute through his indiscipline behaviour to become Senate President against the wish of his Party, APC, and by selling out the post of Deputy Senate President to the PDP that was voted out of the majority by the electorates in the Senate. What type of reputation has a Senate President that is undergoing criminal trial for false declaration of assets?
As for Dino Melaye, the minimum educational qualification for him to seek election into the senate, according to the Constitution, Section 65 sub-section 2, is that he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or equivalent and that he has attained the age of 35 years. Even in the appendage to the Constitution, he would still be qualified to contest if INEC is satisfied that he could communicate in written and oral English. In a plain language, Dino Melaye does not need to pad his educational qualification to contest for a Senate seat. But Dino Melaye damaged his own reputation by padding his academic qualification and he soaked the current Vice Chancellor of ABU in disrepute by making him to witness before a Senate Committee that he, Dino Melaye, graduated from ABU in 2000 without collecting his Degree paper!! The current Vice Chancellor was not at the University in 2000. The NYSC certificate produced by Dino Melaye was signed on 8 July 2001 which was a Sunday!! What type of reputation is Dino Melaye claiming, when up till now he is yet to produce his BA or BSc 3rd Class honours in Geography? And this Dino Melaye whose academic degree in geography has evaporated into the air had the gut to declare that Ibrahim Magu is integrity challenged because of a purported DSS report which was debunked by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, after investigation ordered by President Buhari on the report.
Since 2013, Senator Ali Ndume has been on trial for sponsoring Boko Haram. In fact, he swore to an affidavit that his contacts with Boko Haram were facilitated by Vice President to Jonathan, Namadi Sambo, who gave him certain telephone numbers to contact Boko Haram for peace talk. Strange enough, the case has neither been dismissed or concluded till date. In 2013, Ali Ndume was in the PDP but he joined the APC in 2014. He was one of the backbones of Saraki when he disobeyed APC party leadership not to contest for the Senate Presidentship in 2015.
Under President Mohammadu Buhari's watch Nigeria is degenerating into a Rotten Banana Republic. His first recommendation to the Senate for the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu, was rejected on the ground that the DSS wrote a negative report on him. The said report was sent by President Buhari to his Attorney General and Minister of Justice for investigation, and the result which debunked the DSS report caused Buhari to resubmit Ibrahim Magu's name to the Senate for confirmation as EFCC Chairman. Again the DSS wrote to the Senate claiming that Magu is security challenged and should not be confirmed. The State Security Service and the National Intelligence Agency are not independent of the control of the President. Thus Section 3 (1) and (2) of the National Security Agencies Act, Cap. 74, Vol. II, LFN, 2004 provides, "There shall be appointed for each of the agencies, a principal officer, who shall be known by such designation as the President may determine." Sub-section 2 states further, "that the principal officers of the agencies shall in the discharge of their functions under this Act (a) in the case of the State Security Service and the National Intelligence Agency, they shall be responsible directly to the President." If any report by the DSS is rejected by the President, a dis-satisfied DSS should either accept the President's judgement or resign from office. The DSS cannot go behind the President to impugn on the integrity of his nominee without first tabling before him their reasons and objections to his nominee. His, President Buhari's, lack of reaction to the DSS behaviour in going behind his back to write to the Senate not to confirm Ibrahim Magu, must give cause to wonder, who is actually ruling Nigeria.
Senators and members of the House of Reps do not have immunity. Law breakers should not be allowed to be lawmakers. Those who steal with impunity are dictators that should democratically be brought to justice. Even a clueless President Goodluck Jonathan used state power to force the closure of the Rivers State House of Assembly for almost two years, and he deployed Army and the Police to Ekiti State, where 19 APC members were driven out of the State and seven PDP were allowed to appoint a Speaker and pass the Budget of the State in the House of Assembly. Escapism is not a valiant virtue; it is in the primary domain of the lily-livered. Nigeria is on slippery slope to damnation and a lot has to be done by President Mohammadu Buhari before the free-fall can be slowed, halted and turn around undertaken.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 30 mars 2017 01:41
Till: africanworldforum@googlegroups.com
Kopia: USAAfrica Dialogue; naijaintellects; NaijaPolitics e-Group; OmoOdua; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; NigerianWorldForum; nigeriaworldforum@yahoogroups.com; Yan Arewa; Ra'ayi
Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [africanworldforum] FROM THE ARCHIVES: Court Nullifies Suspension Of Dino Melaye, Others { Re: Senate Suspends Ndume For Bringing Saraki, Melaye Into Disrepute
--What is the danger to democracy here? Every tier of government is a check on the other. Here, Senator Ndume (who obviously smarts from his removal as Senate Leader and its appurtenances), is also free to challenge his suspension. Or, is his recourse to the Court equally suspended?
What I see here is the exploitation of the Senate President's power to whip erring members into line. Even that power is limited by the Senate President's ability to have the majority behind him. Democracy allows that in as much as such Machiavellian display of power can be checked.
AgbaAkin^
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>Date: 29/03/2017 6:58 p.m. (GMT-05:00)To: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com >, naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com >, NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, OmoOdua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>, africanworldforum@ googlegroups.com , ekiti ekitigroups <ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, NigerianWorldForum <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com >, nigeriaworldforum@yahoogroups.com , Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>, Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>Subject: [africanworldforum] FROM THE ARCHIVES: Court Nullifies Suspension Of Dino Melaye, Others { Re: Senate Suspends Ndume For Bringing Saraki, Melaye Into Disrepute
--
My People:
What an irony - and a danger to democracy - this suspension of Senator Ndume.
In 2010: Court Nullifies Suspension Of Dino Melaye, Others["The 11 members (INCLUDING Dino Melaye] who called themselves 'The Progressives" had alleged that Speaker Dimeji Bankole misappropriated N9 billion between 2008 and 2009. When the matter came up on the floor of the House, the issue polarised members leading to a free-for-all and the suspension of the affected lawmakers."]
In 2017: Senate Suspends Ndume For Bringing Saraki, Melaye Into Disrepute["(A Senate Committee) cleared Saraki of the allegation of taking vengeance on the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Hameed Ali, for seizing a vehicle purportedly belonging to him. It also exonerated Dino Melaye of the allegation of forging his degree certificate."]
Our Senators really need to live up to our expectations....otherwise, this our democracy is truly endangered.
Bolaji Aluko
Senate Suspends Ndume For Bringing Saraki, Melaye Into Disrepute
SAN FRANCISCO, March 29, (THEWILL) – The Senator representing Borno South, Senator Ali Ndume, has bagged six months suspension for not carrying out "due diligence" before filing a petition against the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki and the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye.
The suspension, which is to take immediate effect, came after the Upper Chamber considered the recommendation in the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
The Senate had, on March 21, 2017, decided to investigate the allegation that a bulletproof Range Rover SUV said to worth N298m, but which the lawmakers said cost $298,000, seized by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, belongs to the President of the Senate.
The move was based on a point of order raised by Ndume, who also called on the upper chamber of the National Assembly to investigate the certificate scandal involving Senator Dino Melaye.
The committee presented the report of its investigation on Wednesday, which recommended the suspension of Ndume for "deliberately" bringing up an issue that painted the Senate in a bad light.
It cleared Saraki of the allegation of taking vengeance on the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Hameed Ali, for seizing a vehicle purportedly belonging to him.
It also exonerated Dino Melaye of the allegation of forging his degree certificate.
The committee had recommended 181-legislative days suspension for Ndume but the Red Chamber reduced it to six months.
Court Nullifies Suspension Of Dino Melaye, Others
An Abuja Federal High Court yesterday, nullified the suspension of nine members of the House of Representatives, saying it was illegal and unconstitutional.
The nine members are: Reps Dino Melaye, Independence Ogunnewe, Solomon Ahwinnahwi, Bitrus Kaze, Abbas Adamu, Austin Nwachukwu, Doris Uboh, Kayode Amusan and Gbenga Oduwaye.
The trial judge, Justice Adamu Bello, in his judgment, said the plaintiffs were not given fair hearing as provided for in the 1999 Constitution.
He added that the House acted outside its powers by placing the affected members on indefinite suspension instead of the 14 days which the law provided for.
Justice Bello added that the House ought to have referred their alleged offence offence to the House Committee on Privileges and Petition where they would have been given the opportunity to defend themselves.
"On this ground, I thereby nullify the suspension of the plaintiffs, it is null and void and it has no effect because something cannot be placed on nothing.
"I hope this judgment will facilitate the process of reconciliation and lasting peace in the House," Bello said.
Earlier, Melaye and his group who were suspended on June 22, had through their counsel, Mr Femi Falana brought an originating summons praying the order of the court to nullify their suspension from the lower chamber.
The plaintiffs had held that the House did not have any legal right to stop them from performing their legislative duties.
In their joint motion argued by Falana, the lawmakers insisted that they were elected for a tenure of four years each and that neither the Speaker nor anybody had any right to cut their tenure short for any reason.
The plaintiffs claimed that their suspension had denied their respective constituencies representation in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
They urged the court to set aside the suspension slammed on them, pending the final determination of their main suit.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and others joined as defendants in the suit, immediately after the judgment filed a stay of execution pending an appeal against it.
The House originally suspended 11 members on June 22 after a free-for-all in the lower chamber.
Two of them, Reps. Ehioge-West Idahosa and Gbenga Onigbogi, were recently recalled after they were said to have shown remorse for their action.
The 11 members who called themselves 'The Progressives" had alleged that Speaker Dimeji Bankole misappropriated N9 billion between 2008 and 2009.
When the matter came up on the floor of the House, the issue polarised members leading to a free-for-all and the suspension of the affected lawmakers.
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