Resign now, ex-Senate President, Ameh Ebute, tells Saraki

BY DAMOLA EMMANUEL

In the estimation of the former President of the Senate, now, elder statesman, Senator Ameh Ebute, it is not yet uhuru for the incumbent President of the current Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who the Supreme Court, Thursday, gave a clean bill of health in the matter of assets for which he was prosecuted.

Saraki, had celebrated the declaration by the apex court which, he said, vindicated his position since September 22, 2015, when the trial began, that the whole process was “politically motivated”.

“At the end of a tortuous journey of 1018 Days, counting from September 22, 2015, when the case began at the Tribunal,” he said in a statement he personally wrote, “I am happy that I have been vindicated. The Supreme Court has affirmed that there is no evidence of false declaration of assets. The court also observed that certain agents took over the responsibility of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in this trial, and one can infer that this was done towards a pre-determined end.”

But Ebute, in a powerful letter written to Dr. Saraki, a copy of which The Crest obtained on Friday, told his young predecessor that it was premature for him to clash the cymbals and blow the trumpet over the Supreme Court verdict.

Indeed, Ebute told the President of the 8^th Senate that he had failed the integrity test and, therefore, had no moral pedestal on which he could continue in his high offie.

Ebute, then, asked Saraki to vacate his seat in order to, as he put it, save Nigeria from further embarrassment.

Still, the Benue-born Third Republic Senate President was not done. He lampooned Saraki for what he described as his “absolute proclivity to vindictiveness and witch-hunting of colleagues who share views opposed to your disposition.”

“Such members,” he continued, “are goaded to the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee peopled by your acolytes, who have accepted the loathsome job of serving as your hatchet men. They unduly or unlawfully punish dissenting voices for the audacity of holding an opinion contrary to your thinking.

“The suspension of Senators Ali Adume and Omo-Agege are some of the few examples of your aberrational leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly.”

In our characteristic style at The Crest, we serve you Senator Ebute’s letter to Dr. Saraki, in his exact words. Please, read on:

    Dr. Bukola SarakiLet me begin by extending my greetings to you and other members of the National Assembly. It is exactly eight years since God crossed our path and must be bold to say that knowing you as a friend has been an interesting journey all the way.

As a senior citizen of Nigeria, I feel I owe the younger generation of Nigerians the moral obligation to offer advice and counsel when public institutions are mismanaged.

It is more compelling, especially, whenever I see the ship of state derailing or democratic tenets blatantly abused, as in our experience now with your leadership of the National Assembly. This is why I have decided to write this open epistle to you.

We all know that democratic governance rest on the pillars of the legislature, whose main responsibility is to enact legislations that would deepen democratic practices and good governance in any country of the world.

A corrupt legislature is a bane to the country; while an upright, focused and virtuous legislature is an asset to Nigeria. The entire wheels of democratic governance are propelled and energized by the legislature.

Therefore, those who should populate the hallowed chambers ought to be men and women of proven integrity and trustworthy. The demands of morality and integrity on the Parliament, which is the conscience of democratic governance is very strict.

It is no longer in doubt to all discerning minds that your lofty position as the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigerian places a serious a moral burden on you, which your actions and utterances in the last three years have exposed you as very deficient. Nigerians have watched with utter amazement how you have redefined leadership of the legislature in the negative sense. This to me as your friend is very shameful and immoral to say the least but still not too late.

The Senate under your watch has imported despicable autocracy and despotism into parliamentary engagements. And the resultant effects include, the dictatorial muzzling of opposition voices of colleagues during plenary and abusing their inalienable right of freedom to hold and express opinions on the floor of the hallowed chambers.

Your leadership of the Senate has shown an absolute proclivity to vindictiveness and witch-hunting of colleagues who share views opposed to your disposition.

Such members are goaded to the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee peopled by your acolytes, who have accepted the loathsome job of serving as your hatchet men. They unduly or unlawfully punish dissenting voices for the audacity of holding an opinion contrary to your thinking.

The suspension of Senators Ali Adume and Omo-Agege are some of the few examples of your aberrational leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly.

You have turned the Red Chambers into a combat theatre, protecting the abominable, but despising truth. This is the extent of your moral deficit, which has disqualified you from belonging or even leading an assemblage of honourable men and women.

Mr. Senate President Sir, you have consistently failed to pass the integrity and morality tests to continue to preside over Nigeria’s parliament. Nigerians recall with much sadness, your scandalous alleged purchase of the N298 million bulletproof Range Rover Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), with fake documents and the evasion of Customs duties, which was impounded by Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

There is also the issue of your alleged false declaration of assets, a case still hanging at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), but you are frustrating judgment with frivolous court injunctions. This again testified to the obvious that you still own the Nigerian people an apology.

And your recent alleged shadows in the Offa bank robberies which claimed the lives of over 30 Nigerians, including security agents have cumulatively placed a moral burden on your leadership and disqualify you from holding the noble identity of a Nigerian parliamentarian, much more holding such exalted positions of Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly. Sir, in my humble opinion, you are barren of every essential ingredient and honour to continue to preside over any parliament anywhere in the world. The abysmal performance of the Senate under your watch, the padding of national budget or the simmering regime of corruption your leadership has allowed to creep into the Senate strips you of any qualification to be a member of Nigeria’s National Assembly.

Nigerians have tolerated your leadership deficit enough and time has come for you to have a rethink and do the needful. We are tired of your scandalous outings at every point. It is either, you are fingered in armed robbery today, or some illicit monies are traced to your account abroad, which are matters the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not approve of any public office holder.

My friend Senator, I have no hesitation to say, you have regrettably become an opposite of honour or integrity, both at home and abroad and a shame to Nigeria, a country President Muhammadu Buhari is spending sleepless nights to reposition and rejuvenate on the path of progress and public morality. We cannot allow you to reverse these gains.

Though, the mistake was made right from your home state of Kwara, where the people of Kwara Central senatorial district failed to see your odd characters, underserving of leadership patronage and proceeded to entrust you with their mandate.

Even this is now questionable having listened to some criminals confess openly how they manipulated your elections to give you victories against the people’s wish .

These negative virtues are innately part of you, and there are no restrictions. You even irresponsibly besmirched and desecrated, the Elder Olusola Saraki, your own father by shamefully humbling a man that brought you into this world and even politics by extension.

Therefore, at the behest of all men of good conscience and lovers of Nigeria, I am advising you to do the needful. Please, withdraw your membership of the National Assembly by resigning your position.

And the time to act appropriately is now. It is the collective desire of all Nigerians to see their country progress. We cannot continue to stomach or tolerate a leadership liability like you anymore.

Thank you for the patience of reading this open letter and may you be guided accordingly. You may permit me to share this with our friends in the diplomatic circle as witnesses to my call for you to do the needful. This is to put everyone on notice should masses decide to emulate your style of doing things by removing you from office in the days ahead.