Executive-legislative faceoff

The Nigerian presidency and the upper chamber of the National Assembly have suspended governance to focus on fight over power. The root of the crisis is the refusal, in December last year, of the Senate to confirm Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following a damning security report submitted by the Department of State Security, which called to question Mr Magu’s integrity. The president subsequently ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to investigate the validity of the allegations. Regardless, Mr Magu was again renominated by the president and for the second time, the DSS turned in an equally damning report on Magu insisting that he “has failed the integrity test and will eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption drive of the present administration.” The Senate consequently rejected his nomination for the second time and in a later resolution, demanded that he be removed from his position as Acting Chairman of the EFCC. The Presidency has thus far refused to meet the request and the Senate in anger, has suspended, for two weeks, the screening of 27 nominees for appointment as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) by the president.

But that was not all. The war has been brewing since the Senate indicted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, over corruption in relations to the disbursement of funds of the Presidential Initiative in the North East (PINE) and the President refused to act on it but went ahead to clear the SGF.  The Senate has also clashed with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, who has refused to wear the Customs uniform and has been treating Senate summons with contempt. The Senate has equally demanded his sack but the president has thus far demurred.

Since then, there have been accusations and counter-accusations from both sides. Noticeably, phony corruption allegations against leading senators have been making the rounds, obviously sponsored by people in the presidency while Hameed Ali, SGF, Babachir David Lawal and lately, the loquacious Itse Sagay, a professor of law, and the Chairman Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, have been throwing barbs at the Senate while ignoring the Upper Chamber’s summons.

Possibly, this necessitated the position by the Senate, last week, that it is in a “war mood” and is determined to fight (dirty) to protect the integrity and institution of the Senate, which is obviously at risk of being emasculated by an incompetent and overbearing executive.

True, we are confronted today by a presidency that thinks it is all-knowing and whose body language suggests that it does not need the checks and balances enshrined in the constitution to prevent against dictatorship. It has thus been working assiduously to emasculate the other arms of government or at best, make them mere appendages of the executive. Regardless of the people inhabiting the senate or the accusations against them, they remain the elected representatives of the people and they are constitutionally assigned the task of performing oversight duties on the executive and ensuring that the executive strictly follows the constitution. The weakening of the institution of the National Assembly will do the country great harm. It will mean the death of our democracy and the beginning of a dictatorship, which all Nigerians must resist.

The Nigerian presidency needs to be schooled in the principles and theory of separation of powers and checks and balances. The executive is just an arm of a government comprising it, the legislature and judiciary and they all have equal and coordinate powers. It is therefore power grab, tyranny or dictatorship for the executive to want to appropriate powers of the other arms while refusing to accept checks on its powers by other arms of government.

But, intriguingly enough, the same executive that does not want checks on its powers is displaying obvious and dangerous incompetence in managing its affairs. Both the EFCC and DSS are institutions under the presidency. In fact, the president, in his usual clannish and provincial style, appointed his kinsman Director General of the DSS, but has been unable to ensure the DSS work in sync with him to ensure a smooth confirmation of his appointee. It will be irresponsible of the Senate to confirm a nominee who has been severally discredited by the DSS, an agency under the same presidency.

The inability of the president to exercise authority over his appointees is the clearest indicator yet that presidential authority has indeed crumbled and the president’s subalterns are playing their various games irrespective of the wishes and desires of the president. The saga gives the impression of a president that is in office but not in power.

This is all the more reason why the Senate must intensify its oversight functions on the executive. We suspect that as the president increasingly succumbs to old age and ill-health, a prominent section of his appointees and subalterns have gone loose and are pursuing their selfish agenda. We need a bulwark against the illegal grab of power and looting of the commonwealth.

Editorial