The presidency on Tuesday gave the indication that it would not succumb to the Senate and remove Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the anti-graft Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Recall that the Senate had recently refused to screen presidential nominees for the position of the resident electoral commissioners, saying it would not do so until Magu is removed as Acting EFCC Chairman.
The Senate had twice rejected the president’s request to confirm Magu.
But speaking at an interview with journalists and activists on Tuesday night, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said Mr. Magu enjoys the confidence of he and the president.
“I’m fully in support of Magu as the EFCC Chairman just as the president is…” Mr Osinbajo said.
On the Senate rejection, the vice president said “it is up to the Senate to make their judgement. If our candidate is rejected, we can represent our candidate.”
The Senate, while rejecting Magu the second time insisted that it would no longer consider him if his name is sent again by the president.
But Osinbajo gave the clearest indication yet that Mr. Magu may remain in acting capacity as EFCC Chairman for the duration of the Buhari administration.
“I fully agree with Mr. (Femi) Falana that there was no need in the first place to have presented Mr. Magu for confirmation,” he said making reference to the Section 171 of the constitution.
The Vice President said although the EFCC Act requires that an EFCC chairman be confirmed by the Senate, part of Section 171 of the costitution, which is superior to the act, does not mandate such Senate confirmation.
The vice president also described the State Security Service’ action of writing a report against a presidential nominee (Mr. Magu) to the Senate as “a robust expression of our institutions of government.”
He said it shows that the administration does not interfere in the works of its security agencies, making reference to the U.S. where the FBI wrote a report against the U.S. President Donald Trump.
“He (President Buhari) has not interfered with what the DSS want to say,” Mr. Osinbajo said.
Mr. Osinbajo said President Buhari merely studied the SSS (also called DSS) report and reviewed Mr. Magu’s response which he found satisfactory.
“The president looked at what Magu said and what the DSS wrote and he said, ‘I am satisfied with what Magu said.”
The controversy over Mr. Magu, who is opposed by majority of senators, some of whom have corruption cases, is one of the issues affecting the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature we learnt.
