For the past six weeks and five days, since the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 9, the 468 legislators have worked for six days. At enormous cost to the treasury.
The third recess to resolve the rift in the legislature, which should have ended on July 21, has been shifted by one week to July 28. Legislative inputs for good governance are put on hold.
President Muhamadu Buhari has nominated the national security adviser and six service chiefs in acting capacity pending Senate screening and approval.
Those clamouring for ministers would be disappointed if the names are sent for Senate endorsement and the list stays on the shelf while the lawmakers exchange blows.
The reason for their abysmal performance is well known: There are leadership tussles in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Given the divisive cacophonous rhetoric, the solutions to the problems are nowhere in sight.
Both sides are hardening their positions. That shuts the door to common grounds.
Senate President Bukola Saraki and his Deputy Ike Ekweremadu, supported by Like Minds Forum, are against Unity Forum spearheaded by Senators Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) and Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North).
Each side threatens suspension or impeachment against the other on resumption from recess.
House Speaker Yakubu Dogara in Consolidation Group and his supporters are at daggers drawn against Femi Gbajabiamila, who insists on being elected house leader or the fracas continues.
All these combatants are leading members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). That is why, as we had said before, the APC goofed by meddling in legislative affairs.
This is the time for the party to hands off the NASS. For all the problems rocking NASS feed on the fiasco of the party’s mock leadership elections without a consensus on June 4.
The consequence is the virtual anarchy in the NASS, with several factions taking positions within the initial bipolar factionalisation. The is no sign of a consensual stream in either Chamber.
APC leaders’ failure to accept the humiliation in the Senate by the emergence of both Saraki and Ekweremadu initiated the chaos there.
The Unity Group and Like Minds refuse to see eye to eye on anything. Meanwhile, the APC lacks the two-thirds majority to impeach Saraki and Ekweremadu.
Senator Hunkuyi inviting the police to investigate Ekweremadu for forgery of Senate Rules only entrenched the polarisation.
Gbajabiamila stood for election against Dogara and lost. He was given deputy speaker. He turned it down. Now, he is the polarising, centrifugal force who seeks the majority leader post among the four principal offices.
Dogara conceded two zones to the Gbajabiamila faction in reconciliation: house leader (North West), deputy house leader (North Central), chief whip (South South), and deputy chief whip (South East).
This as a fair compromise – unless the Mediation Committee chaired by Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, sees it differently.
If the party’s position, aligned with Gbajabiamila, is adopted, the North Central and South East would be shut out of the House leadership; North East would have Monguno as Chief Whip and the South West, Gbajabiamila as House Leader.
Dogara’s concession would uphold federal character and the tradition in the House that each of the six principal officers are elected by zonal caucuses – but Gbajabiamila (South West) would be out.
Now, Gbajabiamila supporters shift the goal post: Arguing that only three members were elected from the South East, all rookie lawmakers, and, therefore, are not qualified for the ranking position.
But the Senate has a South South rookie as a principal officer. We emphasise that the rookie’s election would provide rallying points to attract South East voters to the APC in the next election.
We endorse the stand of President Muhammad Buhari not to meddle in NASS affairs.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo dictated the NASS leadership and chaos and instability ran through five Senate presidents in eight years till Anyim Pius Anyim and Ghali Na’Abba jointly clipped his wings.
Buhari should not get mixed up in the same recklessness of dictating to the lawmakers.
With his hands off, it is disrespectful of him for APC leaders to insist that its “wish list” nominees be installed. The list was badly thought-out, inappropriate, and falls short of federal character.
Party supremacy means all NASS principal officers should be involved in compiling the list. Party supremacy cannot be the “wish list” of powerful individuals.
At what level of the party hierarchy is policy formulated to become supreme? Is it the National Executive Committee (NEC), Board of Trustees (BoT), or National Working Committee (NWC)?
Or is it at the level of powerful individuals like former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, or former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu?
Until such nebulous concepts are well defined and followed, party supremacy means all or nothing.
Unless the APC and NASS leaders swallow their egos and ensure fairness, equity and reciprocity in decision-making, every solution proposed would exacerbate the conflict.
Lawmakers are elected to make laws for the good governance of society. Whatever prestigious position they occupy while making laws is a big plus. But it is not compulsory to enact the laws from any other pedestal ultra the Chambers of the NASS.
Tinubu’s sponsorship raised Gbajabiamila’s profile sky high – then deflated him.
It is time for good governance. The electorate voted for change from the bad governance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Private, social or systemic considerations are irrelevant.
The APC should withdraw its “list” which followed the initial blunder of the fiasco of a mock election without a consensus.
All APC leaders at all levels and all lawmakers regardless of their positions should pocket their egos and their ambitions for 2019. They should join hands to establish and preserve peace and harmony for lawmaking for the next four years.
Failure to do so will entrench the PDP’s perception that the APC can gang up to wrest power but cannot govern.
George Oji, Executive Director of Friends in the Gap Advocacy Initiative (FGAI), a legislative advocacy, monitoring and lobby group, said all the legislators did for the six days they worked was to bicker over selfish interests.
“If the legislators continue with this style of unseriousness, FGAI will not hesitate to, in collaboration with other civil society groups, call for a civil protest to sack them from the National Assembly,” he warned.
They had better take the warning seriously.
