Now that they’ve come for David Mark

EVENTS unfolding around former President of the Senate, Senator David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark in recent weeks were well foretold. And you do not need to be clairvoyant to come to that conclusion. The man himself appeared well-aware of the precarious situation his politics had fallen into immediately his party lost power in 2015.

Here is a man who wielded so much power in the days of the military. He played key roles in the administration of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed, he had shot into prominence as a young military officer who supervised the abandoned property project in the Port Harcourt axis.  As a military officer, he was Military Governor, Minister and member of the ruling council.

In 2007, he emerged as the President of the 6th Senate and chairman of the National Assembly, a position he held for history-making two consecutive terms. Since emerging a floor member of the 8th Senate, he has decided to “lie low.” He is only seen to intervene at critical points especially at closed and executive sessions.

But like a golden fish in the river, Mark cannot hide for long. The “change the change” statement credited to him at the close of the legal battle for battle for the sole of the PDP reverberated and events right now are suggesting he has been found out.

Ahead of the 2019 election, observers of the polity have claimed that it is fast becoming a fad for the administration and anti-graft agencies, especially the EFCC, to haunt potential 2019 presidential hopefuls. They have made it easy to pigeon-hole the search for Mark in that mold.

Last week, reports indicated that the EFCC was asking him to account for about N5.4 billion, while a newspaper also reported that he acquired the official residence of the Senate President, ‘Apo Mansion’ “illegally.”

Those who read political meanings to the travails of the former Jigawa governor, Sule Lamido and that of Atiku Abubakar’s Intels would easily add the current situation of David Mark to the growing list. But it shouldn’t be open to debate that that the government and the EFCC would do the polity a lot of good by clearly distinguishing political motives from anti-graft war.

The issue with David Mark is particularly striking as things came to the fore shortly after some forces linked him with the 2019 contest. The accusations against him are twofold; that he has to account for some funds allegedly traced to his accounts and that of the National Assembly, and then, the claim that he acquired the Apo Mansion “illegally.” I was told it has been modified to indicate that the sale of the house was not “gazette.”

Those who know the National Assembly setting will confirm that the lawmakers since the era of Senate President Ken Nnamani adopted what they called the self-accounting procedure. Management of finances has always been the source of tension around presiding officers. It was the real banana peel that slipped the Senate Presidents of the 4th and 5th Assemblies.

To escape the banana peel, Nnamani allowed the procedure, which started creeping into the system from the tenure of Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. Ranking lawmakers would confirm that part of the issues the former Senate President Adolphus Wabara had with the lawmakers was what they called his civil service-oriented argument against the procedure at closed sessions. The lawmakers had argued that the Legislature is another arm of government and not an extension of the executive arm. The procedure was further perfected under Senate President David Mark. With the procedure in place, individual Senators and House of Representatives members account for the funds allocated for running their ffices and retire the same with the management of the National Assembly.

The above makes it difficult if not impracticable for a Senate President or Speaker to account for financial dealings of Senators or Rep members. And the question of Apo Mansion raises several issues as well, which confirm that institutional memory is missing in this case. Though Mark has taken up his defence, it is important to refresh the memories in view of the apparent loss of bureaucratic institutional memory in this.

The Federal Government in 2006/7 sold the Apo legislative houses to the occupants under the monetisation scheme. Not long after, the quarters changed outlook and we started hearing of fraudsters duping people by posing with houses around the residence of Nigeria’s number three citizen. The government of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua then decided to build new structures for the four NASS Presiding officers. New Maitama District was picked and it was also to house the new official residence of the vice-president. With that background, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan sold the Apo Mansion to Mark, Speaker Dimeji Bankole got the Speaker’s residence while the Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker, Ike Ekweremadu and Usman Bayero Nafada got the houses they were occupying at the time.

The Nigerian government consistently made budgetary provisions for the construction of the new strictures from 2009 and NASS Committees regularly conducted oversights on the structures. Budgetary provisions were made up until 2016. Right now, the New Maitama structures have been abandoned and the four new structures you see on the left hand side as you approach the National Assembly complex are designed for the Presiding Officers. So how does the same government, after building replacements for Apo Mansion and others, claim that Mark illegally acquired the building or that the sale was not gazette?