Dance-steps of Absurdity in the Nigerian Senate – Godwin Etakibuebu

By Godwin Etakibuebu

We drew the curtain last week by agreeing that the judgemental clearance the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges gave to its president; Senator Bukola Saraki, on the allegation of forging document for the purpose of clearing an imported bullet-proof SUV from the port and short-payment of import duty on the same vehicle to the Nigerian Customs Services was right – technically and judicially.

I even called the no-guilty verdict of the Committee on the Senate President “sacrosanct”, and this is for a reason which we shall discuss briefly later.

The more important assignment today is finding answer to the poser raised here last week, which is: However, while Senator Saraki can be discharged and acquitted . . . will it be in the interest of justice and sanitising Nigeria against corruption, to extend the same generosity to the administrative unit of the Senate Chamber where the alleged “forged documents for processing the release of the vehicle from the port to the importer [whoever the importer is] originated from?”

The Sahara reporters alleged that the forged document used for the processing the assessment of the import duty originated from the Senate Chamber of the National Assembly. Senator Bukola Saraki “respectfully” appeared before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges where he astutely denied involvement in the importation of the car. He however admitted that the car was “allocated to my office”.

We are getting closer to the truth of the matter already. The Senate President did not import the car directly on his name, as he truthfully presented but did his office know about the importation and all the processes of clearance from the port?

Does his office or any other office, either in the Senate or the National Assembly, knew about the said forged documents?

Sahara reporters alleged that the seized Armoured Range Rover with chassis number SALGV3TF3EA190243 belonged to Senator Bukola Saraki because the documents found in the car bore his name. Saraki, in the other hand, said he knew nothing about the importation and processing of import duty payment, which according to him, was done by an agent the business was contracted to.

He directly affirmed, by this statement, the fact that the administrative unit of the National Assembly was responsible for this transaction. By implication therefore, he might, with time and intensive investigation, be held vicariously responsible for the whole business of this car importation, if only even in his capacity as the Chairman of the national Assembly. But let us look at the evidence of another witness in this bullet-proof fiasco.

Yusuph Olaniyonu is the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity and this is what he has to say on the matter. “A supplier was engaged by the Senate to supply a vehicle. While transferring the vehicle between Lagos and Abuja, it was impounded by the Customs. We believe that it is an issue between the supplier and the Customs because the Senate has not taken delivery”.

By the evidence of this Special Adviser, the Senate remains the “Principal” of the Agent hereby referred to [by Yusuph Olaniyonu] as “Supplier”.

It means therefore that the “originating instruments” of prosecuting this contract [which might have included the alleged forged document from the National Assembly Services Commission] were supplied by the “Principal” [the Senate] or same might have been procured by the “Agent” [Supplier] for and on behalf of the “Principal”.

It follows therefore, in my candid opinion [until proved wrong by a court of competent jurisdiction], that the Senate shall take vicarious liability for all demeanours that came out of this transaction and this ought to include, but not limited to, “falsification of documents, under-declaration of the year of manufacture of the vehicle, fraudulently misleading and short-payment of import duty”

The exercise here is not to deal with the “urgent need and the necessity of usage” of an Armoured Vehicle for the Senate President, neither do l want to be involved in the “chicken change price of N298 million” attached to the car by Sahara reporters.

My concern here is to evaluate critically the reason why the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges would not look at the National Assembly Services Commission’s conspiratorial involvement in this scandal, as reported by SR. Why would this “highly placed Committee” not scrutinise those in the administrative unit of the Senate that gave the contract to import the car [at that fraudulent price] and allegedly handed fake documents to the “Agent”, resulting into short-payment of import duty on the vehicle?

I promised earlier of saying a word or two about the abracadabra of ports operation as it relates to the big fraud that is therein inherent. Under-payment of duty is just one of the evils that shall remain in practise in our ports as long as the Nigerian ruling class remains what it is – a rotten class. It is for the same reason of the rottenness that the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges refused to look at the source of the originating documents of perpetrating the fraud but instead look only at the process.

The system of cheating the people of Nigeria through the government agencies is a deliberate creation of the ruling class for the benefit of the elite – this is the elite class General Ibrahim Babangida identified as “bane of the Nigerian Society” when he was Military President of the Country.

The Nigerian Customs Services personnel may look like coordinators of smuggling and related crimes going on in our ports but fact is that, they are “compelled by government and its policies to do what they are doing”. One day, by the grace of God, l shall discuss “smugglers without discussing smuggling”.

Are you confused by the usage of the difference between “Smugglers and Smuggling?” I was as much confused about it until 1986, when one of our national leaders then, who saw me as his god-son, lectured me about the differences between the two words before warning me to “be careful”. I must be very careful still yet.

Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran journalist, wrote from Lagos.