THE National Assembly recently transferred the power of the president to control the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, and the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, to itself amid sharp disagreements among the lawmakers. At the conclusion of work on the bill to amend the CCB and CCT law, the legislature successfully altered Section 18 (2) to enable it to confer additional powers on the National Assembly instead of the president.

The bill stopped the president from enjoying the powers of exempting public officers from investigation and trial and gave such powers to the National Assembly. Section 18 (1) of the existing Act reads: “The president may by order exempt any cadre of public officers from the provisions of this Act if it appears to him that their position in the public service is below the rank which he considers appropriate for the application of those provisions.”

Expectedly, many Nigerians are not happy with the action of the lawmakers which is obviously a self-serving action and an attempt to muzzle the CCT to their selfish desires. They perceive the action of lawmakers as constituting themselves a clog in the wheel of progress against the war on graft in the country.

Section 18 (2) of the existing Act provides that “The president may by order confer on the bureau such additional powers as may appear to him to be necessary to enable it to discharge more effectively the functions conferred upon it under this Act.”  This has now been taken away from the office of the president by the lawmakers, conferring such powers on themselves.

The bill to remove the power from the president was initiated and first passed by the House of Representatives which transmitted it to the Senate for concurrence in May 2016.  With the concurrence of the Senate with the House of Representatives, the bill will be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent. Mr. President should not append his signature to the bill.

I salute the patriotic lawmakers who fought very hard to stop the vexatious amendment but the corruption that has eaten deep into the some of the lawmakers, particularly the leadership made it to go against the wish of Nigerians. Many senators resorted to the use of un-parliamentary words and the atmosphere really heated for Nigerians to know that it is a long road to the war against corruption. Because what played out at the passage is that corruption is already fighting back.

Another amendment effected to the CCT/CCB Act which was also of concern to Nigerians is to make it compulsory for any case of breach or non-compliance to be brought to the notice of the person concerned to enable him to make a written admission of such breach or non-compliance and where such is done, there shall be no reference to the tribunal. The point here is that how much crime in our statutes provides for an offender to be communicated first to admit or reject his or her accusation before the law can take its course?  If someone is written such a letter  and he says he is not guilty in writing or goes ahead to make fresh declaration, so that he could be left alone or what does the National Assembly mean with this amendment? Even those caught red-handed stealing in Nigeria whenever you ask them guilty or not guilty? They always plead not guilty even in the face of overwhelming evidence. So, this CCB, CCT amendment makes no anti-corruption  sense to most patriotic Nigerians.

But Saraki could not cheat nature. As he and his cohorts were busy amending the CCT Act, fate was also moving against him as the Court of Appeal Division in Abuja dismissed his appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the CCT over his false declaration of assets.

The Senate President, is facing a 13-count charge of false assets declaration, and had approached the appellate court to nullify the March 24 ruling of the Danladi Umar-led Code of Conduct Tribunal. The five-man panel of the appellate court presided over by Justice Abdul Aboki, dismissed the appeal for lack of merit. The appellate court held that under the 1999 Con­stitution, the CCB was not under any obligation to invite the appellant to make any clarification over discrep­ancies in his asset declaration forms before charges could be filed against him.

Saraki should brace up and face his 13-count charge of false assets declaration. He should stop dragging the entire National Assembly into his bad case. The lawmakers must know that they cannot be making a law today because of Saraki. They should be making a law that would stand the test of time.

President Muhamadu Buhari should not assent the Bill and if they so wish, they could use their two-thirds majority, but certainly not with the assent of Mr. President.  It is obvious that something is definitely wrong somewhere and Nigerians should be viligant and stand up against lawmakers representing themselves and their cronies and not their constituencies or Nigerians.

It just cannot be fathomed why Nigerians, particularly members of the National Assembly would allow this shame to be brought to bear on our beloved country more so, as  the supporters of Saraki do not see beyond their noses. In other climes, even in other African countries, the Senate President by now ought to have resigned from office and someone else takes over while he goes to clear himself at the tribunal. This certainly does not mean that he would be perceived to be guilty as charged.

Even in Civil service, once there are allegations of fraud or even false declaration of assets as in the case of Saraki, the Civil Servant is made to step down from office, irrespective of the office, that is, big or small and the Civil Servant during the period is placed on interdiction. He earns half salary during the trial period and if found guilty, his appointment is terminated, but if not, he is reinstated and his full salary restored.

But in the case of Saraki, he is occupying a very important office in the country, the number 4 position in a country of over 170 million people and is facing very serious criminal charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, a case he has challenged the jurisdiction up till Supreme court and lost, his remaining in office is certainly an aberration. His colleagues in the National Assembly surprisingly do not see anything wrong in this vexatious amendment of the CCT Act. As it stands, it is not only a shame unto Saraki, it is a shame unto all the senators and members of the House of Representatives of the 8th National Assembly.

*Mr. Dan Owegie, a chieftain of the APC, wrote from  Benin city, Edo State.