By
Ochereome Nnanna
Having examined the retired Colonel Hameed Ali versus the Senate saga,
let us take a look on another contentious issue: the Ibrahim Magu screening
controversy.
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| President Buhari and Sen Pres Saraki |
So many people have said their minds on this matter, which is their
constitutional right. There are those who blame the Senate for the long-drawn
impasse and difficulty in getting Ibrahim Mustapha Magu confirmed as the
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Some have
alleged that in rejecting Magu’s candidacy, the Senate constitutes itself into
a “parallel government”. Others say they want to “collect the power” from
President Muhammadu Buhari and frustrate him from implementing the “change” he
promised Nigerians.
The one I found most interesting was the submission of Chief
Robert Clark, a respected lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, with
usually sound perspectives on legal and current affairs. He appeared on
Channels TV and was all over the place, lamenting that the Senate’s treatment
of Magu was “a slap on the face of the President; a slap on the faces of
Nigerians”.
The impression being given by all these shades of opinion is
that the Presidency has played its own part neatly only to be messed up by the
Senate. Another impression is that the Federal Government is all about
President Muhammadu Buhari, the Presidency he commands and the Cabinet he has
at his disposal. In other words, the Executive Branch alone is the Government.
On both counts I beg to disagree. First of all, let us track the facts of this
story.
Following the sack of Ibrahim Lamorde as the EFCC Chairman,
Magu, another police officer, was nominated as his successor in acting
capacity. One would have expected that President Buhari, cognisant of the
sensitive nature of the EFCC Chairman’s duties, would immediately send Magu’s
name to Senate for confirmation. Instead, Buhari delayed this issue between 9th
November 2015 and 14th July 2016, when his Deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo as
Acting President, submitted Magu’s name to the Senate for confirmation when the
President was away on his foreign medicals.
