The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Ecology, Dr. Bukola Saraki has accused President of the Senate, David Mark of deceiving senators with the way he hurriedly cleared Senator Musiliu Obanikoro as a minister.
According to Senator Saraki, Mark had earlier told the lawmakers that he would defer the screening until all issues surrounding the cases against Obanikoro were settled.
The senator said members of the APC had arrived the chamber last week with that agreement in mind and felt let down that Mark went straight to the confirmation stage for Obanikoro, instead of making room for reviewing the cases against the nomination.
He said: “What happened was unfortunate. I believe that, in the Senate, the National Assembly, there are many courts – the court of the law and the court of public opinion and we all represent constituencies.
“I believe in a scenario where the three senators, it has always been the practice, have an objection to the candidate, the case must be reviewed. I believe we are all there because we represent the people. We are not there on our own. We must be concerned with that.
“At the same time, I agree that somebody is innocent until proven guilty. But I believe the right thing the Senate President should have done is, we should have tarried a bit and we should not rush on the issue.
“I remember a week ago, after coming out of the executive session, we agreed then that we only take the first four nominees and that we would give one week for further consultation and then we would come back and review. The only person we are reviewing is Senator Obanikoro.
“But when we came in that day, if you notice, I was trying to make him (Senate President) know that this is not what we agreed on. We agreed the last time that we would come back and review the situation. So, instead of reviewing the situation, we are now going straight to start the screening processes which is reneging on what we agreed on.
“Point number two is that it was clear that the House was divided and the Senate should not be partisan. We should look at the interest of the country in the decisions we take, not the political party that we belong. It is clear that there was controversy on this nominee and I think the right thing to do is we should have stepped it down while further consultations were done to satisfy those who say that Senator Obanikoro has done certain things.
“But by going ahead and disregarding the rule and also the new development that that was initiated where somebody has taken Senator Obanikoro and Senator Mark to court, that is not tidy enough. Again, one of our rules, 53 (5) says once there is litigation, it is not for discussion.
“I even remember at a time most of us wanted to cross over (to APC), it was this same section that the Senate President came up with and said he could not discuss it. The excuse he gave us was that he had not been served. I think a Senator got up and Senators are honourable people, a Senator told all of us that there is a court case.
“I think that should be good enough, in the interest of, again, uniting the Senate and ensuring that we take collective decisions. We’re not supposed to take partisan decisions and also the public opinion on this matter, the best position would have been to defer it.
“One of the issues of our party also especially those from Lagos State is that the urgency to have him back as Minister, maybe the fear was that what they did in Ekiti, they want them to do it in Lagos on election day. I think if they have deferred it till after the election, brought the issue back again, had further consultations, there might be a way that would have shown the statesmanship of the Senate.
“I think it was not a correct decision to have taken in the kind of what people expect of the Senate. For us in the APC, we have spoken, we are minority in the Senate but our walking out was to say that, you can take the decision, let history judge us that we are not part of that decision, that’s the issue. It is not that we cannot recognise him, once he’s been confirmed by the Senate, we are bound by that but the record shows your position on the matter.”
Sometimes I don’t understand this slogan of someone is innocent until proven guilty, are we kids?, we all heard recordings and know what d intentions of d artist where, we also remember that period how APC chieftains were denied entrance to ekiti and d aftermath is d recordings, therefore we all know why his confirmation is being hurried at this time and this shows total disregards/disrespect for Nigerians. Nobody is trying to criticise Obanikoro, however like Safari said David Mark should have stayed action on his confirmation till after d elections as his allegiance should first be to Nigeria and not Pdp. God help us all but our leaders should know eye wey dey cry dey see road oh!.