Senator Dino Melaye looked visibly troubled when he
addressed a press conference concerning the validity of his certificate from
the Amoudu Bello University, Zaria(ABU). Surely he would have loved to talk
about more significant national issues. A lot of questions have arisen from the
accusations that include the Senator did not graduate from the School where he
is deemed to have studied geography. Sahara Reporters Nigeria’s premier online
newspaper have tweeted allegations of bribery of lecturers by Melaye. These are
grave accusations. The Senate does not require more than a school certificate for
a Senator to qualify for the position. But if Melaye filled out his forms
stating that he is a graduate, and he does not have a certificate, then there
are issues concerning perjury and false claims which can be tried under the
law. The allegations were made known to Senate on the floor of the red chambers
by no one less than Senator Ali Ndume, former Majority leader of the APC in the
Senate who was allegedly removed by Saraki and his cohorts quite
unceremoniously. Ndume was removed for his alleged support of Ibrahim Magu as a
nominee to head the EFFC. The Senate
committee on Ethics has quite a job at hand.
It intends to find out if indeed Dino Melaye has a certificate from the
department he claimed to have graduated from at ABU. Whether the committee
would follow the tweets made by the online paper verbatim and try to establish
if Melaye passed the courses the paper claimed he didn’t or whether they would
go as far as trying to find out if the Senator bribed his way out of the
university or not is difficult to determine. The ethics committee of the Senate
has its own guide lines and is not necessarily subject to public opinion or the
courts of the land.
Since the revelation has been made, many analysts have
sought to determine where the heat is coming from. Could it be from within the Senate
which is visibly divided not necessarily along party lines, but over who should
control activities therein? Other analysts say the heat could be coming from
outside of the Senate. Melaye has made many enemies from what he describes as “speaking
the truth”. One of the most recent enemies is the Comptroller General of
Customs Colonel Hameed Ali with whom the Senate has been having a running
battle over how he should dress to
address plenary. The Senate has sought
for the CG of customs to explain the new policy that requires car owners who
purchased their cars to pay additional sums of money to make up for deficits in
duties that may have occurred through the smuggling of cars through the leaky
land borders of Nigeria. Translation: Hameed Ali and his customs officers want
to take out their inability to police our borders and stop cars from being
smuggled into the country out on innocent Nigerians. The Senate has been
emphasizing that Ali should appear in uniform to defend his actions. Ali
prefers a white kaftan to the customs Khaki.
Could the CG of customs
have orchestrated a certificate scandal against Melaye? Not likely. But
what about the Senate President Bukola Saraki who is being accused of importing a bullet
proof Range Rover worth over N250million for personal use? This no doubt has
the customs written all over it. Who would have information about car imports
other than the customs? Saraki and
Melaye are going to the ethics committee. Ali Ndume may not be gloating, but
clearly, even if the two distinguished Senators are found not guilty on all
counts, which is very likely, all is not well with the Senate. The upper
legislative body is split down the middle; there appears to be no cohesion,
very little agreement and varying views on quite a number of issues. The 2017
budget has not been passed, the Senates committees have allegedly been going
over the document with microscope trying to bring out the ambiguities which are
many. The hollowed chambers would continually be tainted with all manner of
accusations which would lower the esteem with which Nigerians should hold this
institution. What manner of senate is
this?
