The last week election in the legislative arm of the Nigerian government which was aimed at producing the leadership for both the National Senate and House of Representatives was marred by surprises that can only be described as dramatic and intriguing.
It is the convention in the legislature that the political party with the majority nominates from among itself those to be the leaders of the legislative arm; There was no doubt in everyone’s mind that the Action Progressive Congress (APC) will produce “Staunch ” members of its party as the leaders of the 8th National assembly, but as the saying goes “Man proposes, God disposes “.
Prior to the inaugural sitting that was to produce the leadership for the legislature; the APC had a meeting which was poised at producing consensus candidates, so as to quash any plans of the PDP which is the opposition in influencing the outcome of the election.
The meeting produced Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila as the party’s consensus candidate to be the speaker of the House of Representatives and Honorable Monguno as the deputy speaker. It should be noted that Honorable Yakubu Dogara who was contesting against Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila walked out of this meeting because he felt cheated and believe the primary election was not free and fair. The same scenario also played out in the party’s meeting to produce a consensus candidate for the Senate president thus creating factions within the party.
Attempts by the APC to settle the differences between the “anointed” candidates and the candidates that were not endorsed proved futile as the candidates that were not endorsed vowed to contest the election.
The drama started when the inaugural sitting began and 51 APC senators went out to meet President Muhammadu Buhari who was to address them and other party members before they commence the election of the Senate president. The President was yet to arrive by a few minutes past 10am when the senate elections have been conducted.
Meanwhile, the remaining 57 senators had already commenced sitting and had elected Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate president and Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the deputy senate president while Senator David Mark emerged as the majority leader.
The APC senators were surprised to see that the game had been totally changed when they trooped back to the house after confirming that the President was no longer coming. Some of them were dumbfounded while most were furious but they could not do anything as the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate was constitutional because according to section 54(1) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria a qorum shall be formed by one third of the Senate. Also the yardstick for the emergence of the Senate president is a simple majority.
The above scenario affected the election in the House of representatives as Honorable members from the northern part of the country precisely the north eastern part decided to vote and support Honorable Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives due to the fact that their kinsman from the north east, that is Ahmed Lawan had lost at the Senate. That was how Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila lost to Honorable Yakubu Dogara.
The APC was furious at the outcome of the election and thretatened to rain down fire on its members that worked against its interest, the national publicity secretary of the party on the evening of June 9th released a statement promising to sanction erring members and showing their distaste for what occurred.
But the surprising thing is that president Muhammadu Buhari released a statement by his special adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Femi Adeshina who said that he will work with whoever emerges as the Senate president and speaker of the House of Representativeseven though he didn’t congratulate the winners of the NASS election; this was an unanticipated move as some people thought Buhari would want to stick with the party’s interest and try to sanction the newly elected heads of the legislature.
One would ask why is APC not happy despite their party members emerging the head of the legislature even if it’s not their consensus candidates. The answer lies in the fact that both Senator Bukola Saraki and Honorable Yakubu Dogara are former members of the PDP and their loyalty to the APC is not certain. They are not “staunch” APC members and do not also belong to Tinubu’s cabal and the party is afraid they might decamp back to their original party, but nevertheless they have been elected and the APC have released a statement making a u-turn to accept them as the new leaders of the National assembly.
Many people saw the events that unfolded in the past week as being orchestrated by the PDP and judging from the evidence and body language of the PDP they might not be wrong. Some people even went to the extent of saying that president Muhammadu Buhari had a hand in what happened and that he deliberately lured the APC senators out so that Saraki might run unopposed and emerge the Senate president.
Why will he go against the party’s interest one may ask and the answer one will get will vary from him trying to run a hitch free government to him trying to limit the influence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his administration as it is believed that Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila was Tinubu’s candidate.
Irrespective of what you are thinking, I want us to believe that the drama at the Nigerian National assembly has just started and we should keep our fingers crossed as events that will blow our mind unfold. God bless Nigeria.
Ogunshola Taiwo O.
