Date: 2016-02-20

At the peak of the struggle for the senate presidency last June, Senator Kabiru Marafa, a second-timer at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, served as the mouthpiece of the Unity Forum, an umbrella of senators that worked for Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North), the preferred candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the plum job.

 The emergence of Saraki through an alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators on June 9 last year opened a new page in the rivalry between the forum and the like-minds, the camp of senators who supported Saraki. While other members of the Unity Forum went underground, Marafa stood his ground and has been consistent in checking the Saraki-led senate. 

On the floor of the Senate and even outside it, Marafa had on many occasions slammed the Saraki led Senate. For instance when Saraki announced the composition of standing committees and jacked it up from 57 to 65, Marafa vehemently opposed it, saying it was against the Senate standing orders.

Marafa, who laced his argument with relevant rules of the Senate, went ahead to liken it with the creation of additional states without recourse to the constitutional provisions on the matter. He has since rejected the committee chairmanship position given him by Saraki.

Also, when President Muhammadu Buhari tongue-lashed the federal lawmakers on his maiden media chat for their move to spend N4.7 billion on exotic cars in the face of economic recession, Marafa aligned himself with the president, insisting that they didn’t need any car after collecting car loans.

Again, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused the National Assembly of corruption, he threw his weight behind the retired general, saying: “I agree with Obasanjo about this budget. Sharing money should not be the basis of the performance of legislators. Maybe the less they earn the better, I don’t know. But, I think whatever he is saying is right and I support him that the National Assembly should lay bare their budget.”

 None of these bashings threw Saraki and his supporters’ off-guard as his calls for the resignation of the Senate president from the position did. Penultimate Friday, when the Supreme Court ruled on the appeal of Saraki on his Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) trial, Marafa demanded the resignation of Saraki.

 Without mincing words, Marafa said: “What is happening in the CCT is personal to Saraki and has nothing to do with his position as the Senate President. It has now reached the time when Saraki should take a bow to enable him concentrate on his case at the CCT.  I don’t have anything against him as a person.”

The Saraki camp was not unexpected to react sharply. On Tuesday, the camp began initiating moves to silence Marafa when Senator Isah Hamma Misau (APC, Bauchi Central) raised a point of order during plenary, urging the leadership of the Senate to sanction Marafa for exposing them to “disrepute”.

Misau stated, “It is unfortunate that Marafa granted an interview misleading the public about us. The leadership has to do something about him. We cannot allow him to continue to tell lies against us.”

Seconding Misau, Senator Matthew A. Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South) urged the leadership of the Senate to take drastic measures against Marafa, saying, “We need to take a drastic decision against people who are bringing this honourable Senate to disrepute.”

Responding, Saraki referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.  He asked the committee to report back next Tuesday.

The development has been receiving bashings from senators within Marafa’s camp. Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North) said Marafa has not done anything wrong that would warrant any punishment.

“Without prejudice to what the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions will report on the issue, as a Senate, as an institution, we should be more sensitive to the way we discharge our functions and mandates as provided for in the Constitution.  I think at the moment, we are hypersensitive to what the public feel about us because an individual senator bares his mind on an issue.

 “So I will advise the Senate that instead of spending so much time on how an individual senator could say something and rubbish the entire institution, we should rather take the bull by the horn and focus on our fundamental functions and mandates. If we do that, no Nigerian will not respect the National Assembly or, indeed, the Senate,” he said.

 Senator Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina South) saw the probe as amounting to infringement of the freedom of speech of the senator. “We should not start limiting ourselves to the fundamental human rights of free speech. That’s my fear. The moment we start taking any small thing, any opinion and start investigating ourselves, we are going to shoot ourselves on the foot.

 “Obviously, our main function requires independent vote and freedom of speech. The moment we start instilling fear among ourselves, afraid that the Senate will impute meanings to whatever we say, then we have to call ourselves to order. I believe that our colleagues should be very careful in this kind of situation. We should consider statements according to their merits,” he said.

When contacted on the mode to be adopted for Marafa’s probe, the chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East) said: “This is an in-house issue and we are going to meet with other members of my committee to adopt a template.”

Our correspondent reports that some cases before Anyanwu’s committee are the probe of the erstwhile chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the chairman of the CCT, Mr. Danladi Umar. Umar is presiding over Saraki’s case which has been fixed for March 10, this year.

It was gathered that the committee has summoned Marafa for questioning. Sources told our correspondent that the clerk of the committee sent a text message to him on Tuesday inviting him to appear before the panel.

Speaking in a phone interview, Marafa said he would appear before the committee because of his respect for the Senate as an institution.

“I was not at the Senate when the issue was raised, but when I was told I went through the interview and I didn’t see what I said that is offensive to them. At any rate, when did it become a crime for a Nigerian to express him or herself?

“Since we started the Senate, I have been calling the Senate under the leadership of Saraki to let us respect our rules and the constitution of the country. But the Senate under Saraki has consistently been violating the constitution and the Senate rules. Which rules are they going to use for my case? Even the committee that is going to handle my case is illegal. In fact, all the committees are illegal. But I will appear before the committee out of respect for the Senate as an institution,” he said.

Will the Anyanwu-led committee recommend Marafa’s suspension? This will be known next Tuesday when the one week deadline Saraki gave the committee will elapse.