Dramatic emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara as President of the senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively is still very much in the news. And the reason is obvious. At no point in time since the advent of the present political dispensation had election of key officers of the National Assembly generated so much anxiety and the kind of deft political maneuvering brought into play by the contending forces.
In deviance of the directive of their party, All Progressives Congress (APC), not to contest the positions, Saraki and Dogara formed an alliance with members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in both chambers and went for the leadership slots. While 57 senators-elect adopted Saraki for the presidency in the absence of 51 others, including Senator Ahmed Lawan, who had won the party’s nomination in a straw poll, Dogara slugged it out with Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila in a keenly contested election and won by eight votes. Dogara polled 182 votes to beat Gbajabiamila who scored 174. The rest is history.
APC’s dilemma
From its reactions to the development, it appears that the party is yet to come to terms with the reality of the situation in the National Assembly with its threat to punish the erring senators for defying its order. Tuesday’s episode was a re-enactment of the intrigues that threw up Hon Aminu Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011 against the wish of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Tambuwal had shown his interest to contest the slot, but his party, PDP, preferred another candidate. Consequently, the lawmakers on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in their shrewd political calculation saw an opportunity to hit the PDP below the belt and quickly joined forces with Tambuwal and Hon. Emeka Ihedioha to defy the zoning formula of their party to emerge Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the House respectively. In the end, Tambuwal ditched the party along several other lawmakers who defected to form the emerging APC.
Now, APC is caught between the devil and the blue sea. While the leadership is bent on ensuring discipline among its members, it is faced with no less arduous task of sustaining the unity of the party. In a release issued by its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, the party threatened to sanction lawmakers involved in the deal. “Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker. The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives. All National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision.”
“Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration. There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party,” it said.
Still in shock with the conduct of its members, the APC further vowed not to recognize the emerging leadership, while the aggrieved lawmakers have also threatened to go to court to challenge the new order.
Legislature stability
Learning from the lessons of history, the current crisis may lead to instability of the legislature with negative consequences on the good governance of the country, if it is not properly handled. The intrigues that characterized the inauguration of the 4th National Assembly in 1999 under the regime of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and the emergence of Senator Evans Enwerem as the senate president is a familiar story. Just like Saraki, Ekeweremadu had emerged under a similar controversial circumstance but sooner than expected lost out to Dr Chuba Okadigbo. He fell to the proverbial banana peels in the hallowed chamber because his emergence was at the instance of Obasanjo against the desire of majority of his party members in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had in a straw poll chosen Okadigbo as their preferred candidate.
In November 1999, aggrieved PDP lawmakers in the senate took advantage of Obasanjo’s oversea trip and impeached Enwerem. But unfortunately, Okadigbo didn’t last the tenure, as he was also ousted in a counter coup plotted by the same power he and his group had rebelled against. Senator Anyim Pius Anyim stirred the affairs of the senate until the end of the tenure. But bored with the power play intrigues, Anyim denounced his membership of the PDP in his valedictory address.
At the inception of the 5th National Assembly, another Obasanjo’s protégée, Senator Adolphus Wabara, emerged the senate president. However, Wabara was forced to resign in April 2005 following his implication in the bribe-for-budget scandal. He was accused of taking gratification from the minister of education for approval of education budget. The upper legislative chamber witnessed a bit of stability when Senator Ken Nnamani took over the senate presidency.
Senator David Mark was the longest serving senate president who brought relative stability to the red chamber. Until the recent defeat of his party, he had served for two consecutive terms in that position. He was in a good stead to retain the position, but for the poor outing of the PDP in the last elections.
Mark is said to be instrumental to the emergence of Saraki and Ekwueremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate president respectively. But APC is still kicking, insisting that it will not recognize the emerging leadership.
Threat of sanction
In a statement issued by Lai Mohammed, the party said it would summon an emergency meeting of its leadership to determine the necessary sanctions against all those involved in the show of indiscipline. “Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker.
This is where the party has to learn from the lessons of history and tread softly to avert the kind of crisis that led the PDP to where it is today. For peaceful and enduring resolution of the crisis, the party leadership may have to take a second look at the position of President Muhammadu Buhari who has maintained an indifferent attitude to the happenings in the National Assembly. This is without prejudice to the right of the party to enforce discipline and ensure coercion among its members with a common sense of unity and purpose.
In the present circumstance, neither the threat of court action nor punitive sanction can save the party from its current crisis. What is, perhaps, most germane now is the capacity of the leadership to evolve an appropriate conflict resolution mechanism that would see it through the cloud of uncertainty that lies ahead of the new administration. Though it might have indirectly impacted negatively on the fortune of the party, the action of the ‘dissident’ lawmakers in the National Assembly was a revolt against some individuals who are bent on calling the shots.
For instance, in the run up to this election, Saraki and the national leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had openly expressed disagreements on the choice of candidate for Buhari’s running mate. While Tinubu wanted a Muslim/Muslim ticket, Saraki insisted on Christian candidate for religious balancing. By his nature, Tinubu does not like anybody who would look into his face or resist his order. This could be one of the reasons why the leadership prefers Senator Lawan as senate president due to his level headedness.
As it were, Saraki is not likely to give in to any threat of sanction. In fact, to many political pundits, Saraki is already a lost member of the APC. With the deal that led to his emergence, his physical body may be in the APC, his soul and spirit are in the PDP. As the leader of the party in Kwara State, if he wakes up tomorrow to jump the ship, his following would definitely fall in line. His only albatross is the subsisting EFFC case. Dogara is equally capable of doing similar evil like the one did to PDP by Tambuwal in the House of Representatives if punitive sanction is imposed on him.
One way out of the present quagmire is for the APC leadership to swallow its pride and see the development as a positive feedback and forge ahead without necessarily compromising the rules of standard behaviour among its members. As a ruling party, the leadership should prepare itself for more challenges as they unfold in the years ahead.
Lessons of history have also shown that there is a Lexus between the independence of the lawmakers to choose their leaders
Culled from The Sun
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