A delicate peace at NASS, but better than instability

A semblance of peace returned to the National Assembly last week. It may well be a fragile one. But it’s significant that the resolution of the leadership struggle in the Senate and the House of Representatives has paved the way for legislative work to commence in earnest. In the Senate, a motion for a vote […]

A semblance of peace returned to the National Assembly last week. It may well be a fragile one. But it’s significant that the resolution of the leadership struggle in the Senate and the House of Representatives has paved the way for legislative work to commence in earnest.
In the Senate, a motion for a vote of confidence on its President, Senator Bukola Saraki; his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and the entire leadership as then constituted, supported by 82 senators was passed unanimously, signifying a crushing defeat for opposing senators massed in the Unity Forum. The forum, which claims loyalty to the preferred candidate of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Ahmed Lawan, had stood against Saraki’s leadership, threatening to make things difficult for him unless he stood down.
The confidence motion appeared to have stabilised Saraki’s grip, and emboldened him to constitute critical committees of the Senate. On the block now are the Committees on Selection, Rules and Business, Services as well as Ethics and Privileges. With those committees in place the Senate’s work could be said to have properly begun.
In the House of Representatives, the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, doused the tension that had raged for five weeks. Conceding a couple of inches to his party leadership and President Muhammadu Buhari, Dogara announced his main challenger, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as Majority Leader. Gbajabiamila was the APC leadership choice for Speaker, who went down by eight votes in the 9 June, 2015 legislative contest that saw the opposing PDP aid a Dogara victory. As compensation, the party insisted that its defeated candidate be made the House Leader, even when he comes from the same geographical zone with the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Lasun Yusuf.
The leadership crisis off its way, the House of Representatives now has some breathing space to begin the implementation of Dogara’s legislative agenda unveiled 9 June, 2015, after inauguration. Already, the business of selecting members of the various committees of the House has begun with the composition of the Select Committee made up of the House Leadership. And pending presidential communications like the request for the confirmation of the appointment of military service chiefs got attention early this week.
It is important that the prevailing peace, though tenuous, is maintained. While the bickering lasted, urgent legislative works were halted. In spite of the worsening security situation in the North East, the confirmation of President Buhari’s nominees for military services chiefs pended. The economy continued to take serious battering, nose-diving as the Federal Executive Council remained unformed and there was no one to agitate against that since the National Assembly was on forced recess. Feeling short-changed, many Nigerians started to complain that the change that they voted for was becoming a mirage as the executive appeared to be on a snail-speed, and there was no legislature to prod it to increase its speed.
Although the peace consummated last week promises to reverse the trend, a relapse to hostility would take the nation backward. The possibilities for a relapse are there for any perceptive observer of the politics of the Nigerian legislature and its history to see. More than anything, external forces, particularly the APC party leadership in concert with the executive fuelled the crisis. While the tussle in the Lower Chamber was resolved by a difficult and tortuous negotiated settlement, the Upper Chamber gained peace by the superiority of politicking.
Several factors emboldened to move to assert his leadership. He comes from an established political family line with a national network nurtured over three decades. His emergence as Senate President was in spite of his party’s leadership whose political machinery was worsted by his own alliance with a more experienced and efficient opposing party that has enormous capacity for conspiratorial politics. He had the numbers too: 82 of 108 senators.
And so, while the APC party leaders, including the president insisted on sidelining his authority, he thought it was necessary for him to show the stuff he was made of. The vote of confidence last week demonstrated, at least for now. The party leaders and the President, he thought, must not only reckon with that but must also ruminate over its implication. With a controlling number in the Senate, Saraki needs the party leaders and the president less than they need him. At least, under the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly is the supervisor of the executive, particularly the President. All the President’s important political appointments, appropriations and legal framework for policies must be approved by the legislature. Meanwhile is there anything the legislature needs the executive for? Nothing really because the legislature is even self-accounting and its finances, a first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation!
If Saraki could impose a settlement, Dogara was less capable of doing so. With a slim victory of marginal eight votes on 9 June, 2015 his hold on the levers of power in a 360-member House was limited, hence, his eventual capitulation and acceptance of a delicate balance of power in the House leadership. Were he a more experienced politician with stronger national network, he would not have blinked. The resolution is definitely not in his favour. Conceding the House Leader to a hostile opponent would definitely give him an-eye-open sleep throughout his stay in office. Except Gbajabiamila cooperates, Dogara will have it tough.
The obvious weaknesses of the peace settlements notwithstanding, it is important that everyone works for their sustenance, particularly because the peace of the national legislature is directly linked to the stability of the Federal Government. Legislative squabbles, be they engineered internally or externally, have always put governance in jeopardy: critical bills are frustrated or killed; legislative activities are suspended for politics; and threats of impeachment of the President; all to the detriment of the electorate.
The way forward, therefore, is for all the contenders in the power struggle in the legislature to keep the peace and do nothing to frustrate the delicate balance of power in the Senate and the House of Representatives, knowing full well that a breakdown of the peace would bring untold hardships to the mass of the people that willingly gave their mandate for the betterment of their lives. After all, as Senate President Saraki, said in his welcome address last week Tuesday, “Nigerians did not give us our mandate to come and pursue leadership, their mandate was for us to pursue governance and bring solutions to their burning issues.”
Adebiyi, a former political aide to ex-President Jonathan, wrote from Abuja