Although Nigeria’s survival of the 2015 general elections ordinarily calls for a sigh of relief, it seems inadvisable for Nigerians to roll out the drums yet. Nothing in the bad start by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), especially the show of shame by its members over the National Assembly (NASS) leadership positions or their unhidden desperation to unseat the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, show that all is finally well or that we have learnt anything. Not only that APC power cabals are bent on making the NASS ungovernable because they could not impose their stooges, what started like APC’s passing reaction to their loss of the Deputy Senate President seat has also degenerated to a level where the PDP had to cry out over threats to the freedom, dignity, and life of its highest political office holder.
Those who think the PDP is merely crying wolf should read this comment by an APC chieftain, Senator Chris Ngige about Ekweremadu. He said: “There are many ways to kill a rat. You can decide to go and kill it manually; you can go and put it in hot water, and you can use poison – Gamalin”. It is sad that those pushing this agenda do not care about the peculiar situations we have on our hands. One, the last general elections produced 49 PDP Senators and 60 All Progressives Congress (APC) Senators. An APC Senator-elect passed on immediately after the 2015 elections, reducing the APC number to 59 at present. But APC leaders have failed to appreciate the fact that the party enjoys just a slim majority unlike what PDP had in the past. Out of these 49 PDP Senators, the South East and South South produced a whooping 32 Senators.
If I were President Muhammadu Buhari and APC, I would have ceded the Deputy Senate Presidency to a PDP Senator of South East or South South extraction on my own or produce a Deputy Speaker from the zones since there are APC House Members from both zones. Either way, Buhari and APC would gain more political goodwill of the zones and/or the cooperation of the PDP. It would have been another “No victor, no vanquished” in line with Buhari’s declaration that he belongs to everybody. Some power mongers might deem it crazy, but that would have been politically pragmatic especially given APC’s very slim majority in the Senate. More importantly, unusual times call for unusual decisions. In USA, during President Abraham Lincoln’s second term in 1864, he sacrificed fellow Republican and first term Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin and chose Andrew Johnson who was a Democrat from the South as his running mate. Though a diehard Republican, but he knew that in such unusual times of war, national unity was most paramount.
To him, successful defence of the American Union was far more important than partisan politics. But what did we have here? APC cabals insisted that Senator Ahmed Lawan of the North East must be made the Senate President, Senator George Akume of North Central the Deputy Senate President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila of South West the Speaker, and Hon. Mohammed Monguno of North East (same zone as Lawan) the Deputy. In the sharing of the principal officers of the House of Representatives also, the two APC Members from the South East were not even considered for Deputy Whip position. So, Ekweremadu’s re-election as Deputy Senate President actually solved a major problem for the APC by default. Unfortunately rather than consider it so or consider the experience he is bringing to bear on Senate leadership, a divisive campaign and political tyranny against Ekweremadu is being championed by a splinter of APC Senators (Senate Unity Forum) and a faction of the APC leadership.
What a contradiction in name. They claim that a Deputy Senate President wields enormous powers and Ekweremadu, being of the PDP extraction would therefore make Buhari’s change agenda difficult. They claim that for 16 years, the PDP never shared the position of presiding officer with the opposition. This is preposterous because by implication, the Forum is saying that what we have is not a National Assembly of Nigeria, but of APC. For crying out loud, National Assembly is an independent arm of government based on the principle of separation of powers. It is neither an APC conclave nor a department of the presidency. They are also indirectly telling Nigerians that Buhari’s APC administration could not have taken off in the first place had the PDP won majority seats in the NASS, while the APC is in charge of the Presidency as often obtainable in advanced democracies. In the USA, Hon. Joe Boehner of the Republican Party has been the Speaker of the Parliament since 2011 under a Barack Obama Democratic Party administration.
Besides, mutual cooperation between the executive and the legislature depends on the personalities involved in the leadership of both arms of government, not necessarily on whether they are of the same political family. For the 16 years the PDP held sway, it was always a cat and mouse relationship between the President and the National Assembly or its leadership. Obasanjo’s eight-year reign produced five Senate Presidents and three Speakers due to this. From 2013 till he left office, President Goodluck Jonathan could not personally present national budget for fear of embarrassment from Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and his men. Yet, Tambuwal and Jonathan were of PDP. Conversely, Ekweremadu has amply shown that he is more interested in delivering good governance to Nigerians, than in distractive and vicious opposition.
Only a few days ago, he told visiting CSOs: “Today, we have a president who is dedicated to eradicating corruption, to fighting poverty and eradicating terrorism and we in the National Assembly are prepared to support him in this respect. We have finished with politics, what is remaining now is governance and this country belongs to all of us. The constituents are not interested whether you are APC or PDP. What they want is good governance and we must unite as a people to give Nigeria good governance”. After the PDP lost the election in March, he said to his people: “The South East PDP and indeed Ndigbo … will work hand-in-hand with him (Buhari) in line with our regional agenda and overall development.
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