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There are strong indications that the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters investigating President Muhammadu Buhari’s payment of $496 million to the United States Government for the purchase of 12 Tucano military aircraft without the National Assembly’s approval, may absolve the President of any wrong doing, BusinessDay
has gathered.
Last month, the Senate had asked the David Umaru-led committee to legally advice on whether the President violated the constitution.
This followed a Point of Order moved by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Matthew Urhoghide, that Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution be invoked if the President had engaged in anticipatory approval.
The section spells out the procedure for the removal of the President from office.
Although the committee failed to submit its report by May 2, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, assured that the panel would do so last week, adding that the committee was yet to conclude its assignment.
However, the upper legislative chamber adjourned plenary till Tuesday, May 15, 2018 without submission of the report.
A member of the committee who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the panel may absolve the President of wrongdoing.
According to him, the committee would hinge its decision on Section 83 (1) (2) of the 1999 constitution, which borders on Contingency Fund.
The sections provides that: “The National Assembly may by law make provisions for the establishment of a Contingencies Fund for the Federation and for authorising the President, if satisfied that there has arisen an urgent and unforeseen need for expenditure for which no other provision exists, to make advances from the Fund to meet the need.
“Where any advance is made in accordance with the provisions of this section, a Supplementary Estimate shall be presented and a Supplementary Appropriation Bill shall be introduced as soon as possible for the purpose of replacing the amount so advanced”.
It was gathered that the panel shifted ground after bowing to pressure from the Presidency.
The source, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, disclosed that the panel may likely justify the President’s action.
“The Committee will come out with a report that the President has not violated any law. That he approved the purchase of the Tucano warplanes out of exigency,” he said.
On his part, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator, who also did not want his name mentioned, expressed concern that the Committee chairman may absolve the President due to his loyalty to Buhari.
He said: “Don’t forget that even the chairman of the committee, David Umaru, is an APC senator and over the years had been a staunch supporter of Buhari”.
In an interview with BusinessDay, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Kayode Ajulo, described the impeachment threat as dead on arrival.
According to him, payment for the security equipment is in order, stressing that the President acted in the best interest of the country.
He said: “The impeachment is an overkill. It is unsustainable and therefore dead on arrival. The Senate should find something better to do. Please note that I do not subscribed to the President spending money without the requisite approval but the needful has been done by making spending and the approval anticipatory.
“The Senate should either approve or reject same. The
circumstantiality of the whole saga is what is paramount”.
Since Nigeria became a Republic in 1963, no President has ever been impeached.
A political analyst, Taiye Odewale, attributed this to what he called political, religious and ethnic considerations by Nigerian
politicians.
He accused Saraki of using the impeachment threat to bargain with the Executive and the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), having lost out in the proxy war with President Buhari.
“If you recall, during the Obasanjo regime such attempts were also made on the floor of the House of Representatives by some aggrieved lawmakers. The same thing was done during the Jonathan regime by the then Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, and it didn’t go beyond the level of just saying that Section 143 of the Constitution should be invoked because of alleged infraction committed by the then President.
“So, the way those two impeachment attempts fizzled out is the way I see the move made by (Matthew) Urhoghide on the floor of the Senate, fizzling out as well. Because even that day, you will recall that no single senator from the APC stood up to support him. Not even Shehu Sani who was fond of saying he stands on the truth.
“The Nigerian factor is there. Apart from the process of impeachment that is very rigorous, it is then legislators will remember the party that they belong to, they will remember the faith they profess, they will remember the region where they come from. Those factors will never allow for impeachment of any president. So, anybody thinking that the President will be impeached is just deceiving himself”.
On whether the purchase of the aircraft without National Assembly approval is not a gross misconduct that would warrant an impeachment, he said: “In other climes, you may say it is grievous enough. Don’t forget that the anticipatory approval from the ECA is not the first.
Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan made spending in that manner and the National Assembly at that time did not raise an eyebrow. They should even be grateful to Buhari that he had already done such spending.
“In Nigeria, the peculiar factors are there. I don’t see any President being impeached. The way we are practising our democracy, no president can be impeached. Because the Nigerian factors are there. And they are peculiar. The President must come from somewhere and he must belong to one religion. When you talk of impeachment, people will look at those factors.
“Look at what happened to the recall process of Dino Melaye. When push comes to shove, your own people will stand by you, no matter how grievous your offence is. The Nigerian factor does not respect performance. It respects that this is one of my own. Either on religious or ethnic template. That is what I mean by the Nigerian factor. And that factor is stronger than any constitutional provision”.
