| Paving the Way for Jonathan |
 By ANAYOCHUKWU AGBO
After three public demonstrations in one week in Abuja, Lagos and Warri, demanding that President Umaru Yar’Adua comply with Section 145 of the Constitution and voluntarily transfer powers to the Vice President, VP, until he is well again, the 109 senators of Nigeria certainly knew what their constituents wanted. So when the time came for them to take a stand, they took the current where it served and stubbornly upheld the Constitution and the will of the people Wednesday, January 27. They passed a motion unanimously urging Yar’Adua to transmit a letter to the National Assembly as stipulated in Section 145 of the Constitution to enable Goodluck Jonathan, VP, function as Acting President with full powers and privileges of a president. However, on the plea of the Senate President, David Mark, the senators dropped the intended ultimatum that he should comply in seven days and left it open. But the motion did not come easy. It was perhaps the toughest motion to be passed by the lawmakers given the pressure from the President’s foot soldiers. Michael Aondoakaa, attorney-general of the federation, AGF, and minister for justice had mounted a strong lobby for the senators not to pass the motion. On Thursday, January 14, some senators were poised to move a motion, like the House of Representatives did, to send a team to visit Yar’Adua at Saudi Arabia, where he is hospitalised, to ascertain the state of his health. But Mark cleverly maneuvered them to a safer compromise. He argued that as the Senate had not had any official communication from the Presidency since the President left hurriedly for medical treatment on November 23, 2009, it was procedural to first summon the secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, Yayale Ahmed, to brief them on Yar’Adua’s health. Ahmed was then summoned to brief the Senate on Thursday, January 21. Insiders said it was a diversion to buy time for the Presidency to try to break the rank of the senators. After Ahmed’s briefing, the senators concluded there was nothing new in the package. He confessed that since November 26, 2009, when the President called to ask that the VP should take full charge of government, he had not spoken with Yar’Adua again. Similarly, that since 1.30 am on Tuesday, November 24 when the President left for Saudi, he had not seen him. In other words, Ahmed did not know the state of health of the President. Sources hinted that Ahmed had fallen out of favour in Aso Rock before Yar’Adua left and was billed to be removed as soon as it was convenient. Some political interests in his state, Bauchi, saw his being consistently mentioned as a possible VP option should Yar’Adua not be able to continue as a threat to their own ambition. Ahmed annoyed the senators when he could not answer the question on why Yar’Adua was able to sign the supplementary budget and speak to BBC but could not write a letter to the National Assembly in compliance with Section 145 of the Constitution, leaving a power vacuum for over 60 days. However, he did say that such a letter was written in 2008 when the President went on a similar trip but that it never got to the National Assembly. Insiders alleged that it got lost between the AGF’s office and that of the President’s special adviser on National Assembly Matters. Rather than help the cause of Yar’Adua’s men, Ahmed’s submission left the senators in no doubt that the President was incapacitated and more senators added their signatures to the motion paper for him to comply with Section 145. Earlier, Aondoakaa had intensified his lobby trying to break the rank of the senators. On Wednesday, January 20, he held a meeting at the National Assembly with 15 senators who are lawyers to lobby them to support the ruling of Justice Daniel Abutu of the Abuja Federal High Court that Section 5 of the Constitution is enough for Jonathan to fill the power void left by Yar’Adua. He argued that it was the only way out of the power logjam at the Presidency. Of the 15 senators that attended the meeting, only three disagreed with him. One of those who disagreed with him was Victor Ndoma-Egba, deputy Senate leader and also a fellow Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. On the basis of his meeting with the 15 senators, a report was prepared for the Senate to debate on Tuesday, January 26. But the report was overwhelmingly and ‘vehemently’ rejected on the floor of the Senate. “We considered it a Kangaroo judgment, that’s what they wanted to use to kill the debate that the VP should take full charge”, said a senator last week. The senators stated that it was alien for the National Assembly to be presented with a court judgment “to adopt as the way forward.” Another senator wondered: “Are we constituting ourselves as an appeal court or what?” But the pressure continued. It was not only verbal and legal; money, in dollars, was also part of the Presidency’s arsenal. Many senators confirmed that they were offered bribe to accept the court judgment and reject the motion for the President to comply with Section 145. “Yes, we were approached ...” confirmed a senator last week. Some rejected the offer; some whose ideological stance is well known were not approached at all. But many senators allegedly took the money gladly. They argue that it was “Nigeria’s money.” It was gathered that each senator was supposed to get $150,000, about N22.5 million. Principal officers were slated for more. However, the executors of the project were alleged to have helped themselves to the largesse too, and that included those rejected by some senators. After the sitting on Tuesday, January 26, some senators received calls to confirm if they had received their own bribe. When the issue of the bribe came up in the closed session, Mark brandished a copy of the Nigerian Tribune which reported some aspects of it and suggested that the Senate would sue the paper. Though they made sympathetic noises, many senators disagreed with their president. They say he is on his own if he sues the Ibadan-based newspaper. At the closed session last Tuesday, Mark saw the handwriting on the wall. Despite the lobby and bribe, those who wanted Yar’Adua to comply with Section 145 had garnered 74 signatures, two-thirds majority of the Senate, enough to impeach both Mark and Yar’Adua, should he continue to block them. Only 37 or one-third, were needed to raise the motion. In the end, the motion was passed and accepted by all senators. TELL’s investigation revealed that in deciding either for or against the motion, the senators' preferences, further reflected the power game in the Presidency. The bulk of the opposition to the motion, surprisingly, did not come from the core North, but from some sections of the Niger Delta and some sections of the Middle Belt. The usual geo-political intrigues did not manifest; neither did party affiliation matter. All the senators from Benue State, where the AGF and Senate President come from opposed the motion. All the three senators from Kwara State were passive; their colleagues described them as ‘docile’ during the debate. They were said to be waiting for their leader. However, all Kogi State senators supported the motion. Edo and Delta, two states from the Niger Delta, where Jonathan comes from surprised their colleagues in the chambers. Out of three senators representing Delta State, two opposed the motion; while only one, a professor, supported it. Similarly, two of Edo’s three senators opposed the motion. This pattern can be accounted for by the influence of James Ibori in Delta and Anthony Anenih in Edo State PDP. All the other four states in the Niger Delta, South-South, supported it. The whole of South-East supported the motion. The North surprised their southern colleagues by their preferences. All the three senators from Kano – two PDP and one from All Nigeria Peoples Party supported the motion; all senators from Zamfara, Sokoto, Adamawa and Bauchi states supported it too. Others showed a split. Only one out of Gombe State’s three supported the motion; one from Niger State supported while two refrained; two from Kaduna supported while one opposed it. One from Taraba supported while two opposed it. Two from Plateau supported, the third appeared undecided. Katsina was obviously in a dilemma because Yar’Adua is from their state; however, one succumbed and supported the motion. The principal officers of the Senate were also divided. While the Senate President, majority leader and minority leader opposed the motion; deputy Senate President, deputy majority leader, both lawyers, supported the motion. With this overwhelming majority, Mark had to bow to the will of the majority. As the Senate was in session, the federal executive council, FEC, was also playing a part in the fate of the President. Justice Abutu had on Friday, January 22 ordered FEC to within 14 days comply with Section 144 of the Constitution and constitute a medical panel to ascertain the state of health of the President. After the meeting, the AGF announced that pursuant to the January 22 judgment in another case handled by Abutu, FEC resolved that the President was not incapable of discharging the functions of his office; and that the medical treatment outside the country did not constitute incapacitation to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the President from office, under Sections 144 and 145 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. After briefing the press, Aondoakaa hedged while fielding questions and was rather aggressive and dismissive. Asked if the FEC consulted with anybody before reaching such a resolution, he said the constitution did not require the FEC to consult anybody. But why is Aondoakaa and the ruling cabal desperate to leverage on Section 5 and not section 145 of the Constitution? Justice Abutu’s ruling provides some clues: “Before the Vice President can perform the functions of the President under the Constitution as Acting President, the requirement of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution relating to the transmission of a letter by the President to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives must be complied with. As Acting President, the VP performs the functions of the President under the Constitution in his own right as the Acting President. The power which he exercises is not the power delegated to him by the President.” That is what the cabal is fighting against. They want Jonathan to be in office but not in power. With the President down with ill-health, Turai, the first lady and the cabal would then rule Nigeria indirectly through Jonathan, who would not know which instruction comes from the ailing President. He carries out all instructions as directed without making any input. “They want him as a zombie to appear in public functions while they rule the country at night”, explained a senator last Wednesday. The secret agenda is to maintain the status quo, using the court ruling as a foundation, downplaying the constitutional provisions of Sections 144, 145 and 146; the ultimate goal is to make the VP perform the duties of the president without real executive powers granted by the president so that Yar’Adua can remain in power and office even if he is incapacitated. This, perhaps, is what the eminent elders group does not want to happen to Nigeria. Led by Shehu Shagari, former president, the group of eminent Nigerians visited the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly last week to show their support for calls on the President to comply with Section 145 of the Constitution. There are many people who would want to maintain the status quo, chief among them Aondoakaa and the other ministers. First, for the kitchen cabinet including the likes of Abba Ruma, minister for agriculture and water resources and Tanimu Yakubu, the national economic adviser, a Jonathan as acting president would be disastrous for them. It was gathered that they have so ill-treated Jonathan that they would never allow a situation where he would take over effectively from Yar’Adua. In fact, some Aso Rock insiders say that Jonathan has received worse treatment than Atiku Abubakar, former VP, received in Obasanjo’s hands. For example, it is said that Jonathan’s office is very poorly funded and that repeated complaints by the VP to the President have only yielded little results. Once after such complaints, Yar’Adua was said to have delegated Shamsudeen Usman, then finance minister to solve the problem but the minister went and told the VP that many of the things he is asking for funds for are not in the budget. So the Yar’Adua clique would never feel comfortable with Jonathan as acting president Another surprise is the role Niger Delta governors are playing in the conflict. It was reliably gathered that none of the governors in the turbulent zone is supporting Jonathan in any capacity, not even Timipre Sylva, the governor of his state. Rather than team up with Jonathan, Sylva has teamed up with the cabal who are offering him Jonathan’s post in 2011. Sylva has also been slated to replace Bukola Saraki of Kwara State as chairman of Governors’ Forum. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State is also one of the replacements being considered for Jonathan. There were indications that much of the funds being used to prosecute the anti-Jonathan project comes from some ambitious Niger Delta governors. An aide to one of the governors explained they were just being cautious to guarantee their second term in office. Senators reacted cautiously to the success of the motion last week. Nimi Bariagha-Amange, one of sponsors of the motion said that the motion has reinvigorated the Senate. On the probability that the President may not heed the motion, he said the struggle was just beginning and that there are options to follow if this fails. Chris Anyanwu, one of the senators who was not offered the bribe money, perhaps because of her background as a radical journalist, was excited about the motion. “It renewed my faith in the Senate; I didn’t know we had such deep thinkers…We have spoken for the Nigerian people.” On the likelihood that the motion would be ignored, she noted: “It’s an advisory statement that carries the weight of the people.” From all indications, the House of Representatives may follow suit and pass a similar motion this week. Since the House appointed a six-man delegation to visit the President at the hospital in Saudi Arabia, not much was heard from them until last week when about 200 members of the House were said to have signed up to support a motion asking the president to comply with Section 145 of the Constitution. Investigation however showed that the lawmakers may not be serious about visiting the president in Saudi hospital as the Saudi Arabian embassy in Nigeria confirmed they had not applied for any visa to visit the country. But head or tail, it looks like a swan song for the cabal.
Additional report by DAYO AIYETAN
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