By Emeka Alex Duru
Barring rebuttal of statements credited to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai on behalf of the Acting President, Prof. Femi Osinbajo, the Senate and Presidency may be in for another round of face-off.
Osinbajo, who was represented by El-Rufai at a function in Kaduna, was reported to have said that as long as he remains in office, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu will continue to remain as the head of the Commission.
The Acting President said he had the same confidence and conviction President Muhammadu Buhari had about Magu’s capability to function effectively in the office of the EFCC.
Osinbajo said: “Shortly before the President left the country, I asked him about Ibrahim Magu and the President said he believes in what he is doing. He has his support. I want to also affirm here that Magu has my support. As far as I remain the acting President, Magu remains”.
The statement came 48 hours after the Senate asked the acting president to remove Magu as EFCC chair. Analysts instantly read in the statement by the acting president, a return to the battle line with the senators.
And if that happens, it would mean the Acting President inheriting the lukewarm relationship that had existed between his principal and the National Assembly.
Battle foretold
It is not that the two arms of the government had particularly enjoyed good working relationship. In fact, since the inauguration of the current National Assembly on June 9, 2015, when members disregarded the All Progressives Congress (APC) directive and settled for the Bukola Saraki leadership in the Senate and Yakubu Dogara in the House of Representatives, both organs of the administration, have been on each other’s throat.
The feud, has been more with the Presidency and the Senate. Incidentally, while the lawmakers chose their leadership, President Buhari had initially appeared unperturbed – a move his aides had initially advertised as being in line with his decision not to interfere in the affairs of the legislature.
But with time, apparently pressured by the leadership of his party, the President began to show obvious disdain to the lawmakers. NASS members, on their own, have also fired back on occasions, drawing on their constitutional powers to deal with the president.
The face-off has manifested in many instances. For example, in the so-called padding incidence that characterised passage of the budget last year, this lukewarm relationship was easily noticeable.
It is also believed to be the disguised but underlining issue in the controversy over the confirmation of the ambassadorial nominees that took quite some time.
Enter Magu confirmation controversy
But at no time had the frosty relationship been more pronounced as in the Magu instance.
Twice, Buhari had forwarded the name of Magu, who has been functioning in acting capacity, to the senate, for confirmation. On each occasion however, the lawmakers had turned down the request, explaining their action on a report from the Department of State Security (DSS), that had pronounced the acting chairman lacking in integrity required to head the organisation.
The 14-paragraph confidential report said that Magu failed the integrity test and that if confirmed, he could eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption drive of the administration.
Between the time the senate rejected Magu and the Thursday Kaduna event, there had not been another report according clean bill of health on the EFCC chair. But he has remained on his post, in acting capacity.
Drawing the battle line
On Tuesday, the Senators, apparently to arm twist the Acting President, took the impasse further, when they resolved not to entertain any confirmation request from the presidency, unless Magu is removed.
They were particularly miffed by the remarks credited to Osinbajo in April, in which he reportedly stressed that Magu enjoyed his confidence and that of the president.
“I’m fully in support of Magu as the EFCC chairman, just as the president is. It is up to the Senate to make their judgement. If our candidate is rejected…we can represent our candidate”, he was said to have said. The senators wanted him to move away from this position that many of them, considered cocky.
But from the unfolding development, Osinbajo would not succumb to the demands by the senators. And the battle line appears drawn.
Nigerians react
When the issue cropped up last time, informed analysts had commented on the matter from various stand points. Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, had for instance, accused the Senators of acting on selfish reasons in not confirming Magu, and not in the general interest of Nigerians.
“The Senate doesn’t appoint a chairman of the EFCC; what it does is to confirm an appointment. If it doesn’t confirm, then, he will remain acting, he doesn’t become substantive but the powers of acting or substantive chairman are the same; it is just a difference in nomenclature.
“So, any act of bad faith to slow down the corruption war is misplaced and it won’t work. It is sad that people will go to that extent of rejecting what is good for the country for their selfish reasons because they think it is not convenient for them. So this is preference for self-preservation at the expense of the nation and the people of the country”, he had said.
A Senior Lecturer in Department of History and International Relations, Lagos State University, Ojo, who asked not to be mentioned, however told this reporter that the report which provided ground for non-confirmation of Magu coming from the DSS, an agency under the Presidency, showed division in Buhari’s presidency.
“This is a clear case of a divided house. The whole thing shows an administration lacking in harmony. How can the DSS Director-General who was appointed by the President, allow a damning report on a nominee from the same man that appointed him?
“Is it not akin to an employee waging war against his employer? Was it that the President, even with his famed military background, did not run the necessary checks on Magu before nominating him for the job? The entire thing is confusing. As I said earlier, it is a clear case of a divided house”, he said.
Abuja-based lawyer, Onyema Omenuwa, also wrote on the matter, stressing that there is absolutely nothing about Magu but naked supremacy battle between the NASS and the Presidency.
“Rather than concern themselves with building institutions, some folks are bent on foisting one uncouth fellow on us”, he noted in his facebook, social media page, on Thursday, July 6, 2017.
There are indications that Osinbajo, in maintaining the same position as Buhari, intended to demonstrate his loyalty to the President. This is particularly against the backdrop of insinuations in some parts of the North that he is being programmed by his Yoruba kinsmen to take over the office from the ailing President. “By making the ‘Magu must stay’ statement in Kaduna, the political capital of the North therefore, he may have carefully sent out the impression of not wanting Buhari’s job, after all”, volunteered an Afenifere, Pan Yoruba group chieftain.
With that, the supremacy battle between the presidency and senate may continue. And the business of governance, suffers.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
