Presidency of the 9th Senate: Will Oshiomhole have his way?
If he emerges President of the 9th Senate now shaping up, Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC Yobe North) would be a living testimony of the good old adage that loyalty, decency, and a follow-the-leader mentality are qualities that in the end pay, and pay handsomely too. It is not the first attempt for Ahmed Lawan. In […]
If he emerges President of the 9th Senate now shaping up, Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC Yobe North) would be a living testimony of the good old adage that loyalty, decency, and a follow-the-leader mentality are qualities that in the end pay, and pay handsomely too. It is not the first attempt for Ahmed Lawan. In 2015, it was almost certain that the Yobe Senator was decidedly the President of the 8th Senate when presumptions and wrangling took the eyes of the APC off the ball. As they got bogged down in feuds about who deputised for Lawan, a contraption at the Senate Chamber passed off as a quorum, and Senator Bukola Saraki became President by their fiat.
No less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari was to lament even last week, that the last 8th Senate dealt treacherously with the Administration. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, ruling Party National Chairman has been hammering repeatedly, “We have learnt from our mistakes and will not repeat them.”
President Buhari has expressed his frustration that the Saraki-led Senate sat on bills whose passage into law would have made government successful in the desire to reform the judiciary, and to fight corruption. Quite understandably, this time around, every effort is towards effective control of the National Assembly, and leadership of the Senate by a diehard Buhari loyalist as Senator Ahmed Lawan is seen as fundamental to the ploy.
What remains to be seen is whether APC Chairman Oshiomhole’s methods seen as crude, autocratic and drawing angst will succeed or not. In a one party participatory democracy, most vote carrying delegates prefer to be quiet, playing cards held closely to their chests up to the night of the long knives that precedes the crucial election of President and Principal Officers. Those APC Senators not given to Oshiomhole’s crude arm-twisting dropping of the President’s name could swing a surprise at the last minute on Election Day. They have made it clear that they are equally nationalists on a constituency mandate, each one of them, and cannot be rounded up into a deal like boy scouts.
Not to take matters with philosophical calmness is Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno). He notes publicly, “Oshiomhole in making the announcement or endorsement did not even allow myself or Senators Danjuma Goje and Abdullahi Adamu, 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. I expected that since all of us have indicated interest to contest, they should have called the four of us and told us that we were all qualified but that they preferred so and so person. That wasn’t done. Or they should have asked us to go and agree among ourselves and produce one person, but that wasn’t done.”
Senator Ahmed Lawan, agreed, is one of the most experienced Senators in the Chamber. Besides, he has been in the thick of virtually every crisis in the National Assembly these past 4 years, and every time, he has lined up behind the Executive, and the establishment. Yet he has to contend with four notable APC senators that have indicated interest for the coveted seat. They are Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno), Mohammed Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe) and Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa). Goje and Adamu have been former two-term governors and hard core politicians of patriotic zeal more deeply rooted than the level at which the APC was consummated as a party. Surely Goje and Adamu possess more knowledge of political tact, human resource management and administration than Ahmed Lawan. They have as well been committed to the Party and have exhibited stoic loyalty to the President aside earning more support and respect from their colleagues, both the old and the new Senators. In fact it is suggested that Oshiomhole’s only aversion of the two men is simply because they cannot be his yes men.
Then there is the Peoples’ Democratic Party to also contend with. Known for stealth and strategic calculation, some PDP leaders are targeting 13 ‘rebellious’ Senators-elect from the APC with a view to cashing in on Oshiomhole’s rule of thumb to produce not only the next President of the Senate, but Deputy President of the Senate and all other principal officers.
While the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has won 65 senatorial seats, opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has so far 41 senators, but piercing through the crack which appears to have divided APC into two, the opposition party is banking on luring to its side about 15 votes for a majority 56, leaving APC with 53. And it could work! The PDP is raising the clamour for Standing Rules that do not expressly state that presiding officers must come from the ruling party, in drumming up its support from divergent bases. The PDP argues that APC cannot ram a consensus choice down the throat of the whole Senate.
The PDP targets are Senators-elect from Borno, Oyo, Gombe, Bayelsa, Bauchi and Ogun states, and wooing the South-East and the South-South with Senators Ike Ekweremadu, incumbent Deputy Senate President (Enugu), Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia), Senator James Manager (Delta) falling for the bait and even acting the parts. The PDP is pandering to the strong emotion that the South-South as the source of the almighty oil revenue must be accorded a position in the political structure. The ruling APC has a bad track record when it comes to regional inclusion in governance.
As for Senator Ahmed Lawan, it seems his undoing is Oshiomhole’s endorsement.