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Senate On A Collision Course With Buhari … Over Perm Sec’s Refusal by ponleh(m): 9:52am On Jul 13, 2015 |
THERE were indications, on Sunday, of an
imminent clash between the Presidency and the
Senate over an alleged attempt by the
Presidency to rubbish the senate president.
Pro-Saraki senators are accusing the Presidency
of instigating the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastacia Nwaobia, not
to honour an invitation by the upper chamber.
Nwaobia had communicated to the Senate that
she could not honour its invitation without an
approval by her supervisors to do so but the
Saraki loyalists said the Senate had the
constitutional power to invite Nwaobia and that
her refusal constituted an affront to the
legitimacy of the senate president.
The Saraki loyalists’ belief apparently rested on
the alleged ‘non-acceptance’ of his presidency
by the All Progressives Congress and President
Muhammadu Buhari.
“It will not augur well for our democracy if the
Presidency will not allow civil servants to do
their jobs. We should not carry the crisis in the
APC to the Senate,” a pro-Saraki senator told
one of our correspondents in Abuja on Sunday.
Both Saraki and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, had spurned
the party’s directive on who to lead the National
Assembly and had ridden on the back of an
alleged alliance with the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party members to clinch the
leadership posts in both chambers.
The APC had preferred Ahmad Lawan, a Senator
from Yobe State, as the president of the Senate.
The Lawan group in the Senate on Sunday said
it supported Nwaobia because Saraki was said
to lack both legitimacy and the moral right to
invite the permanent secretary to brief the senate
on the state of the economy.
The Saraki group said the ‘offending’ permanent
secretary failed to honour the Senate’s invitation
because she did not get clearance from the
Presidency.
Investigations by one of our correspondents
revealed that as of Friday the permanent
secretary had yet to neither appear before the
Senate leadership nor respond to the letters from
the National Assembly management.
It was learnt that senators loyal to the Senate
President were angry that the Presidency could
encourage the civil servants to disobey the
Senate.
The PUNCH had on Thursday reported that the
Senate ad hoc committee on Finance, in a letter
dated June 29, 2015, had invited Nwaobia and
some officials of the finance ministry to appear
before the committee on July 8.
But when the permanent secretary did not
honour the invitation at 11am on July 8, the
Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu
Maikasuwa, wrote another letter to her the same
day, restating the invitation.
The permanent secretary was said to have sent
a text message to the Senate on July 7,
explaining why she could not come.
But the clerk’s letter, a copy of which was sent
to the Head of Service of the Federation, read, “I
refer to our letter Ref. No. NASS/S//SP/ COS/
CORRP/15/1/06 of June 29, 2015 on the above
subject matter and your text message of July 7,
2015 to the Chief of Staff to the Senate
President, signifying your inability to honour the
invitation.
“Your action is a deliberate violation of the
provisions of Section 67(2) of the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as
amended).
“You are, therefore, requested to appear before
the Senate leadership as contained in your
aforementioned letter on Wednesday July 8, 2015
at 2.00pm prompt.”
The third letter to the Permanent Secretary,
written by the Chief of Staff to the Senate
President, Issa Galaudu, also stressed the
importance of the meeting. It read, “Please note
that your text message of yesterday, Tuesday,
July 7, 2015, which I received by hours of 20:02
pm, suggesting that you would not make today’s
meeting, is unacceptable.
“This is an affront to the President of the Senate
and its leadership. The provision of Section
67(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), is
very clear and unambiguous in this regard.
Hence, you do not need the permission of any
official before you attend or appear before the
Senate.
“Consequently, I have the instructions of the
President of the Senate and leadership that you
do appear before them on the date and time
earlier communicated to you, Wednesday, July 8,
2015 by 11am prompt. It is my belief that you
will comply unconditionally.”
As of the close of work on Friday, the permanent
secretary, our correspondents learnt, had not
appeared before the Senate.
When contacted, the Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi
Adesina, on Sunday declined comment on the
matter.
Efforts to get Nwaobia to comment on the issue
were not successful as calls sent to her mobile
phone did not connect.
Similarly, text message sent to her line was not
acknowledged as of the time of this report.
Attempts to also get the spokesperson for the
Ministry, Mr. Marshal Gundu, were also not
successful as calls made to his mobile phone did
not connect.
But a source in the ministry confided in our
correspondent that, based on civil service
procedures, it would be wrong for the permanent
secretary to honour the invitation without first
getting the approval of the Head of Service of
the Federation.
The source said since the permanent secretary
reports directly to the HoS and not the Senate, it
would amount to a breach of protocol for her to
appear before the lawmakers without getting the
consent of the HoS.
To pro-Saraki loyalists, such explanation did not
jell.
But Lawan’s supporters in the Senate, under the
aegis of the Senate Unity Forum, supported
Nwaobia’s shunning of the Senate invitation.
The group, in a statement by its spokesman,
Senator Kabir Marafa, on Sunday, said that since
Saraki had allegedly violated some sections of
the Constitution to emerge as senate president,
he could not accuse another person of
committing the same offence.
The senator said, “I read with open mouth
amazement, the letter written by both the Chief
of Staff to the Senate President and that of the
Clerk to the National Assembly on the refusal or
inability of a government functionary to honour
the invitation of the “leadership” of the senate.
“They were saying the refusal violates section
67(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria. Can somebody please tell them that
they are guilty of similar, if not higher offence?
“They, in fact, not only violated the Constitution
to ascend to the Senate leadership, they
murdered it.”
Marafa alleged that the leadership and
management of the National Assembly,
“murdered section 60 of the Constitution that
gives the Senate, and not any individual or group
of persons, the powers to conduct the business
of the Senate on the 9th of June 2015 using the
forged document”
He also alleged that the Saraki group violated
section 65 (2b) of the Constitution that
“recognises the supremacy of the political party
in favour of the unmentioned, unrecognised and
unknown zonal caucuses.”
He alleged that Saraki violated Order 3(2) of the
Senate standing order 2011, as amended, which
he said put ranking above all other
considerations in nominating senators to serve
as presiding or principal officers of the Senate
and it’s committees.
Marafa added that Saraki’s decision to announce
Senators Ali Ndume and Bala Na’ Allah as
senate leader and deputy leader respectively
flouted the rule of ranking because Senators
Ahmed Lawan and Bukar Abba Ibrahim, who
were nominated by the party for the positions,
were seniors to Ndume and Na’Allah.
He said, “The presiding officer did not hit the
gavel after announcing the names of the Senate
leader and his deputy, this is required to give the
announcement legislative authority.
“From the foregoing it is clear that the leadership
and indeed the Senate itself are not properly and
legally constituted.”
The Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the
Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, declined
comments when contacted while efforts to get
the spokesperson for the Saraki loyalists under
the aegis of Senators of Like Minds, Dino
Melaye, were unsuccessful as calls to his mobile
phone were not answered. |
Re: Senate On A Collision Course With Buhari … Over Perm Sec’s Refusal by playboy99(m): 9:59am On Jul 13, 2015 |
The story is too long waiting for.d summary from d next person #ACE |
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