Lagos — The prolonged medical vacation of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly has now made the senate to be acutely sensitive, while the management of its resolution on the issue has put the Chairman of the Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, under pressure

After a two-day closed session on January 26 and 27 on the prolonged absence of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua from the country, the Senate had passed a resolution, urging him (Yar'Adua) to formally notify the National Assembly of his medical vacation in Saudi Arabia in line with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

The resolution by the Senate was not different from the position taken by prominent Nigerians, acting under the aegis of different associations: that Yar'Adua should transmit a vacation letter to the National Assembly as constitutionally prescribed to enable Vice President Goodluck Jonathan step in as Acting President.

But the Senate resolution is impotent. Its impotence stems from the absence of a timeline within which Yar'Adua should transmit the letter if he considers the resolution respectable. Beside the weakness of the resolution itself, the exercise of the function in Section 145 of the Constitution, which it wants Yar'Adua to comply with, is not mandatory but discretionary.

This was why the Senate had added a second leg to its resolution that the Ad-Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution should propose relevant amendments to the flaws exposed in Section 145. Indeed, what the constitutional provisions on the transmission of letter have resolved is that by not transmitting a letter, Yar'Adua has not breached the provision of the section.

But what the Senate resolution had helped the provision of Section 145 to achieve is to increase the weight of the moral burden that a president, who is truly a statesman, should quickly want to discharge, at a critical time like this, in the national interest. Yar'Adua is thus being confronted by the issue of morality rather than constitutionality.

The Senate too is constitutionally empowered in Section 143, acting in concert with the House of Representatives, to initiate impeachment process against Yar'Adua. This, watchers of the Legislature said, should be an option, perhaps the last resort.

But the PDP-controlled National Assembly is faced with the moral question of toeing the impeachment option in dealing with a president whose only "offence" is his ill-health; not even failure to transmit a vacation letter since the Constitution does not compel him to do so.

Indeed the Senate had been careful in couching its resolution by not attaching a timeline. The fact that that Section 145 does not impose a timeline renders the resolution prostrate and its compliance at the discretion of Yar'Adua; which was why the Senate, responding to reports that it was planning to impeach Yar'Adua and the Vice President, said it could not compel Yar'Adua to transmit the vacation letter.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, who issued a statement on behalf of the Upper House on Sunday, January 31, declared that it would also be irresponsible for the Senate to impeach the president on the grounds of ill-health.

In the statement that was to raise tension in the Senate two days later, entitled: "Yar'Adua: Impeachment Option Not Before Senate," Eze had said: "My attention has been drawn to some wild speculations in the media, suggesting that the Senate leadership was in favour of impeaching President Umaru Musa Yar'adua and his Vice over issues surrounding the president's medical vacation.

"What the senate has done was to advise the president to transmit a letter informing the National Assembly that he is on medical vacation, as a way of bringing down tension in the polity and finding a way around a knotty constitutional lacuna.

"As it is, given the way section 145 of the 1999 constitution is, there is nothing anybody can do to compel the president to issue the letter. However, as elder statesmen and representatives of the Nigerian people, we felt we had a duty to speak up in support of the right thing being done, even if the constitution had glossed over its necessity.

"I wish therefore to state categorically that at no time did the issue of impeachment arise in the senate either when the matter was taken in plenary or in closed sessions. We are responsible and patriotic enough to know that we cannot contemplate criminalising ill health. Anybody can fall sick at anytime. The issue of health lies with God.

"It is therefore mischievous to allege that the senate leadership was in favour of impeaching the president and his vice. This was never discussed and was never contemplated. I see it as the handiwork of spin doctors who are using everything at their disposal, including the ones that are so asinine, to frustrate every effort to find a political solution to a very obviously testy situation.

"We all love our president. We all love our country too, and will do whatever it will take to preserve her corporate existence. Let me therefore restate for emphasis that there is no attempt to impeach the president or his vice. There are equally no motions known to the senate on the matter. The senate believes that impeachment is a fractious process that will end up dividing the country and heating up the polity.

"Our resolution urging the president to do us a vacation notice is enough to produce the desired result, more so when our call has been backed by former presidents and the cream of Nigeria's elder statesmen as well as the international community.

"Let me once more appeal to our people, especially our journalists, to be wary of people who are bent on pushing this country off the cliff. The time calls for vigilance in whatever we do or so. Let us resolve to find a solution to the problem rather than constitute ourselves into the problem.

"The leadership of the senate is firm on the resolve of the upper chamber to remain responsible and not be blackmailed or provoked into any hasty decision. Those who are planting these fabricated stories in the press, knowing same to be false, shall reap the fruit of their misadventure. My faith teaches me that no evil or malice committed against fellow human beings knowingly ever goes unpunished."

On Tuesday, last week, tension was renewed in the senate as some senators kicked against the reports credited to the Upper House that it had foreclosed the option of impeachment against the president. But Senate President, Senator David Mark, who presided at the plenary, did not allow the tension to blow over as he quickly ensured that the issue was openly addressed by turning down a proposal for a closed session on it.

Also, the apparent move to sway the Senate in the direction of barring Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, from speaking for the Senate (as its spokesperson) was dismissed by Mark. This was even as Mark declared that the Senate was standing on its resolution urging Yar'Adua to notify the National Assembly of his medical vacation in line with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

Sensing that some senators were trying to revisit the decided issue through the backdoors, he had said "we have made our resolution and we stand by that resolution and there should be no further debate. We are not going to go back on the resolution and there should be no further debate on the resolution."

But the short-lived discussion on the Yar'Adua debacle was provoked by Senator Uche Chukwumerijie (PPA, Abia North) who had complained of breach of his privilege by some reports in the newspapers which according to him said that the Senate had foreclosed the option of impeachment against the president. Chukwumerije had, on the advice of Mark, come under Orders 14 and 18 of the Senate Standing Rules (2007 as Amended) to raise his complaints and table three newspapers before the Senate, to wit: THISDAY, Guardian and Daily Trust edition of Monday February 1, 2010.

He had said the position as contained in the report credited to the Chair of the Media and Information Committee on behalf of the Senate would appear not to give room for any further action by the Senate on the issue. According to him, "That (Senate) position gives no room for any further actions by the Senate. But in the response of the Senate's spokesman in the publications of yesterday (Monday) which I referred to, the information, which is very new to me, was given that the Senate has foreclosed all options.

"This publication implies that we have foreclosed all options. It has exposed the Senate to ridicule because Senate never discussed any options; and, secondly, public view on the matter has exposed Senate to ridicule. I, as a member of the Senate, feel embarrassed, feel diminished by this disclosure. I believe that the issue involved here is so fundamental that I will ask for a closed session for us to discuss the issue in order to avoid further damage to the image of the Senate and the psyche of most of our members."

But Mark had advised that he would throw out his complaint unless he (Chukwumerije) raised Orders 14 and 18 of the Senate Standing Rules, an advice which Chukwumerije quickly heeded and had said, "in compliance with the sections, which you helped me to cite, I am here with copies of 3 of the papers, THISDAY, Daily Trust and Guardian." Mark, however, insisted on overruling him on his suggestion that the Senate should go into a closed door session to discuss the matter.

According to him, "Since your suggestion was that we go into the executive session (closed session) to discuss it, I will overrule that because there is no need for us to go into any executive session (closed session) on this issue for several reasons. First of all our closed sessions are not really closed sessions because, at the end of the day, everything is read verbatim in the newspapers. So let those who have the opportunity of leaking it not have the opportunity again. It will be discussed in the open here because we try to safe guard ourselves and make sure that we do have an opportunity to talk frankly, but at the end of the day members are even quoted on who said what and who did not say what."

He had claimed that what was reported in the newspapers were "total misrepresentation ninety percent of the time," and chided those who leaked the information to the press, saying "they were unfair to the Senate. Secondly on this particular issue, what I will suggest is that Senator Ayogu Eze should distribute what he wrote and let us compare it with the reports in the papers.

"Then, we find out whether the papers have actually reported what he has written or they have decided to give the headlines that they wanted to give, because I also felt a bit embarrassed. We have never, at any stage, discussed impeachment one way or the other of either the vice president or the president not to talk of impeaching two of them. The papers are having a field day. Ayogu Eze will distribute the copies of what he gave to the press."

Apparently nudged on by a group of senators, Chukwumerijie had opposed the suggestion by Mark that Eze should distribute the statement he issued, saying " most of the time the things quoted are things said off the cuff and, most of the time, when you have something to say, they are even stronger than written statements. Therefore, I do not think that prepared statements will give us a comprehensive view of what was said, except we ask him to give us recorded tapes of what he said."

Mark, apparently unimpressed with Chukwumerije's line of argument, had replied: "Well, if that becomes the issue, then the matter should be refereed to Ethics and Privileges (as) we can't sit here and begin to try Ayogu Eze. Let me say that it is not the normal procedure of doing things because when I give the ruling, we don't begin to debate it. But I am allowing this so that people who are mischief makers don't continue with the mischief that is going on currently in this country. A lot of people are now having a field day at our own expense."

But in another twist to the argument that had sought to sway the Senate to only speak through its resolutions rather than through a spokesperson, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, had said "With all due respect, I would not shy away from contributing to the issue of the Senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze. What we are practising is constitutional democracy. The issue of Senate spokesperson is local and may be specific to the Nigerian democratic experiment. What we are practising is constitutional democracy which is synonymous with what they have in America."

He had commended the zeal with which Eze is doing his job, saying that he understood where he was coming from, having been a member of his Ebeano Group in Enugu and an active member of his cabinet when he (Nnamani) was Enugu governor for eight years. Nnamani, who said Eze had even wanted to take on Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, on his (Eze's) warning to the US to remove Nigeria from the terror watch list, had stated, "I have not heard of Senate spokesperson in America Senate. I believe the Senate speaks for itself. I admire the enthusiasm and the zeal that Senator Ayogu Eze is bringing on board. But I don't think that the Senate should go back and forth. The Senate should speak through its resolutions."

An apparently rattled Eze (who later claimed not be rattled) had said upon recognition by Mark, that, "without prejudices to whatever Senate will decide on this matter, I didn't address any journalist sitting around me. That press statement went out through my e-mail; so the question of inflecting responses to questions does not arise." Mark had declared, before ruling out the order raised by Chukwumerije, that "the entire publication, massive and catchy headlines given to all these are just sheer mischief. The fact of the matter is that we didn't discuss the impeachment of the Mr. President and Mr. vice president. They got a written paper from the Senate spokesman and decided to put their own headlines and do their analysis; there is very little we can do about it.

"Let me use this opportunity to clarify it that the entire publication was just based on mischief, starting with the one that gave the headline as if the leadership wanted Mr. President and Mr. Vice President impeached because there were some ambitious men in the leadership; it was total nonsense and that is what started it all.

"So, I think that this matter should rest at this point with all these explanations. I think there is no point referring it to the Ethics Committee at all. With this clarification, we stand where we stand. We have made our resolution and we stand by that resolution and there should be no further debate. We are not going to go back on the resolution and there should be no further debate on the resolution."

Although, there was no further debate on the issue, some Senators had moved to put Eze under pressure. Eze did not appear at the press centre on Tuesday for his weekly briefing. He did not appear last Wednesday, despite assurance that he would come. On that day, he had appeared on NTA live telecast interview while the Senate was in session, speaking on a Presidential Inauguration Bill that the upper House was yet to conclude on at the point of his interview. Senator Lee Maeba had drawn the attention of the Senate to Eze's action, questioning why he should speak on a Bill on which decision was yet to be taken.

Eze did not show up at the press centre for his rescheduled weekly briefing. When he appeared last Thursday to speak on the closed door session with Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, he was cautious. There are fears in Senate circles that the angst over the management or mismanagement of the Yar'Adua debacle is making the Senate edgy and may claim some casualties if care is not taken.

The leadership is deftly safeguarding itself in a bid to manage the lingering tension occasioned by the non-transmission of a vacation letter; and, the elements, acting in concert with it are, as learnt, now very cautious not to incur the wrath of the pro-Section 145 senators who are in the majority in the Senate.