… Intrigues, permutations in APC, PDP •Ndume, Goje as ‘brides’ of opposition
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, contends with internal rebellion as well as the fear of opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senators-elect in its bid to install its choice, as principal officers of the Ninth Senate, Akanni Alaka writes.
Speaking during a dinner organised for senators-elect on the platform of the APC and leaders of the party at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa recently, President Muhammadu Buhari was unequivocal that he was less than impressed about the performance of the about-to-expire Eighth Senate. “What happened in the last Senate and so on is regrettable because I still feel it shouldn’t take seven months to pass a budget,” the president said.
APC members had blamed what they regarded, as lack of cooperation of the 8th National Assembly in general and the Senate in particular with the executive in terms of timely passage of the budget among others to the hijacking of the leadership of the Red Chamber by forces not favoured by the party at its inception in 2015. Indeed, most APC members had yet to recover from the pains of the ‘coup like’ take-over of the leadership of the Senate by Senator Bukola Saraki, who was then a member of APC with the help of members of the opposition PDP at the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly in June, 2015.
The former Kwara State governor had taken advantage of the absence of majority APC members, who were at the International Conference Centre, waiting to be addressed by Buhari on who to elect as the Senate president to execute the plot.
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Saraki, as he later confessed, had slept on the premises of the National Assembly complex overnight to beat a security cordon, then, moved into the Red Chamber with a few APC senators, who joined PDP members to elect him, as the Senate President while other senators were waiting for Buhari at the Conference Centre. With majority of the senators in the chambers during the election members of PDP, Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the opposition party was also elected the deputy Senate president.
While Buhari had lamented about Saraki’s connivance with the opposition to take over the leadership of the Senate, some members of APC had also blamed him for failing to give direction to the party members on time in the heat of jostling for positions by the then newly elected members.
The president had in various statements issued by his spokespersons before the inauguration of the 8th Senate insisted that he was ready to work with anybody elected to lead the chamber. He was, however, persuaded to intervene and support the party’s choice of Senator Ahmed Lawan at the last minute, hence, the summoning of the meeting of APC senators on the day of inauguration of the National Assembly.
‘The Mistake of 2015’
The manner of emergence of Saraki set the tone for the frosty relationship between the Senate and the Presidency, as reflected in difficulty and controversies that trailed the passage of the annual budgets as well as thebotched trial of the Senate president for false declaration of assets at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Also, Saraki and his deputy, Ekweremadu, were charged with allegations that they masterminded the forgery of the Senate rules that ushered them into power in what was believed to be part of the moves to remove them from leadership of the Senate. There was also the refusal of the Senate to confirm Ibrahim Magu as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), citing a report of the Department of State Security (DSS), which advised against the confirmation.
The Senate not only refused to confirm Magu the two times his name was sent to the Red Chamber, the lawmakers had also asked the president to remove him, as the acting chairman of the anti-graft agency. When Buhari refused to accede to the request, the senators had responded by also refusing to attend to other confirmations sought by the president.
With the solid backing of the PDP senators, Saraki, who also defected to the opposition party and contested for its presidential ticket in late 2018 was able to survive every plot to remove him from office.
Ahead of the inauguration of the 9th Senate, APC, which has again gained majority, is determined to ensure what some members of the party are now referring to as ‘the mistake of 2015’ was not repeated.
Zoned to the North-east
Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of APC who has been leading the charge of ensuring that the choice of the ruling party emerged the Senate president had repeatedly asserted that the APC would not share the office of the principal officers, including that of the ‘strategic’ committees with the PDP in the 9th National Assembly.
He added that APC would only concede the chairmanship of public accounts as well as other positions reserved for minority members to the PDP. “We don’t need those who have been rejected by Nigerians. Nigerians cannot give us a mandate and share part of it for those whom they have rejected,” APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said while defending the position of the party on the issue.
He restated that the presidential system of government currently being practised in the country does not make allowance for power sharing.
And this time around, the party leaders seemed to have succeeded in convincing the president that having his imprimatur on the leadership of the 9th National Assembly is crucial to the success of his administration in his second term of office.
“This is my fifth and last time of standing for election – for that reason I’ll like to leave something behind. And what I want to leave behind cannot be successfully done without your support,” the president said during his dinner with the APC senators-elect.
Even before the dinner, there have been speculations that the party had zoned the position of the Senate president to the North-east zone. But this has not prevented members of the party from other zones from presenting themselves for the position.
Apart from Senators Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State, Ali Ndume from Borno and Danjuma Goje from Gombe, all from North-east zone of the country, Senator Abdullahi Adamu from the North-central zone was also rumoured to be eyeing the position.
Lawan Favoured
But then, it was not a secret that even among the North-east senators, the APC had settled for Lawan, whom it had supported for the same position against Saraki in 2015.
The party confirmed this few days after the dinner with the president, following feverish speculations on the issue in the media.
APC spokesperson said the choice of Lawan was arrived at after consultations with all the necessary stakeholders in the party. “The news has been out that we had an interaction with the Senators-elect, with the president, governors, leaders of the party and NWC members where it was presented to the stakeholders that the ruling party has decided on who will be the next Senate president according to what the democratic rule says and the person’s name is Senator Ahmed Lawan,” Isa Onilu told journalists. “So, the zoning arrangement for the other positions is in the works and just as the media and Nigerians have been informed as per who our preferred candidate for the Senate President is, we will come out to tell you what the zoning formula is for the remaining offices in the Senate and also in the House of Representatives,” he added.
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Born in 1959, Lawan who holds a doctorate degree in remote sensing/GIS from Cranfield University, is one of the longest serving lawmakers in the country, having been at the National Assembly since 1999. He was first elected into the House of Representatives in 1999, while in 2007, he was elected to the Senate to represent the Yobe North Senatorial District on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, one of the parties, which fused with others to form the now ruling APC before the 2015 general elections.
He has chaired various committees as member of the House of Representatives and as senator. As majority leader in the Senate, Lawan defended the interests of the APC during the crises that followed mass defection of members of the party to the opposition.
Sources within APC also pointed out that the senator was instrumental in getting the Senate to confirm some of the president’s appointees, following the Red Chamber’s debacle with the Presidency. Aside from this, it was also pointed out that Lawan, unlike the other contenders, has not been publicly linked to any corrupt practices in the 12 years he has been in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
“Ahmed Lawan has displayed maturity as the true leader that will unite the National Assembly. He is a lover of democracy, intelligent, humble and believer in one Nigeria. We should elect him as the Senate president because he has displayed that he does not put party interest above national interest,” the Initiative for Demonstrating Change in Nigeria (IDCN), a pro-Buhari group, said in support of Lawan’s aspiration.
The Ndume Challenge
The public declaration of preference for Lawan by the APC has not dissuaded the other aspirants from the pursuit of their ambition. Goje, has not been saying much about his ambition, though it is believed that he is working underground on how to actualise his aim of emerging, as Nigeria’s next Senate president. But Ndume has repeatedly told whoever cares to listen that he would not bow to the party’s position.
The Borno senator had described the choice of Lawan as an “imposition” done by the party without consultation with other members of the party interested in the same position. He said the party’s endorsement of Lawan was in spite of the fact that he formally wrote to the APC national chairman as well as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party, about his interest in the Senate presidency.
Ndume argued that having zoned the position to the North-east, the leadership of APC should have allowed senators to choose any of the senators from the zone to lead them. He also dismissed the claim that Lawan is thechoice of President Buhari for the Senate position.
“It was Adams Oshiomhole that just threw it to us that Ahmed Lawan should be our next Senate president. Even among children of the same age group, they usually choose from among themselves, who would be their leader, much less the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Ndume told journalists shortly after Lawan’s endorsement.
Last Tuesday, the former majority leader of the Nigerian Senate further indicated his determination to forge ahead with his ambition with the unveiling of document, which contained the nine-point agenda he would pursue if elected to lead the 9th Senate.
Ndume had, in the document, promised to reduce the perks attached to the office of the Senate president while promising to ensure the passage of the constituency development bill so that constituency projects of lawmakers would be carried out more transparently and efficiently.
He also promised to run the 9th Senate transparently, through open accountability with full participation of all senators and make laws that would block leakages (and) devise improved means of generating revenue among others.
The Borno State senator also stated in his campaign document that if he emerges victorious, his leadership of the Senate would uphold the principles and policies of the APC, and that activities of the upper legislative chamber would be in agreement with the ‘Next Level’ agenda of the second tenure of the President Muhammadu Buhari presidency.
Fear of PDP
No doubt, the greatest fear of the leadership of APC, as the jostling for who becomes the Senate president continues is the fear of what the opposition PDP Senators will do when the 9th National Assembly is inaugurated. Members of the opposition party had argued that the Constitution did not stipulate that the Senate president and his deputy must emerge from the majority party in the Senate, but elected from among the lawmakers.
As such, the over 40 PDP Senators believe that if they can get the support of some of the members of the 65 elected members of APC, they could upstage the apple cart in terms of producing the next Senate president.
The PDP Senators, according to reports, are banking on the possibility of Ndume, coming up to contest against Lawan on the day of the inauguration, a move which they believe will divide the votes of the APC senators to the advantage of PDP lawmakers, who will then give their bloc votes to their preferred candidate.
It was gathered that if this opportunity presents itself, the PDP senators may put forward Ekweremadu and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe for the position of the Senate president. Ekweremadu is three times Deputy Senate president, while Abaribe has been in the Senate since 2003. The two PDP senators are, therefore, well qualified to contest for the position, as ranking senators.
Analysts said the situation may even get worse for APC on June 9, the date set for the inauguration of the Senate if former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu carries through his threat to contest against Lawan. The former Abia State governor, who claimed that he could rally over 50 senators in support of his ambition had threatened to contest against Lawan if the position of the deputy Senate president is not zoned to the South-east.
Apart from putting up one of their own up for the contest, the PDP has also indicated it may throw its weight behind any of the contenders from the APC, who can give a firm commitment of taking care of interests of its members in terms of appointments into committees’ chairmanship positions and even, ceding the position of deputy senate president to the party.
In this track of the plot, about 40 PDP senators-elect, believe they can become the real kingmakers if they can convince at least, 13 senators-elect of APC to join them in voting against their party’s adopted candidate on 9 June. The 13 APC senators-elect would also support the PDP to get the seat of the Deputy Senate President, thus replicating the situation, which led to the emergence of Ekweremadu in 2015.
Ndume, Goje as ‘brides’ of PDP
It was gathered that the PDP Senators may be more favourably disposed to Goje and Ndume, who are former members of their party on this track of the plot to disrupt APC’s plan.
Indeed, Ndume was among the APC senators, who worked with the PDP to elect Saraki, as the Senate president against the choice of the party for Lawan in 2015. Ndume had consequently contested for the position of the Deputy Senate President, but was defeated by Ekweremadu.
He was subsequently appointed, as the Senate’s majority leader. But the Saraki-led Senate buckled under pressure from the Presidency to later replace him with Lawan. Ndume’s 2015 ‘betrayal’ of APC is believed to be one of the factors, which worked against his adoption by the APC for the Senate’s presidency position.
On the other hand, Goje is still being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged fraudulent dealings with the finances of Gombe when he was the governor of the state between 2003 and 2015. Sources say his adoption for the position will be in negation of the anti-corruption drive of the Buhari administration.
It has also been speculated that the current PDP leadership of the Senate is working behind the scene to frustrate APC’s plan to determine the leaders of the 9th Senate.
Speaking to journalists at the venue of orientation programme for newly elected federal lawmakers in Abuja, the Senate President said senators-elect should be allowed to choose their presiding officers. “The point I am making is that we should not make too much noise on the process of electing presiding officers. What is important is for the members of the Senate to decide who is the best to lead them so that they can have stability,” the Senate president said in obvious reference to the ongoing plan of APC.
Wooing APC, PDP senators-elect
However, it was gathered last week that Senator Lawan has been reaching out to the PDP senators to get them to support his ambition.
The lawmaker confirmed that he has been reaching out to all senators-elect irrespective of party affiliation while speaking to journalists at the orientation programme for senators-elect last week. “We are reaching to all our colleagues; regardless of their political persuasions; after all we are supposed to work together. It is not just going to be a Senate for only the APC members. It is a Senate that will consist of the APC, PDP, and YPP. Therefore, we need everybody to support the genuine and laudable cause of making Nigeria better,” Lawan said.
Also, it was gathered that the leadership of APC is also relying on the intervention of President Buhari and the governors to ensure that senators toe the path fashioned out for the election of the Senate president.
APC members, who spoke to The Nigerian Xpress last week said with the intervention of the president especially, Ndume and other senators are expected to fall in line and frustrate every plan of the PDP to again hijack the Senate.
“We are doing what needs to be done to get our members to abide by the decisions of the party. We have confidence that at the end of the day, all our members will go as a united entity on the floor of the National Assembly to do as we all collectively agreed,” Issa Onilu said while speaking in the same vein last week.
No doubt, the intrigue about the election of the third highest public official in Nigeria is one that will persist until June 9 when the 9th National Assembly is inaugurated.
