My dear brother Dele, let me thank you most
sincerely for your article last weekend, “My
Candid Letter to Saraki.” I take everything you
said in that article to heart and I must
commend you for your candidness indeed and
the sincerity of your intentions.
As you said in your article, you are someone I
have known more by reputation than by any
personal relationship, until recently when we
struck up some personal acquaintance based
on our
shared political interests, especially
during the last presidential election. However,
I understand why you had to sound so
defensive for knowing me at all and had to
publicly map the boundaries of our
relationship. We have got to that point in our
country when we no longer believe that
anyone could stand for anything based on
principles and convictions alone. Moreover, in
the growing culture of media crucifixion and
presumed guilt; it is rare to find a voice like
yours that calls for fairness and justice.
I would have simply sent you a text message
or call you up for your candid advice to me,
which I take seriously. But I feel the need to
make some clarifications on some of the
issues you raised. One of them was that in
seeking to be Senate President, I struck a
deal with the PDP and made it possible for
one of them to be the Deputy Senate
President. I know this is the dominant
narrative out there, but it is far from the truth.
I did not do any deal with the PDP. I did not
have to because even before the PDP
Senators as a group took the decision to
support my candidature on the eve of the
inauguration of the 8th Senate, 22 PDP
Senators had already written a letter
supporting me. What I did not envisage was a
situation where some members of my party
would not be in the chambers that day,
especially when the clerk had already
received a proclamation from the President
authorizing the inauguration of the Senate.
Pray, if a team refused to turn up for a
scheduled match and was consequently
walked over, would it be fair to blame the
team that turned up and claimed victory? I
believe those that made it possible for PDP to
claim the DSP position were those who
decided to hold a meeting with APC senators
elsewhere at the time they ought to be in the
chambers. What the PDP Senators did was to
take advantage of their numerical strength at
the material time. They simply lined up behind
Senator Ike Ikweremadu while those of us
from APC voted for Senator Ali Ndume. It was
a game of numbers, and we were hopelessly
outnumbered. If the PDP had nominated their
own candidate for the Senate Presidency
position that day, they would have won. It
was as simple as that.
Secondly, I don’t know if you were aware that
in the build up to Senate inauguration, the
National Working Committee of the APC sent
two signals. The first signal specified how
leadership positions in the National Assembly
have been zoned. While we were trying to
give effect to this decision, the second signal
came, which contained names of people to
which these zoned position had been
allocated. What was not acknowledged was
that the President of the Senate is not an
executive president. He is primarily one of
109 senators. Therefore, I cannot decide by
myself who gets what in the Senate.
Therefore, when they said I defied party
directive in the choice of principal officers,
they are invariably ascribing to me the power
that I did not have.
My dear brother, most people talk about the
Senate Presidency position, but this was not
my only offence. I have also been accused of
helping to frustrate some people’s opportunity
to emerge as President Muhammadu Buhari’s
running mate. But I have no problem with
anybody. My concern was that it would not be
politically smart of us to run with a Muslim-
Muslim ticket. I doubt if we would have won
the election if we had done this, especially
after the PDP had successfully framed us a
Muslim party. I felt we were no longer in
1993. Perhaps, more than ever before,
Nigerians are more sensitive to issues of
religious balancing. This, my brother, was my
original sin. What they say to themselves,
among other things, was that if he could
conspire against our ambition, then he must
not realize his own ambition as well. For me
however, I have no regrets about this. I only
stood for what I believed was in the best
interest of the party and in the best interest
of Nigeria.
Now to the substantive issue of my trial. As
you rightly noted, this trial is not about
corruption. And I am happy that since my trial
started, people who have followed the
proceedings have now understood better what
the whole thing is about. I have had
opportunity to declare my assets four times
since 2003. Over those years, the Code of
Conduct Bureau had examined my claims.
There was no time that they raised any issues
with me on any item contained in my
declarations over those twelve years. This is
why you should be surprised that while I am
being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal,
the witness and the evidence supplied against
me were all from EFCC.
Like you, I have an abiding faith in the
judiciary. May God forbid the day that we
would give up on our judicial system.
However, the onus is not on me to prove that
I have confidence in the judiciary; the burden
is on my prosecutors to prove to the world
that justice is done in my case. If the process
of fighting corruption is itself corrupt, then
whatever victory is recorded would remain
tainted and puerile!
Some people have wondered, why has Saraki
been “jumping” from one court to another
instead of facing his trial? To those people, I
would say that I have only gone to those
courts in search of justice. Strange things
have happened, and they are still happening.
For example, Section 3(d) of the Code of
Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act states that
the Bureau shall refer any breach or non-
compliance to the Tribunal. However, where
the person concerned makes a written
admission of the breach, no reference to the
Tribunal shall be necessary. It was on this
basis that the case against Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu was dismissed in 2011, by this same
judge in this same Tribunal on the grounds
that he was not given an opportunity to deny
or admit to any breach before he was brought
before the tribunal. This was the ruling that I
relied on in making my case. But what did the
judge say? That he had judged in error in 2011
and he had since realized his error and
departed from it. My question is whether a
Tribunal of first instance has the power to
reverse itself. I should expect that everyone
would be worried if justice is applied
differently to different people. However, in
spite of my fears, I remain hopeful. Why?
Because the judiciary does not end with this
Tribunal.
Do you know the genesis of my real problems
with President Goodluck Jonathan? I have had
a touchy relationship with him, but the turning
point was in September 2011 when I moved a
motion on the floor of the Senate that
exposed the N2.3 trillion fuel subsidy racket. I
remain proud that I was the Senator that blew
the lid on the most elaborate corruption
scheme ever in this country. But after that I
became a marked man. My security was
withdrawn. I was invited and re-invited by the
EFCC and the Special Fraud Unit. I was even
declared wanted at a point. I believe I am still
one of the most investigated former governors
in this country. I have no doubt that if the
Jonathan government was able to find
anything against me, they would not have
allowed me to go unpunished.
Let me make this point clearly. I do not
expect to be shielded from prosecution
because of my contribution to APC, if there
was genuine basis for such action to be taken
against me. But I have every reason to expect
not to be persecuted by the party that I
contributed so much to build. The New PDP
may not have given APC victory in 2015, but it
was an important factor in the dynamics that
produced that victory. And with all sense of
modesty, I was an important factor in the
formation of New PDP; in leading that group
to the APC; in ensuring our group’s support
for the candidate during the primaries and in
mobilizing substantial resources for the
election. For these, I have not expected any
special compensation. Rather, I only expect to
be treated like every loyal party member and
accorded the right to freely aspire!
Some people have complained that I have
been taken Senators with me to my trial. But I
did not force them to follow me. The Senators
have freely accompanied me to the Tribunal
not because they are loyal to me as Abubakar
Bukola Saraki, but because they are
committed to the principle that produced me
as the President of the Senate. The same
principle that produced Ike Ekweremadu as
Deputy Senate President and produced Ali
Ndume as Majority Leader. They see all of us
in the Senate leadership as manifestation of
their jealously guarded right to freely choose
their own leaders. Because they know they
made us their leaders without any external
interference; they are confident that they
retain the power to remove us whenever they
so wish. They also know what this trial is all
about. They believe I am being victimized
because they have expressed their right to
choose their own leadership. This is why I am
not in any way perturbed by my absence in
the chambers during this trial. Because I was
not imposed on the Senate, I feel confident
that the Senate will protect its own choice
whether I am present or not. It is never about
me. It is about the independence of the
legislature. It has always been so since 1999.
It is so today and it would be so in 2019, it
would be so in 2023, and as long as we
practice a democracy that operates on the
principle of separation of powers.
My dear brother, let me end by observing that
I am not alone in this trial. On trial with me in
this process is the entire judicial system. On
trial with me are our entire anti-corruption
institutions and our avowed commitment to
honestly fight corruption. On trial with me is
our party’s promise to depart from the ways
of the past, a promise that Nigerians voted
for. And I dare say, on trial with me is our
media; and their ethical commitment to report
fairly and objectively. In the end, it is my
earnest hope that whatever we do will
ultimately ennoble our country.
Dr. Saraki is President of the Senate, Federal
Republic of Nigeria
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