Mark Frustrates Impeachment Moves

PHOTO: SENATE PRESIDENT, MR. DAVID MARK.

The tension that began to build in the Senate on Monday night yesterday engulfed the chamber as senators hotly debated the motion on the absence of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua from the country on health ground.

But it was deftly defused by Senate President David Mark who ensured that the prayer by the sponsors of the motion that a delegation of the Upper House be sent to Saudi Arabia to ascertain the health situation of Yar’Adua was frustrated.

There were fears that some senators especially from the Southern part of the country wanted to cause the Senate to invoke the provisions of Sections 143 (on impeachment), 144 (on setting up a medical board to ascertain his capacity) and 145 (on transmission of a written letter of vacation to enable the Vice-President to step in as acting President).

Mark, who ruled on a series of constitutional points of order raised intermittently by senators, maintained that attempts should not be made to introduce the provisions of Section 143, 144 and 145 of the 1999 Constitution into the debate as they were not within the purview of the powers of the Senate.

The House of Representatives, which was also sharply divided yesterday on the state of health of the President and constitutional  implications of his absence, however, resolved to  pay a solidarity visit  to Yar’Adua at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Yar’Adua has been away since November 23, 2009 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he is being treated for acute pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane around the heart) at the hospital.

The blocking of the prayer in the Senate was after clarifications and assurance by the sponsors of the motion that the delegation was solely to visit and not to investigate the president’s health situation. The motion was sponsored by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and 33 other senators.  Twenty-five of them are from the South while nine co-sponsors of the motion are Northerners.

The Northerners are Senators Idris Kuta (PDP, Niger East), Abubakar Gada (PDP, Sokoto East), Nazif Suleiman (AC, Bauchi North), Caleb Zagi (PDP, Kaduna South), Joel Ikenya (PDP, Taraba South), Grace Bent (PDP, Adamawa South), Adamu Talba (PDP, Yobe South), Abubakar Sodangi (Nasarawa West) and Anthony Manzo (PDP, Taraba North). The Upper House also rejected the prayer that the President’s Personal Doctor, Salisu Banye, be invited to avail it with the status of his (Yar’Adua’s) health.

The rejection followed Senator Jibril Aminu’s (PDP, Adamawa Central) observation that he (Banye) might be under professional oath not to discuss or disclose some information about his client’s health.

However, it approved the other leg of the prayer that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Mahmud Yayale Ahmed should be invited to brief it on the President’s health situation.  No date was given for his appearance. Mark in the heat of the debate said that members had either supported or opposed the motion “in the spirit that it has come and it will not be true that it has been turned into a sectional issue”.

He spoke against the backdrop of observation by Senator Joy Emodi (Anambra North), to wit: “What I discovered in this chamber today (yesterday) is that the Senate is trying to murder a very serious matter on the altar of tribalism.” When Senator Lee Ledogo Maeba (PDP, Rivers Southeast) raised a constitutional point of order (citing Section 143 on impeachment) to underscore his claim that Yar’Adua had committed gross misconduct by staying more than 42 days outside the country and away from his duty post, Mark quickly overruled him.

He said: “I believe Senator Ekweremadu has explained to us the intent of his motion.  A mission to Saudi Arabia is not going to ascertain the health condition of the President.  Sections 144 and 145 are not within our purview.  It is not within our power to initiate the process of setting up a medical board.”

Mark also overruled Senator George Thompson Sekibo (PDP, Rivers West) when he said that the Senate, based on the oath of allegiance taken by members, has the right to investigate the health situation of Yar’Adua. He referred Sekibo to Order 25 (1)(f) of the Senate Standing Rules (2007 as Amended), which vests in him as the presiding officer the power to rule on how a debate should go, saying, “Please, do not let us find a way of bringing in Section 145 of the Constitution; it is unacceptable; it is not going t work.”

But Senator Nuhu Aliyu (PDP, Niger North), in his contribution, expressed concern about the grave rumours and speculations arising from Yar’Adua’s hospitalization and his failure to speak to Nigerians despite the assurance by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN) that he (Yar’Adua) would talk to Nigerians through video conferencing.

According to him, “We heard this morning (yesterday morning) that he spoke to the BBC.  What is BBC?  It is morally right for us to know what is wrong with our President. The motion has suggested that a few of us go to see him.  How are we sure we are going to see him?  Let the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which is constitutionally empowered to send a report to the Senate on his health situation go to Saudi Arabia and come back to give us a report.”

Mark also overruled Senator Idris Umar (PDP, Gombe) when he raised a constitutional point of order (Section 144) on the setting up of a medical board, saying, “We cannot force the setting up of a medical board.  It is not for us to raise here; we will be missing the point if we go that direction.  It is not for us to initiate it or enforce it.  It is Executive function and the Executive is not under us.” Senator Bassey Ewa- Henshaw (PDP, Cross River South) countered, saying, “Truth is good; falsehood is evil. 

The FEC members who are to decide the health of the president are not elected. The Senators are elected.  The pressure is mounted on the Senate and not the FEC.” 

Senator Effiong Bob (PDP, Akwa Ibom Northeast) raised Order 70(1)(c) of the Senate Standing Rules, asking the Senate President to put the question on the prayers and rule in accordance to the majority decision. Before his ruling that saw the exclusion of the visit to Saudi Arabia, which was the only prayer in the motion after it was purportedly watered down by the leadership, Mark said that the delegation to Saudi Arabia was not to ascertain the health condition of Yar’Adua.

He said that Yar’Adua’s speech on the BBC yesterday morning had helped to douse tension arising from rumour-mongering and speculations. Expectedly, the House, which resumed from its Christmas holidays avoided open debate on Yar’Adua’s health as it promptly dissolved into an executive session to discuss the matter behind closed-doors. The closed-door session began around 11.06 am and lasted over two hours.

THISDAY gathered that the leadership of the House chose to discuss the President’s indisposition  in secret because of the fear that the matter may provoke a lot of emotions  and anger from amongst legislators most of whom would rather have the status quo maintained than endorse any radical position that could rock the political boat.

It was also gathered that while the leadership of the House argued that its hands were tied with respect to the activation of  the Constitution to compel the President to hand over the reins of powers to the Vice-President in order to avoid a power vacuum,  opposition Action Congress (AC) faulted this position, while  the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) took a middle-of-the-road position.

However, at the close of the executive session, Speaker Dimeji Bankole read out a three-point resolution.  The resolution read thus: “The House in a closed session reviewed the situation around Mr. President and resolved as follows:  

1)That the House of Representatives do fully understand and appreciate the provisions  of Section 145 of the Constitution and all the extant laws relating to the issue at hand and do hereby further assure Nigerians  that we shall continue to be guided by the Constitution at all times and in all situations.

2) That a delegation of the House shall be constituted to visit Mr. President in Saudi Arabia to convey the goodwill message  of the House and discuss other issues of national importance and report back to the House.

3) Commend Nigerians for the understanding and prayers for the quick recovery of Mr. President.” Bankole also constituted an ad hoc committee to address a news conference on the resolutions and clarify the issue of his embarrassing encounter with the angry demonstrators who thronged the National Assembly arena but rebuffed his (Bankole’s) bid to address them.

The 10-member expanded media committee was led by the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh. Others include Labaran Dambatta, Mohammed Ibn Na’Allah, Chile Igbauwa, Abdul Ningi, CID Maduabum, Folake Osinowo, Doris Uboh, Sada Soli Jibia and Martha Bodurin.

The briefing was, however, a rehash of the resolutions earlier read on the floor and some feeble attempt to justify why the House cannot go beyond paying the planned solidarity visit to the ailing President.

But the AC Caucus disagreed with the position of the House that its hands were tied by the provisions of the Constitution and has demanded that the President must within the next 48 hours transmit to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he (Yar Adua) is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office.

This, the AC Caucus said, is to enable the Vice-President be sworn in as Acting President to fill the current power vacuum in Aso Rock. Leader of AC caucus in the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamil, who addressed a separate news conference argued that while it was human to express solidarity with the ailing President,  the position of the House and ANPP that the parliament could not do anything to resolve the current political logjam until the FEC activated Section 144 of the Constitution was wrong and unacceptable.

According to Gbajabiamila, the nation could not be forced to a standstill because FEC failed to play its own role. The ANPP Caucus in the House said the resolution of the current controversy lies in the hands of the FEC.