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| President, Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh |
The President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN), has said the emergence of
Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President is not illegal.
About 51 senators of the All Progressives Congress had, on Wednesday, threatened to go to court to challenge Saraki’s emergence.
However, Alegeh told our correspondent
during a telephone interview on Thursday that Saraki’s emergence as
Senate President was a moral issue and not a legal one.
An
APC senator, Barnabas Gemade, had said that the 57 senators that were
present when the election for the Senate President took place were not
enough to pick a new leadership of the Senate.
However, Alegeh said the 57 senators
that were in the chamber when the election of Saraki took place were
enough to form a quorum. He explained that having formed a quorum, the
decision taken at the time was binding on the Senate.
He said, “Inaugurating the National
Assembly is considered as an ordinary business and for an ordinary
business, the requirement of a quorum is one-third. So, legally, there
was a quorum. You can argue from a moral perspective but legally, it is
in order.”
He said, “The general election was held
in March/April and we are in June. There was enough time for the party
to meet with the lawmakers and agree on all these issues. Why wait till
the last minute?
“We must understand that if a time had
been fixed for the inauguration, one would expect that all those who
want to be inaugurated, given the importance of that event, should have
arrived on time. The Clerk of the National Assembly, who is in charge of
determining such, said there was a quorum. It will be difficult for me
to fault that.
“We must understand that the National
Assembly belongs to the entire country and parties from both sides are
members of the Assembly. So, for a meeting of one of the parties to lead
to the closure of the Assembly would be unfair.”
“There is a need to have respect for
institutions. If the Senate was having an inauguration, other people
should respect that fact and schedule meetings appropriately. The day
for the inauguration of the House is a very important day in a
democracy.”
The senior advocate said the incident showed that the National Assembly was becoming increasingly independent.
He said the fact that Saraki emerged Senate President against the wishes of his party did not imply that Saraki would fail.
He said, “The APC were very active in
aiding Aminu Tambuwal to become Speaker in 2011 even though the PDP
wanted somebody else. And if you look at the performance of Tambuwal,
you will find it admirable to a large extent. He was not impeached and
there were hardly any threats of impeachment. He had a handle of the
House even though he was not the favoured candidate of the party.
“The lesson to learn is that the legislature is becoming increasingly independent of the party and the executive.”
The NBA president said now that
elections were over, the National Assembly needed to be more united in
order to deliver the change Nigerians demand.
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari
for not interfering in the affairs of the legislature. He urged the APC
to quickly resolve its internal conflict so as not to make the same
mistakes that the PDP did.
He said, “The issue that led to some APC members joining the PDP should not be quickly forgotten.”
Source: Punchng
