A fresh crisis is brewing in the ruling All Progressives Congress, even as the party prepares for the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly, tentatively scheduled for June 9, 2019.
In a bid to avoid what it experienced in 2015, when its preferred candidate for Senate President was schemed out and Bukola Saraki, in alignment with the Peoples Democratic Party, got the job, the party’s national caucus met in Abuja last week and adopted Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) as Senate President in the 9th National Assembly; and Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere 1) as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Two other senators from the North East, to which the party zoned the Senate presidency, had expressed interest in the office. They are, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume (Borno South) and Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central).
Ndume, reacting to the APC national chairman’s announcement endorsing Lawan and Gbajabiamila, described it as not only embarrassing but unconstitutional.
The Point gathered at the weekend, that Ndume was adamant in his quest for the Senate presidency, as his loyalists are said to be lobbying both APC and PDP senators on his behalf.
A close associate of Ndume confided in The Point that his lobbyists were targeting APC senators from Ogun, Imo and other parts of the country who were not in good terms with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“You know that Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, Ogun State Governor and many of our members who have detested the autocratic tendencies of Oshiomhole will be ready to work with us. Your enemy’s enemy is your friend, that’s it,” he reasoned.
Ndume had, last week, in Abuja, told journalists that “what took place at the presidential dinner in Aso Rock on Monday night, where Oshiomhole, as party chairman, announced Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as president of the ninth Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, was very shocking to me and many of my colleagues.”
“Oshiomhole, in making the announcement or endorsement, did not even allow myself or Senators Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), widely known to be in the race for the position, to say anything. More disturbing was the fact that even Senator Lawan endorsed for the position, was not allowed to make any comment in form of acceptance speech or soliciting for support from other interested senators,” he argued.
According to Ndume, such endorsement is at variance with provisions of Section 50 (1a) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The section states: There shall be a President and Deputy President of the Senate who shall be elected by the members of that house from among themselves.
He emphasised that by the provisions of the Constitution, neither Oshiomhole nor Buhari or any party leader, had the right to force on elected senators or members of the House of Representatives their presiding officers.
Ndume added that the party, which was expected to have learnt its lessons from the June 2015 experience, was treading a similar path.
Speaking in the same vein, a public affairs commentator based in Abuja, Malam Nasir Abdullahi, said APC seemed not to have learnt anything from what happened to it in 2015.
“Why is it that the party cannot allow the senators to pick a leader among themselves, and if there is rancour, the party can then mediate. Senators are senior politicians. They are made up of experienced politicians; many of them had governed their states for eight years. It will be wrong to just gather them and announce a leader for them. That is undemocratic and the party should have a rethink.”
According to him, since 1999, there had been no time leadership was imposed on any of the chambers of the National Assembly without repercussion.
He said, “In 2003, PDP showed wisdom by opening up the contest by just zoning the position to the North-central and that led to the contest between David Mark and George Akume. Because that process was democratic, David Mark lasted two terms peacefully.
“For the sake of cohesion and stability among party members as regards aspirations for such positions, what was expected from the party leadership, was to just zone the positions and allow contenders within each of the zones to sort it out either through consensus or shadow election.”
He said he agreed with Ndume that the 109 elected senators and 360 House of Representatives members were the constitutional kingmakers as far as the emergence of presiding officers of both chambers was concerned, and not the national chairman of a ruling party or even the President.
Ndume, who was visibly shocked by the party’s decision, said he had consulted with the APC National Leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and even President Muhammadu Buhari. The duo, however, it was gathered, were wary of Ndume’s antecedents and could not trust him with the Senate presidency.
Recall that Ndume was allegedly linked to the Boko Haram sect in 2011, and is also considered a close ally of the outgoing Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Political analysts said it was understandable that the APC leadership would be wary of surrendering the Senate leadership to Ndume or Goje, who they believe are close to Saraki and the PDP.
Goje, who served as governor of Gombe from 2003 to 2011 on the PDP platform, still heads the juicy Senate Appropriations Committee under Saraki. He defected to the APC in 2014.
He is believed to have worked in collaboration with Saraki to delay the budgets from the Executive, sources in the National Assembly informed The Point.
Senator-elect Orji Uzor Kalu, who has also threatened to enter the race for Senate President if deputy Senate presidency was not zoned to the South-East, is another potential source of crisis in the ruling party.
Sources close to the former Abia governor said he might play a spoiler role in the APC if not well pacified before June.
Kalu had threatened last week, “I am a very loyal party man. The party has zoned the Senate presidency position to the North-East and I want to respect the party’s will. But the second position is what we are not going to allow to leave the South-East. So, as far as I am concerned, in the South-East, I am going to run openly on the floor of the House for the position of Deputy Senate President.
“I am not going to listen to the party, neither will I listen to anybody. Nobody that wants to be the Deputy Senate President is more loyal than I am to the party.”
“I have the capacity for lobbying. I am well known in the East, West and North. If the party continues this way, I will run for the Senate President if justice is not done to say, South-East, bring the Deputy Senate President,” he added.
Now that the APC has zoned the Deputy Senate Presidency to the South-South, will Kalu carry out his threat?
Waiting in the wings is the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2015, it got the deputy Senate presidency in the intrigue that accompanied the election of the Senate leadership.
What is its target this time around? The party said its members could aspire to any position in the Senate.
Speaking with The Point at the weekend, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “Our position has been made known. Our elected senators and members of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible and can seek election into any presiding office of both chambers of the National Assembly.
“The position of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker are not the exclusive preserve of any political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.
“It is therefore laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the factional National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to pose as if the presiding offices and Committee chairmanship in the National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.
“President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.
“For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear in providing that, “There shall be: (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House 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.
“Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.
“The PDP, therefore, does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.”
Ologbondiyan said he needed to remind the APC that it had in the past benefited from the provisions of section 50, with the defection of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without relinquishing the speakership of the House to the PDP; a development that was applauded by President Buhari, as the opposition leader then, as well as the APC.
“In fact, the former Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, echoed the Constitutional provision that the constitution required only that the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be elected by members of that House from among themselves,” he said.
Moreover, in June 2015, Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange and Hon. Peter Azi, both of APC, were elected Speakers of Benue and Plateau states’ Houses of Assembly respectively, though their party, the APC, was minority in both Houses.
PDP’s fate
A returning PDP Senator who doesn’t want his names in print, said the PDP was waiting to benefit from the crack in APC.
He said the PDP was, indeed, waiting for two opportunities: “One, if the crack in the APC is so pronounced, we may go for Senate presidency but if not, we can back whoever is ready to concede deputy Senate presidency to us. So we are going to benefit. We are watching with keen interest.”
Speaking with The Point, a legal practitioner, Mr Ike Uko, said all senators were qualified to be Senate President.
“There is no special requirement for the position of Senate presidency in law. But you know, in this party democracy, the party has the power to pick who should go for the seat.
“Legally speaking, both minority parties and the majority party have the right to the leadership, except some positions like Majority Leader, Minority Leader that are explicitly stated,” he told The Point.
Speaking with The Point, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Issa Onilu, said the party’s position that Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila were the party’s candidates for Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives “still stands.”
“Our position on the Senate President and House Speaker has not changed, otherwise, I would have called you journalists and informed you. We don’t foresee any problem. I don’t know where you got the information that Senator Ali Ndume is threatening to go against our decision. And for me, I don’t react to what I don’t know,” he said.
He, however, threatened that the party would deal with any member Senator that went against the party’s decision. “That, I can assure you,” he said.
