…says acting EFCC boss has been fantastic in office
- He’ll not get the job, Melaye vows
Civil rights activist and federal lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has said that the Presidency needs to take some lessons on how to lobby the National Assembly with regard to its various requests before the Legislature.
Senator Sani, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, noted that the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, was denied confirmation as the substantive chairman of the agency due to the failure of the Presidency to lobby the upper chamber on his nomination.
He specifically blamed the ordeal of Magu in the hands of the legislators, from his first nomination through his re-presentation, on the hard-line posture of the Presidency.
He urged the Executive arm of government to avail itself of the opportunity provided by the lobbying process to ensure that its nominees for various offices sail through the screening by the National Assembly.
Sani’s views re-echo what Senate President Bukola Saraki said in a recent interview, that the executive arm of government must learn to consult with the Legislature more often, as the approach remained the best way to get things done.
Saraki said, “I know that as the parliament, which represents the people, some of these far-reaching decisions have to be made. But there is a need for wider consultation and that is what democracy is about.
If you don’t want democracy, you can sit in your office and announce anything. “Nobody is saying we have a monopoly of what is right but there must be consultation. We get feelers from the people and at a time that the economy is biting, we have to be very sensitive to some of the issues we face. So, all we are saying is consult more.”
In an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Abuja, Sani, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, stressed that the Presidency should not expect to easily have its way on any issue tabled before the lawmakers. He noted that the Presidency needed to know that it was imperative to reach out and persuade the lawmakers on its various requests.
The senator said, “The President should not expect that the Senate must approve all his bills and persons nominated for political appointments. We don’t need to be a rubber-stamp Senate because President Buhari sent in names.
“For me, Ibrahim Magu is doing a fantastic job at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, but a lot of things could have been done by the Executive before Magu’s name was sent to the Senate in the first place, and for the second time.
As a senator, if I don’t reach out to my colleagues before I present a bill, or move a motion, it stands to be shut down.”
Sani added, “There had been instances when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki himself, made known his position on an issue during a sitting, but his colleagues turned it down because he didn’t persuade them before sitting commenced.
“Senate President Saraki made it clear that he was in support of the sale of national assets, yet senators voted against it.
Senator Olujimi of Ekiti State also presented a bill on gender equality, but the senators shut it down on the ground that she didn’t make any serious consultations.”
The lawmaker stated that the Senate would not want to risk its popularity by becoming a mere stooge or rubber stamp for every request by the Executive.
Asked if by engaging in prior consultations with the Presidency on issues, the Senate would not be treading an unpopular path, Sani said, “Perceptions are stronger than reality, but people are conditioned to think that whoever is in the Presidency lives in the chapel of saints, while those in the National Assembly live in the cathedral of sinners.
“Every senator clearly understands the divisions and is fully aware of the mindset being publicised against the Senate, but we know that the National Assembly is an independent arm of government empowered by law to do its job, and it will do its job correctly.”
Sani, who in the past had given knocks to the Buhari administration for its shortcomings, disclosed that, though he supported Magu, more of his colleagues declined his nomination.
“It wasn’t that all the senators opposed Magu because they had pending cases at the EFCC. Even when the question was put on the floor of the Senate, there were those who voted that Magu be confirmed. It is just that the voices against him were more than those in his favour,” he said.
However, Senator Dino Melaye, a leading voice in the camp of the anti-Magu legislators, who is still smarting from a recent scandal on the authenticity of his claims on key educational qualifications, has vowed that the upper legislative chamber will never confirm the appointment of the embattled acting EFCC boss.
The lawmaker, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, noted that since the Senate had rejected Magu twice, the EFCC boss should not continue to head the anti-graft agency.
In a response to The Point’s inquiry on Wednesday in Abuja, Melaye stressed that Magu’s inability to scale through the screening by the Senate on two different occasions had foreclosed his chances of being confirmed as the substantive chairman of the EFCC.
He insisted that irrespective of the wily or arm-twisting means that might be devised by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, he and his colleagues in the Senate would never be cowed into doing its bidding on the confirmation of Magu and other nominees for various political appointments.
“We can’t be cowed to submission by the Executive, no matter the manoeuvres. Magu stands unconfirmed by the Senate.He should stop acting immediately,” Melaye said.
He urged the Nigerian public to back the Senate’s rejection of Magu as the substantive boss of the EFCC, describing the fact that he was still acting as “an aberration!” Meanwhile, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, has said that the Presidency will not be forced by the Senate to replace Magu.
For me, Ibrahim Magu is doing a fantastic job at the EFCC, but a lot of things could have been done by the Executive before Magu’s name was sent to the Senate in the first place, and for the second time. As a senator, if I don’t reach out to my colleagues before I present a bill, or move a motion, it stands to be shut down
He added that the refusal of the Senate to confirm 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners wof the Independent National Electoral Commission, over the inaction of President Buhari on their directive to remove Magu as head of the anti-graft agency, was disturbing.
“Mr Magu is one man heading one institution. So there is no need to threaten to bring a whole democratic government to a screeching halt because of the animosity the Senate has against one man. And this would have a very devastating consequence for Nigerians as it is an action that threatens democracy,” Sagay said.
He called on the senators to be very careful about the democratic experiment and how they nurtured it, so as not to show Nigerians that they were more interested in power than service to the people.
The Senate had, on Tuesday, postponed the confirmation of 27 INEC RECs for two weeks in protest against President Buhari’s refusal to sack Magu as acting EFCC chairman.
The Senate had, earlier this month, rejected Magu’s appointment for a second time in three months, citing a security report by the Directorate of State Services questioning the integrity of the acting anti-graft agency’s boss.
The upper legislative chamber had also rejected two non-career ambassadorial nominees from President Buhari.
