“But this time that there is Change, that is why all the fights that Melaye and his whole Senate have staged against the will of the people using their institutional “power” as legislature and court did not succeed. It should be a lesson to all political office holders to stop their bad ways and begin to be law abiding by stop looking down on the people who put them in office.”
The ongoing opinion poll being conducted by The DEFENDER has favoured the recall of the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Dino Melaye.
Melaye’s recall had generated tussle, first, between him and the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello as he blamed his travail on the governor. The tussle later shifted to between him and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with full support of the Bukola Saraki-led Senate where he is vurrently a member and which boasted that the fate of the embattled Senate did not lie with INEC but Senate.
But when INEC defied the Senate’s boast and went ahead with the recall process, Melaye realising that not even the Senate of a Senate President, who he had done so much for which made many Nigerians see him as “thug of Saraki”, could save him, he quickly ran to a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja which in its ruling few days ago not only refused his prayers to stop INEC process of recalling him but also that “status quo” be allowed to run until a date in September when his application would be heard.
Status quo in this case has meant different things to different people, but considering the fact that nobody can stop INEC from recalling any lawmaking, popular interpretation favours that it means that INEC would go ahead to recall Dino Melaye his application before a court notwithstanding.
But INEC had its own area of focus: total adherence to provisions of the Constitutiin which says in carrying out recall of any lawmaker, he cannot be hindered by anybody.
It therefore continued with the process, pending case or not, wielding the evidence of an Appeal Court judgment of 2001 which unknown to Dino Melaye and Saraki, says no court or anybody can stop recall of any lawmaker by INEC and has therefore pasted the notice of time table of the recall process at his state headquarters in Lokoja signifying that it has been kicked off.
The INEC’s determination and unstoppable posture may have meant a defeat for the entire Senate which feels, according to its dispositions so far as seen by members of the public in many matters of national progress and development, that they must always be above the law. The is also as leadership of the Senate was heard loudly in the past few days attacking the Attorney-General of Kogi State over the Melaye debacle.
Many watchers of the event as it unfolds say the Senate should stop beating about the bush and face the reality that it is the Melaye’s constituents that are showing him that “people who have the powers to put you in office also have the powers to either ask you to continue or remove you depending on your performance or misbehavior.”
They however thank the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Change Regime, which makes it possible so far for electorate votes to count. One of our respondent said:
“I hope you remember that Dino Melaye is not the first Senator to be attempted for recall? They were about three or more in the past but because the party in government at that time, which was the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), only professed ‘power to the people’ without actually allowing people to exercise the power, they knew why they did not allow those recall attempts to succeed.
“But this time that there is Change, that is why all the fights that Melaye and his whole Senate have staged against the will of the people using their institutional “power” as legislature and court did not succeed. It should be a lesson to all political office holders to stop their bad ways and begin to be law abiding by stop looking down on the people who put them in office. It won’t stop there. Even the Saraki that is backing him, his people have listed his sins and have also signified their readiness to recall him. It is now I know democracy is working,” he said.
In the meantime, in the Opinion Poll ongoing on The DEFENDER’s news website, titled, “Dino Melaye recall by his constituency: It is right; It is wrong; I do not know, of the 13 votes so far, all the 13 votes representing 100 percent favour “It is right” to recall Melaye while zero vote representing zero percent stand for “It is wrong” and “I do not know”.
