Race for Senate President, Speaker: APC fails to pacify Saraki, Dogara

The 8th Assembly will be inaugurated today during which leaders of the two chambers will be elected.The party held a shadow election on Saturday where Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila were elected Senate President and House Speaker respectively.However, a section broke ranks with the party and insisted that   the contest for the key positions must […]

The 8th Assembly will be inaugurated today during which leaders of the two chambers will be elected.
The party held a shadow election on Saturday where Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila were elected Senate President and House Speaker respectively.
However, a section broke ranks with the party and insisted that   the contest for the key positions must be allowed to hold on the floor of the two chambers.
Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, leading aspirants in the race for the Senate presidency and for the speaker of the House of Representatives respectively said they would not stand down for the party’s candidates.
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo yesterday met with the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The Vice President was to meet with the senators and members-elect at the International Conference Center after the meeting with the party’s NWC members.
Our correspondents however gathered that only about 60 of the legislators turned up for the meeting as Saraki and Dogara and their supporters refused to turn up for the meeting.
Sources say the vice president who was to broker a truce between the aggrieved lawmakers was advised against coming since the aggrieved camps had shunned the meeting.
But the national chairman of the party who was at the conference centre addressed the legislators and insisted that results of the mock primary election held on Saturday for Senate president and speaker must be respected.
A lawmaker who attended the meeting told Daily Trust that members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) led by APC National Chairman Chief John Oyegun addressed the lawmakers at the International Conference Centre (ICC) where most senators and Reps-elect of the party were in attendance.
The source said Oyegun told them that the party stood by the mock primary and directed that all its elected lawmakers must respect that decision in order for the party to have peace.
“They told us that the party is just about forming government and we must do everything to make it succeed. Rebelling against the party at this time would not augur well for the APC government, and so, they insisted that we should try and build the party not destroy it,” said the lawmaker.
Another lawmaker who attended the meeting told Daily Trust that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was trying to capitalize on the situation in order to cause confusion for the party.
It was gathered that some lawmakers who are supporting Saraki and Dogara boycotted yesterday’s meeting, alleging that it was a ploy to arrest some of them in order to prevent them from attending today’s inauguration.
However, at the end of the meeting which held from about 5.pm to 7.pm, our reporters observed that all the lawmakers in attendance left the venue peacefully.
There is a disagreement between the Saraki camp and the APC and Lawan camp over the pattern of voting to be used in electing leaders of the National Assembly.
Whereas senators loyal to Lawan want an open voting method to be used for the election, the Saraki group are advocating for the secret ballot method, our correspondent reports.
Daily Trust check have revealed that the Senate Standing Orders is silent on the voting pattern thereby giving the  Clerk of the Senate Mr. Ben Efeturi, the discretion to decide which method to be used in the election.
Rule 3 (d) of the Senate Standing Orders states, “If more than one senator elect is proposed as president of the senate, the clerk shall after the second nomination ask: “Are there any further nominations?”, and if there are no further nominations, the clerk shall say, “I declare the nominations closed”.
Rule (E) states,  “When only two senators – elect are nominated and seconded as President of Senate, the election shall be conducted as follows:
Sub section (I): “The senate shall divide with the proposers and seconders as Tellers (the senators who proposed and seconded candidates)
Sub section (ii), “Voting shall be conducted by the Clerks-at-the Table, using the Division List of the Senate with the Tellers in attendance.
 The Clerk of the Senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly.
Sub section (iii) “The Clerk shall then declare the Senator-elect who has received the greater number of votes, elected as President of the Senate”
However, since the return to democracy in 1999, the senate has been using the open ballot method whereby each senator stands and pronounce who he or she is voting for, our correspondent reports.
Conversely, the situation is different in the House of Representatives. While it also started as open ballot system from 1999, the Standing House rule, was amended into secret ballot system in 2011.
Order 2, Rule 4 (f) (ii) of the House Standing Orders 2014, amending the voting system from the open ballot voting to secret voting system was done to pave way for the then speakership candidate, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal emerged as speaker. And it has remain as such up to now.
Although there were moves shortly after the House resumed from its election recess in April by one of the contenders to amend the Order back to its open balloting system, such moves could not materialise, as lack of enough support did not allow the motion be tabled before the House.
The lawmakers in the lower chamber would elect the presiding officers today under the secret system, making to be traced it difficult for the voting pattern of members.
Candidates of each of the presiding officers (speaker and deputy) would have to be nominated by a member, and then after exhausting the nomination of candidates, the proper voting would then commence.
In both chambers, announcement of winners would be made by the clerk as soon as collation and counting of the votes ended. And their swearing-in as presiding officers would be done instantly.
Elected speaker and his senate president counterpart would immediately take charge of legislative affairs of their chambers, signalling the end of the clerk’s duty.