The planned resumed trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, over allegations of corruption, the damming remarks by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the National Assembly and the allegations and counter-allegations between Senator kabiru Marafa and some pro-Saraki Senators over who is attacking the integrity of the Senate are the most debated issues in the court of public opinion. ANDREW OOTA writes on the unfolding drama.

The on-going trial of the embattled senate president by the code of Conduct Tribunal CCT, the multiple appeals and steps by senator Saraki to halt his trial from the Appeal court up to the Supreme Court and the decision of the two courts (Appeal Court and Supreme Court), that indeed the president of the senate should prove his innocence before the CCT and the notice by the chairman of the tribunal, that Senator Saraki's trial would resume on March 10th 2016, precisely next week, the position of Senator Kabiru Marafa where he accused Saraki of causing the budget crisis to ridicule President Muhammadu Buhari and, the plan to suspend him from the Senate for exercising his constitutional freedom of speech are some of the issues the current Senate is presently being faced with.

The position of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that the National Assembly, right from inception, stinks with corruption and that for a long time, the upper legislative chamber have not thought it wise to make their earnings public. But while the former President's damming remarks on the nation's highest lawmaking body would not be the first of such damming remarks against the National Assembly, the point to take away from Chief Obasanjo's letter, which he addressed to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara is that the parliament should begin the process of transparency and attach premium to its image both locally and globally.

But even more interesting is the fact that beyond the damming verdict of the former President, whom most people would want to trivialize and dismiss by the wave of the hand for the simple reason that the man himself superintended over inclusion of the same constituency allowances for members of the National Assembly and made the monies available at a time when the National Assembly had not secured for herself financial autonomy , which means he could not withheld approval for the funds because he held both the knife and the yam, but went ahead to institutionalize the practice, lacks the moral standing to criticise what he consciously approved by tagging it corruption.

However, the allegations of corruption levelled against the National Assembly by both the former President and other Nigerians at different occasions and still continuing had a lift in the last few weeks, when a member of the Senate, Senator Kabiru Marafa collaborate these series of accusations, particularly the one by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Suffice to say that, while some Nigerians , including those believed to be against the emergence of Senator Saraki , would have no choice than to allow the process run its full circle, even with the position of the Supreme Court that he should face trial over alleged declaration of false assets during his tenure as governor of Kwara State on grounds that no man shall be pronounced guilty until a court of competent jurisdiction does so, the law of morality and precedents laid before the National Assembly regarding allegations of corruption against past presiding officers might not favour the sitting President of senate for the simple reason that he has being docked twice over corruption charges.

It is therefore important to stress that the resumed trial and the tension that would follow, should the CCT finds the Senate President culpable and pronounces him guilty has commenced in honesty with the position of Senator Kabiru Marafa that the allegations of corruption against the Senate President subsists and cannot be swept under the carpet, but above all, the Zamfara Senator agreed with those who cast aspersions on the National Assembly that indeed, he is a member of a corrupt institution, which is commendable and unique.

Apparently not prepared to accept this bitter truth and which signals what to expect should the Senate President is find guilty, some Senators raised the issues of integrity of the institution and accuse the lawmaker of dragging the name of the Senate to mud, but this line of argument appears to fall flat before some critics who are of the opinion that the integrity of the Senate must be separated from the independence of the institution. They have argued that, should the Senate President continue to preside after being docked twice over allegations of corruption, it simply vindicates former President Obasanjo and others who believe that the institution is corrupt.

The argument in the court of public opinion, flowing from the on-going trial of the Senate President, is the counter-allegations between the Senate and Senator Marafa over who is truly dragging the name of the Senate to the mud. But the firebrand Senator did not stop at spitting fire on the Senate President; he described the panel that was mandated to investigate his public comments as a collection of undistinguished persons. This clearly means Marafa is prepared to face the pro-Saraki elements for as long as the Senate President continues to preside.

He had said, "The behaviour of committee members is very undistinguished; they caused the Senate embarrassment by concocting lies against one of their own. "That's why I went to plenary to see how they will pass judgement without hearing me. I deserve to be heard. Even the Senate President who is facing criminal charges is given right to defend himself.

"They can't face me; they are afraid. They know the illegalities they have committed. I read the said interview again and I wish to stand by everything I said. I am defending the institution of the Senate," Marafa said. He continued, "One, I have respect for the Senate institution to which I belong; so, I want to defend myself and save the Senate from embarrassment. Two, I have respect for the committee because I served in that committee for four years."

To underscore the forces behind Senator Marafa was position of Senator Ahmad Lawan who cautioned his colleagues, stressing that, "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.

"That is to ensure probity, transparency and accountability in the utilisation of public funds. We make good laws for the orderliness and good governance of this country. That we support the executive arm of government, that is the presidency in this regard to ensure that Nigeria move out of its current quagmire that we have found ourselves. If we are able to achieve this, or in fact if we become completely committed to doing this, our image before the Nigerian public will be such massive image that every Nigerian will support the National Assembly particularly the Senate. I think at the moment, we are hypersensitive to what the public feels 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", Senator Lawan declared. Also commenting, Senator Abu Ibrahim said, "first they came with a Punch newspaper interview which I have not read but my belief is that Senate is such a very high institution in the democratic environment in Nigeria that 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, freedom of speech. The moments you start instilling fear among ourselves that whether the Senate will impute meanings to whatever we say, then we have to call ourselves to order. So I believe that our colleagues should be very careful in this kind of situation.

"We should consider statements according to their merits. What did Marafa say really that impinged on the integrity and the public image of the National Assembly? We have so many pressing problems in this country. We should concentrate on those issues that will move the nation forward. But here we are trying to cause more troubles for ourselves. If we are doing anything to our colleague, we are doing so to ourselves collectively. We will discuss the report when it is submitted. But really, I am afraid; we are going to bite our fingers if we did any contrary thing that will affect our colleague", Senator Ibrahim urges.

This defence in favour of Senator Marafa by those who felt the Senator was simply exercising his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of did not deter some elements in the Senate, led by the spokesman of the upper legislative chamber, through the office of the Senate President, who in a press statement, called Marafa to order.

According to the press statement, "we have watched with dismay from the inauguration of the Eighth Senate how Senator Kabiru Marafa has constituted himself as a cog in the wheel of progress, unity and harmony of the institution. Since his preferred candidates did not win elections into the leadership of the Senate, he has carried on as if the peace, order, good health and progress of the institution do not matter.

"After the various media attacks believed to be aimed at defaming, bringing into disrepute and public odium and lowering the standing of the Senate in the estimation of right thinking Nigerians were tabled on the floor of the Senate last Tuesday, our position has been that the Senate should temper justice with mercy. We had been canvassing the opinion that, without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation by the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, the Senate leadership should simply work further on reconciliation.

"However, we are surprised that while others are preaching peace, the Senator from Zamfara Central has continued to stoke the ember of disunity, deploying all tactics, particularly falsehood, character assassination, setting individuals and institutions against each other and throwing abuses as if he is at war with himself and must therefore vent his anger on others. "His speech during a press conference at the weekend however deserves more clarification to set the records straight because it contains falsehood, unreasonable claims and attempts to further malign the legislative institution to which he belongs and its leadership. Our position on the claims is as follows:

"1. How can Senator Marafa blame Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki for the unfortunate controversies surrounding the 2016 budget? In a letter dated 15 January 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari himself, in a letter addressed to the Senate President, admitted that there were different versions of the budget in the National Assembly as he wrote that: "At the time of submission (of the budget), we indicated that because the details had just been produced we would have to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule. That has been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted. The National Assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears that this has led to some confusion. In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates."

"What is reasonably deductible from the President’s letter is that the current budget estimates being used by the National Assembly is the third version. How is this Saraki's fault as Marafa claimed? Also, how can Marafa allude to Saraki a sad development in which Ministers appeared before the National Assembly committees and were disowning either as a whole or in parts, the budget of their Ministries as it happened in the case of Ministers of Health, Education and Information and Culture? The irregularities in the budget made the February 25 passage date impossible and this was a joint decision of the Chairmen of Committees on Appropriation in both chambers of the National Assembly after consulting with the leadership of both chambers. Marafa's claim is therefore outright mischief and misrepresentation.

"2. At this point, it is necessary to put on record the hypocrisy of Senator Marafa. If he is so much interested in the early passage of the budget, how comes that up till now he has not convened the meeting of the committee on National Population and National Identity which he chairs so that the key agencies - National Population Commission (NPC) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) - can defend their budget estimates. Until last Friday when the Senate decided to appoint an acting chairman for the committee, the two agencies stood the risk of not having any budget for the current fiscal year. Marafa abandoned his statutory work and concentrated on playing politics, seeking to be relevant and struggling for newspaper space.

"3. Our position is that Senator Marafa has continued to violate the oath of office he swore to uphold. As a member, he has violating the integrity of the Senate. The Senate should no longer allow one member to hold it to ransom and behave as if he is bigger than the institution.

"4. There is need for the institution of the Senate to be protected. Marafa is laying a bad precedent and he needs to be stopped from further maligning this revered democratic institution". The statement was signed by Senators Tayo Alasoadura, Peter Nwaoboshi, Rafiu Ibrahim, Obinna Ogba,Isa Hamma Misau and Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.

While the argument continues, there is a school of thought that believes that suspending Senator Marafa for erring his opinion about the institution he is a part of, would be one of the worse decisions of the present senate, however commending the senator for further casting aspersions on the senate is also self admittance which, in decent climes could warrant a resignation to drive home your point.