Amaechi conundrum and PDP Senators

It can be tempting to align with Nigerians who hold that there was no victor nor vanquished in the climax of the drama associated with the recent nomination, screening and confirmation of Rotimi Amaechi as a minister in the soon coming cabinet of President Muhamadu Buhari. This is just as it may be unfair to […]

It can be tempting to align with Nigerians who hold that there was no victor nor vanquished in the climax of the drama associated with the recent nomination, screening and confirmation of Rotimi Amaechi as a minister in the soon coming cabinet of President Muhamadu Buhari. This is just as it may be unfair to discountenance the lobby which contends that Senators of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) actually lost out with the success of Amaechi, given their spirited battle to scuttle his chances. Each side parades grounds to justify its position vis a vis the sojourn of the former governor of the Rivers State, former high-ranking member of the PDP and now equally a high ranking member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in the Red Chamber.
Last Thursday the Nigerian Senate drew the curtain on the process of screening and confirming the 36 ministerial nominees presented to it by President Muhamadu Buhari, with that of Amaechi coming at the rear and drawing flak from the opposition PDP. The climax of the drama featured the leadership of the two parties in the Senate engaged in a game of political brinkmanship which saw the PDP Senators stage a walk out when their fight to stop the confirmation of Amaechi started to flounder. However that did not stop the Senate from confirming the nominee as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and thereby terminating to a large extent the conundrum which the ‘Amaechi for Minister’ issue had become. 
Since then the political terrain has been abuzz with contemplations and speculations over the implications of the development for the Senate, the National Assembly as a whole and the present administration. The thrust of public concern is around how much potency the opposition PDP can muster in seeking revenge against the APC, even as the impact of such a dispensation may hit beyond the precincts of the National Assembly.
 As is clear if the PDP decides to use the Amaechi issue as the basis for demanding a pound of flesh from the APC in the Senate, and follows up by mounting undue challenges to any APC driven motion or business of the Senate, such can easily prove problematic to the Red Chamber. This is due to the relative strengths of the parties on the floor of the Senate. The ruling APC has 60 members which is  short of 73 that would have given it a two thirds majority in the 109 member Senate and associated veto powers. This was the situation with the PDP during its ruling days when it always enjoyed two thirds majority and swayed the pendulum of power at its sole discretion.
Yet the PDP is a great party which even in its role as an opposition front, Nigerians expect much from. Against the backdrop of its circumstances therefore, especially as a former ruling party, it does not need to play the ignoble role of a spoil sport in the Senate, over the outcome of the ministerial screening of any individual – with Rotimi Amaechi in this case. The PDP Senate leader Senator Godswill Akpabio has in his uncommon style led his colleagues to make the party’s point over Amaechi loud and clear through the walk out. Nigerians will now expect him – the astute statesman he is, to redirect the focus of the PDP caucus in the Senate towards more nationalistic challenges which are legion, and may require the full strength as well as potentials of the entire National Assembly and even all Nigerians to tackle.
With reference to the short life of the Eight Senate so far, of particular public interest shall be the general disposition of the PDP in opposition, especially now that the new administration is taking off with a cabinet of ministers, in the wake of the confirmation of same. Needless to state that the party shall be expected to demonstrate uncommon astuteness in playing opposition politics.  Unlike in the past when the opposition comprised a constellation of relatively small parties with varying political agenda, and were not cohesive in their impact on the system, the opposition today is the PDP itself, a former ruling party. In the light of such antecedents Nigerians expect the PDP to offer a new vista on opposition politics that explores options in good governance outside the box, to initiate new frontiers of democracy dividends, which the ruling party will have no choice but key in to. That is the proper template for playing opposition politics.
Hence at the risk of sounding trite, it needs to be given that for all practical purposes and intents, the days of the issue of Amaechi as a conundrum on the floor of the Senate are over, even if some hawks and political mandarins in the Rivers State may not see it as so. While it may not be complimentary for some interests to refer to the antecedents of the anti Amaechi drama as a local, Rivers State based, macabre ‘political derby’, which was sponsored to snowball into a national issue, its execution bore the clear hallmarks of a proxy war, to which the PDP Senators have invested what is reasonable enough in terms of solidarity. Nigerians will be disappointed if after now, the PDP in the Senate allows any hangover from the Amaechi affair to over shadow its response on any matter on the floor of the Senate. The PDP should ipso facto not demand any pound of flesh, as there is really none in the bargain.
Nigeria must move forward with the Senators as leaders in the front. While they may belong to different political plumages, Nigerians on the street see them as one. The task of making Amaechi and all other confirmed nominees serve as good ministers through the process of due oversight, should be the next nationalistic item on the agenda.
It is in the light of the foregoing that the legislative agenda of the eight National Assembly comes into relief. Having set for itself a robust schedule of tasking goals under the agenda, nothing should be allowed to distract the nation’s central legislature from its priority concerns. 
In any case with the end of the year drawing close, the President is expected to fast track the presentation of the 2016 Budget Bill.  The journey of that Bill through the National Assembly will prove a test case with respect to how far the PDP Senate caucus has rested the ghost of the Amaechi conundrum.