BY: Oliseama Okwuchukwu

The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki has described the statement credited to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, released on Sunday, April 21, 2019 as “another of his now well expected quarterly vicious attack on the person of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate”.

Dr. Saraki said that in the statement, one could see the master of media spins getting ensnared in his own game as he struggled to extricate himself from the narratives about the contest for leadership positions in the Ninth National Assembly.

The Senate President speaking through his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, said:

“Since we have taken it for granted that Tinubu’s attack on Saraki every three months (Quarterly) will come as expected, we would just have ignored his statement but for the fact that it was filled with untruth, fallacies and misrepresentations. The statement was another effort to sell a concocted narrative about the Eighth National Assembly and its leadership.

“First, he alleged that national budgets were delayed, distorted, padded, new projects introduced, funds for projects reduced, “to halt progress of government”. It is unfortunate that a man like Tinubu who had been in the Senate (though for 22 months and under a military regime) should have a better understanding of how the legislature works. The passage of budgets is definitely not the responsibility of the leadership of the Senate. It is an assignment handled in the various committees. These committees are headed Senators across party lines. It is the

“Also, it is only a mischievous man of Tinubu’s experience that will claim that the leadership of the National Assembly is responsible for the delay in the passage of budgets without mentioning how budgets were submitted to the National Assembly very late and contrary to the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“This Eighth Senate has passed and sent to President Muhammadu Buhari a constitutional amendment bill to compel Presidents and Governors to submit their budget latest by September so as to enable the National and State Assemblies pass the Appropriation Act before the end of that fiscal year. Yet, the President has refused assent to the Bill.

“To further make the points here clear, we invite Tinubu to look at the records of the time of submission of budgets and their passage since 2010 so as to have a better understanding of the fact that the date it is submitted to parliament and the readiness of the MDAs to defend the proposals submitted are the main determining factors in when the budget is passed.

“The 2010 budget was submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2009 and passed on March 25, 2010. The 2011 budget was submitted on December 15, 2010 and passed on May 26, 2011; 2012 budget was submitted on December 13, 2011 and passed on March 15, 2012; 2013 budget was submitted on October 10, 2012 and passed on December 20 the same year; 2014 budget was submitted December 19, 2013 and passed April 9, 2014; 2015 budget was submitted on December 17, 2014 and passed on April, 28, 2015 after the general elections; the first budget under the Buhari administration was submitted on December 22, 2015 and, despite all the mistakes and back and forth withdrawals and replacements by the Executive, was passed on March 23, 2016; 2017 budget was submitted on December 14, 2016 and passed on May 11, 2017 while the 2018 budget was submitted on November 7, 2017 and passed May 16, 2018 after several pleas to MDAs before they agreed to defend their proposals in the National Assembly.

“The 2019 budget under consideration was submitted on December 19, 2018 and will be passed before the end of this month. So, Tinubu can see that the facts cannot support his spins and fake narrative. We therefore demand that he should withdraw that careless, irresponsible allegation that Dr. Saraki ever “sought to pad budgets with pet projects”.

“It is also a known fact that any so-called delay in the passage of budgets under the Eighth National Assembly is traceable to the refusal of heads of MDAs to defend the budget proposals for their agencies on time. Last year, the President himself had to direct the Secretary to Federal Government to compel heads of MDAs to appear before the National Assembly committees following the report made to him by Dr. Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. So, if a man like Tinubu is spreading this falsehood about budget passage and delay being deliberately orchestrated by the National Assembly leadership, one wonders whether he tries to even debrief his loyalists in the federal legislature at all or if the only thing he discusses with them are issues concerning “jockeying and maneuvering for influence”.

“We challenge Tinubu to give instances of where and how Saraki delayed or distorted or padded national budgets. We also challenge him to name the “self interested legislation” that were sponsored by Dr. Saraki.

“Tinubu also claimed that the Senate leadership “stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious reactionary and self interested legislation on the nation”. We wonder what these “legislative initiatives” are because in the four years of the Buhari administration, it has only forwarded six bills to the Senate, apart form the routine annual appropriations and supplementary budget proposals.

“Two of these bills, the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and the National Minimum Wage Bill, have been passed. One of the bills, the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act (amendment) Bill was withdrawn by the executive following the disagreement between the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The remaining three – National Water Resources Bill, National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Establishment Bill, Federal Institute of Industrial Research for the Development of Micro, Small and Large Industries Bills – are at various stages of passage.

“One would have thought that an administration which promised change will be interested in radical reforms in various sectors which will necessitate initiating many legislations to that effect. However, since a man like Tinubu who claim to be helping the government “to reform the national economy for the good of all Nigerians” is only interested in “jockeying and maneuvering for influence” as he rightly admitted in his statement, then Nigerians should know why the country is where it is and from where the promise of change by the APC government has been stymied and undermined.

“As a leader of the Eighth National Assembly, Dr. Saraki is proud that under his watch, the Senate has surpassed the records of all previous Senate in the number of bills passed, the significance of these bills to the revival of the economy, the fight against insecurity and corruption, improvement in the provision of health service and the education sector, as well as better social service delivery  to the generality of the people.

“The bills passed, motions moved, intervention made and frequent engagement with the people were all directed towards addressing the day to day issues that affect the lives of the ordinary Nigerians.

“This Senate has passed 282 bills (the highest any Senate had passed is 129 bills recorded by the 5th Senate), among which is the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Public Procurement Act (amendment) Bill, Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Electoral Act (amendment) Bill, Police Reform Bill, Police Trust Fund Bill, Nigeria Railways Authority Bill, Company and Allied Matters Act (amendment) Bill, Secured Credit Transactions Act, Whistleblowers Protection Bill, constitution amendment bills, Discrimination Against Persons With Disability Bill, Electronic Transaction Bill, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, North East Development Commission (NEDC) Act, Witness Protection Programme Bill, Credit Bureau Reporting Bill, Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institution Bill and Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Bill, National Financial Intelligence Agency Act, Federal Audit Services Commission Bill, among others. It will be good to know which of these Bills Tinubu believes is “self interested” and not in the interest of Nigerians.

“We will like to point the attention of Mr. Tinubu to the fact that most of the bills listed above got international and national endorsement from stakeholders who lauded the Senate for the move. For example, the Financial Intelligence Database Agency (Ultrascan) commended the Senate for passing the NFIU Act which enabled the country to be re-admitted into the Egmont Group. Also, the Nigerian Police leadership have praised the Senate for passing the Police Reforms Bill and the Police Trust Fund Bill.

“Again, when the National Assembly in the 2018 budget gave effect to the law allowing one percent of the budget to be devoted to Primary Health Care Delivery, it got kudos for Bill Gates, Bono, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO, and various national groups who believe the move would bring health care delivery to the poor people across the country.

“The passage of the UBEC Act (amendment) Bill was praised by Pakistani child education campaigner and youngest Nobel Laureate, Yousafzai Malala. When the PIGB was passed, APC led by Tinubu, National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), among others. Even, the World Bank commended the National Assembly for the passage of the Company and Allied Matters Act and Secured Transactions in Movable Assets and Credit Bureau Reporting Act. Of course, all these initiatives will be ignored by a man who is still sulking because his vow in 2015 that Saraki and Dogara will never lead the National Assembly did not materialize.

“Tinubu and his mob have been sponsoring the narratives in the media that the emergence of the present leadership of the National Assembly was a mistake. We hereby submit that Dr. Saraki and other leaders of the National Assembly were democratically elected by their colleagues.

“And it is because they are the choice of their colleagues that they have remained in office for the past 46 months, despite all the plots hatched by anti-democratic, reactionary and fascist elements pretending to be ‘progressives’. In fact, Tinubu should know that if there was any mistake made on June 9, 2015, It was the miscalculation by himself and his small cabal in the APC who felt they could decide for the Senators-elect and House of Representatives Members-elect. When they failed after their grand-standing that they could always got whatever they desired, they resorted to undermining the institution of the legislature  and waging a campaign of calumny against the law making body.

“It is now clear that those who took Senators away from the chambers contrary to the directive contained in the proclamation signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 9, 2015 are ‘mistake personified’. It is obvious that If they repeat that arrogance during the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly they will fail again because Nigeria is greater than them.

“The institution of the legislature is bigger than the over-bloated egos of these power mongers and dirty schemers.

“Let us repeat again that we know that a Machiavellian politician like Tinubu will forever agonize over his erroneous belief that Dr. Saraki frustrated his ambition from becoming running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari through a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015. In his usual cavalier manner, he will stop at nothing to punish Saraki for that. We know that this his attack is not about the interest of the nation or that of any President Muhammadu Buhari. It is about his 2023 ambition and it is obvious in the statement as he struggled to explain this away.

“However, Tinubu should leave Dr. Saraki out of his schemes and manipulations towards 2023. It is obvious his arbitrary and tactless interference in the process towards the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth Assembly is already falling flat in his face. The frustration from this experience might have been responsible for this needless and baseless outbursts.

“Our only advice for him is that if he is interested in the stability of the National Assembly, he should allow the members to freely elect their leadership. History should have thought him that only a leadership that truly enjoy the support of members can help the President and his administration to achieve their objectives. It is a good development that the candidates for the various positions are already reaching out to their colleagues and forging alliances.

“The Eighth Senate has done very well and left a good legacy. Despite all the underhand tactics to undermine the legislature and the public posturing, members have always worked as a team on critical issues that have benefits for our people and our nation. That is why hitherto unachievable legislations like the PIGB, Police Reforms Act and other bills or amendments to existing laws were passed with ease because the members and the leadership knows that we are elected as Senators of the Federal Republic not as party representives.

“Tinubu should know that while we await his attack for the next quarter, we can only advise him to stay on facts”.