By Emeka Alex Duru
Baring last minute deft moves, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), may, once again, find itself in crisis over the National Assembly (NASS) leadership. The last time it was enmeshed in similar situation was in 2015, when Bukola Saraki emerged Senate President and Yakubu Dogara, House of Representatives Speaker, against its desire. The shocking development had dogged the relationship between the APC and the duo till they eventually left the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In similar vein, NASS leadership symbolized by the two and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led executive arm of the government, are yet to experience a harmonious working relationship, ever since.
In the emerging NASS, there may be changes in the template. Saraki, on account of his failure to win at the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections, will not be coming back to the Senate. But Dogara will return. That notwithstanding, the APC is not taking chances, or so, it seems. It has consequently made elaborate arrangements to have its way on who occupies any of the positions, this time around. Against this backdrop, the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has asked the incoming lawmakers on the ticket of the party, to respect its choices on who becomes the Senate President and House Speaker.
Oshiomhole reads riot act
Oshiomhole, apparently echoing the thinking of the APC, maintains that Senate Leader, Dr. Ahmed Lawan is the candidate of the party for the Senate President position for the 9th Assembly. That, ordinarily, would settle the situation, given also that APC, with over 60 senators-elect out of the 109 senate membership, can be said to have a comfortable majority.
But that is, incidentally, where the problem commences. Even with a comfortable majority, snippets from the party, indicate that all may not yet be well with the party.
Ali Ndume on rampage
While, for instance, Oshiomhole was issuing directives to the senators-elect to line behind Lawan, Ali Ndume, from Borno South, was also indicating interest on the post. Though the APC spokesman, Lanre Issa-Onilu, has laboured to diminish Ndume’s aspiration on the logic of supremacy of the party, informed analysts know that the situation is not as ordinary as he thinks. For one, Ndume, by his antecedents, is not one to go down without a push when he has his eyes on any issue. In the Eighth NASS, he was among the senators that teamed up with Saraki to go against the APC rules in the emergence of the senate leadership. For his efforts, he was made the Senate Leader. Along the line however, he fell out with his erstwhile camp and would not mind that costing him his position.
When therefore, he indicated his intention for the senate presidency this time around and is being hushed down in a way, many see him, going all out to actualise it, even if it would earn him sanctions from the APC. And unless he is prevailed upon to drop his ambition, there are chances of his swinging supporters on his side.
PDP, for instance, may readily adopt him, if only to use him to spite the APC. Though some members of the opposition political party may not easily forgive him for dumping them after working with them to frustrate the APC in selecting the NASS leadership in 2015, the bond and fraternity which he shared with them in his days of being with them when he was in PDP, may surge, eventually. For the PDP members in the red chambers, that may be seen, in the long run, as having one of their own in the senate leadership, that may completely leave them out, if the leadership style being proposed by Oshiomhole, scales through.
Going by Oshiomhole’s directive, neither the APC leadership in the Senate nor in the House, should go into any power sharing arrangement with the opposition. He extended the warning to the constitution of the various committees in both chambers, stressing that aside those constitutionally designated for the opposition, the APC as a ruling party, should appropriate all the leadership slots.
Oshiomhole under fire
Analysts find the directive draconian and undemocratic. A Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Lagos State University, Ojo, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that what the APC Chairman was advocating, simply amounted to “sheer exhibition of dictatorship and an invitation to anarchy”. He argued that not even in advanced democracies where the role of opposition is clearly streamlined, would a ruling party, line out all the important committees, solely to its members. “What happens to competence and experience? Where lies national interest in this bizarre prescription? The fact is that some of these characters prancing about on the corridors of power in whatever guises do not have any business being heard, let alone being seen. That is why they do not know that party politics and politicking are entirely different matters from governance. If they had had any modicum of training or apprenticeship on issues of democracy, they would have known that after elections, it is time for governance. In that instance, reasonable leaders look for those that will assist them in delivering service to the people, irrespective of their political differences and leanings”, he observed.
He added that the problem with the APC chairman is the tendency at dabbling into areas he knows little or nothing about, adding that it was high time his colleagues started calling him to order. According to him, the bulk of legislative activities are done at the committee stage and not the plenary which merely provides avenue for some lawmakers to grandstand and filibuster. “The greater works of the legislature are at the committee stage. You don’t toy with leadership of the committees. So, arguing or suggesting that the leadership of the committees should be left to the APC members, shows how naïve Oshiomhole is on the matter”, he added.
PDP strategises
This particular directive by the APC chairman, is seen as an issue that would rather, ironically, galvanise the opposition in either going for the senate presidency or supporting someone that will stand against being pushed around by the APC leadership and the presidency.
Our efforts to reach the PDP national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan on the position of the party on the issue, did not yield fruits, as his mobile telephone line was not accessible.
In an earlier statement however, the party had expressed its desire to have the leadership of the two chambers thrown open for contest among its members, citing provisions of the constitution that run contrary to the views of the APC in the recruitment of leaders of the National Assembly.
Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that there shall be: – (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.
Leaning on this, the party insists that aspiration for the offices remains open and not a prerogative of a particular party, not even that with the majority in the chambers. This is a logic many fear, may be exploited by even APC members not comfortable with the party’s choice in the Senate and House leadership.