By Charles Adegbite
REACTIONS have continued to trail immunity being proposed by the National Assembly for its presiding officers with notable Nigerians kicking against it.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), Chief Olu Falae said there should be no immunity for anybody.
He also said his position aligned with that of the National Conference held in 2014. “All of us should be answerable for the criminal act we commit while in office,” Falae said.
Falae explained the decision of the confab on the issue. “One of the recommendations of the National Conference was in case of the executive, whether a governor or president, if there is any criminal allegation leveled against him, the Federal Government should establish the Office Of Public Prosecutor, as it is in America, who will investigate the matter.
“If the agency comes out with its report confirming the criminal charges against the president or governor, then, the relevant legislature will consider that report and may impeach him.
“Once impeached, that president or governor can be arrested and be made to answer the crime he committed.
“That was the decision we took at the national conference on that issue of immunity. What they are now telling us is very unfortunate and a direct opposite of the decision Nigerians took at that conference,” Falae added.
He bemoaned a situation where lawmakers were not only asking the president and governors to continue to enjoy immunity, but were advocating it for leaders of the national and state assemblies.
“I suspect that what is responsible for this is the attempt to prevent prosecution of the Senate President and his deputy for alleged forgery at the FCT High Court in Abuja.
“But, we should not amend our Constitution to take care of transient events because the Constitution is a fundamental law which is expected to endure for a very long time. Of course, it can be amended, but, not to just meet the desire of someone or a group of people who have a legal case.
“What the leadership of the Senate is facing is political and should be resolved politically. You don’t change the Constitution hurriedly because of that.
“If not, you will be laying bad precedent for future leadership of the National Assembly who may just begin to change our Constitution anytime they want to bend the rules.”
Former director of State Security Service, Mr. Mike Ejiofor, a lawyer, said “it is absolutely unnecessary, in view of our dwindling economic fortune. We are suffering for what they have done to the economy; the one governors did has not been settled.
“I listened to someone who said they spent trillion to maintain governors just because they served for eight years and principal officers of the National Assembly want to add to our burden again?”
He made it clear that the proposal was “ill-timed, no matter their intention. I believe they just want to do this to protect the Senate President and his deputy.
“That is not to say I am supporting their prosecution, even though it is political and the outcome, nobody knows. It might be disastrous for this country, only God knows.
“But, the point I’m making is that it is absolutely unnecessary. I want to say that the face-off between the legislature and the executive is good for Nigeria. The immunity legislators are asking for is just out of place,” he said.
Activist and former member of the 2014 conference, Yinka Odumakin shared the opinion of Falae and Ejiofor.
“We don’t want immunity for anybody; not for the president, governor or their deputies. Neither do we want any lawmaker to have immunity. Whoever violates the law should be ready to face the consequence. Nobody should be above the law in Nigeria.”
Odumakin noted that all the lawmakers were trying to do was to escape the forgery allegation leveled against the senate president and his deputy.
“They do probe others and should, also, be ready to be probed if they do anything wrong…”