Shielding Nass Members From NDDC Probe

“The mode of operation of this current Senate is: We don’t give space. We don’t create any space in the middle. We just want it done and done away with it” -Senate President, Hon. Ahmed Lawan, December 2019

The chairman of Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, was reportedly quoted as having hinted that the Senate will not be investigating senators indicted in the purported contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). He was speaking to the press in Abuja last week.

One of the reasons he offered was that there appears to be some conspiracy by the NDDC Forensic Audit Committee that has refused to provide relevant details and documents that could assist and speed up the work of the Ethics Committee in investigating lawmakers whose names were mentioned in the NDDC sleaze by the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

Emphasising on this logic, the senator said it was necessary that there was teamwork in the processes because his Committee will need sufficient time to study all the allegations contained in the letter submitted to the National Assembly. His complaint may have risen from the fact that as at the time the Senate was set to embark on recess, to resume on September 15, 2020, the needed documents were still not on hand. Ostensibly, his position therefore was that, considering the enormity of the accusations and timeline for conclusion of proceedings, the accused members may not be investigated.

Whether or not he was aware of the underlying semantic cobwebs, Hon. Akinyelure must not see his statements on the ongoing probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by his Committee as explicit enough to have warded off criticisms and/or misunderstanding from the reading public, at least in the thinking of many Nigerians who are dedicatedly curious of the goings-on, seen and unseen, real or imagined.

Related: National Assembly Set To Pass NDDC Budget Of N346 Billion

To have said that the accused legislators will not be investigated left much to be desired, especially with the opaqueness and incongruity that surrounded the statement. Was the senator saying that because the Forensic Audit Committee had REFUSED or FAILED to submit the needed corroborative documents for the investigations, nothing can be done by his Committee? Washe saying that if that remained the case, the Ethics and Privileges Committee could not do its work, hence thematter would end there?

Is this the cause for the preponderate delay by the National Assembly to take convincing steps on the matter ever since it came on board more than a month ago, when Sen. Akpabio let the cat out of the bag? There may be many more windows to look into this statement. Already, public opinion appears to be that the National Assembly was not really ready to be fastabout the allegations, perhaps for the reason that their own were involved and there was therefore the courtesy to take things easy.

Akpabio himself had said that the allegations he tabled before the National Assembly on that dramatic day of first investigative hearing may not have been known by all but some big-time Committee members. That some legislators on that day expressed shock might buttress Akpabio’s position. Akpabio had said, “Some of these things I am telling you are best known to the Committee chairmen. They know about it. You yourself may not be aware”.

Recall that not all the members of the National Assembly were happy originally with the way things were going ever since the allegation broke out. There was a sort of mutual suspicion and worries on how best the leadership of the National Assembly will be able to clear the names of innocent members, and of course the entire 9th Assembly from the allegations. It may have been discussed in hush tones among some circumstantial factions who were eager to know who among their members were involved in the contract scam.

A member of the Peoples Democratic Party’s caucus of the House of Representatives and chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, earlier had to justify what his colleagues in the National Assembly and even the general public had suspected to be hanky-panky dealing with the list of House members involved in NDDC contracts that the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, had fingered in a letter he submitted to the National Assembly.

Apart from refuting the media report that associated the speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, from complicity to pigeon-hole the list, Hon. Nnaji appeared to have spoken from privileged position of knowledge that there was suspicion even among some of his colleagues on the way the speaker was handling the matter.

“As far as I am concerned, the speaker is doing a good job of presiding over the House, engaging constructively with the executive on national issues, which is the reason for the investigation in the first place. I want to affirm that matters arising from the minister’s letter have been properly referred to Ethics and Privileges Committee and would ordinarily form part of the report to the House by the time we resume from vacation”, Nnaji stressed.

Sometime ago in December 2018, the Senate president had assured Nigerians that the 9th Senate will approach every matter with speed, due diligence and integrity to make a clear-cut difference between them and the past. He was speaking at the end of the End of Year Get-together/Award Ceremony organized by the Senate Management for staff of the Senate.

“We came with our own ideas, our own agenda as distinguished senators of the 9th Senate. We passed our agenda. What we intend to do as senators is to enhance good governance in Nigeria to make Nigeria better for the citizens. And of course, the way we want to go is different from the way of the past because perhaps the gaols and targets are different. And we are also in hurry. We know the need for us to act fast. Time is of the essence.

“In the next two years or so, the Nigerian political landscape will be dotted by people campaigning for presidency, for governorship and the rest of it. And that will in a way cause some disruption or slow down governance. So between now and the next two years, we have told ourselves that we have to work hard to ensure that, as a legislature, we are able to perform our roles creditably to enable government function very well for Nigerians. And that is what we have been trying to do.”

The National Assembly, indeed, has a tall task on its palms.There is no doubt that Nigerians are not only waiting but are also very eager to see how the NASS will handle this matter, as sensitive as it is in terms of its integrity, the misfortune that has befallen the NDDC and the Niger Delta region for decades, as well as how different the 9th Assembly could be in the history of legislative practice in the country.

In doing this, they must convince Nigerians beyond every reasonable doubt that nobody was pampered, cheated or gratified in the investigations. Again, it will offer opportunities to Nigerians to reassess Sen. Godswill Akpabio’s character and intention during the live hearing of the matter. Then, we shall have known who was right and who was wrong; who was factual and who was presumptuous in the fight to reposition the NDDC.