Unbridled ambition and party supremacy

Every performance was heralded with the song: “Come and see American wonder… hiyo o la lai la, hiyo o la lai la”. That song rang in my head like a siren when Bukola Saraki disgraced his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, by forging an alliance with the opposition to become Senate President ceding the […]

Every performance was heralded with the song: “Come and see American wonder… hiyo o la lai la, hiyo o la lai la”.
That song rang in my head like a siren when Bukola Saraki disgraced his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, by forging an alliance with the opposition to become Senate President ceding the position of Deputy Senate President to Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, who had served in the same position under the last administration.
Magic? The development reminded one of the jocular saying that if God says so, a decapitated man can still smoke a cigarette! A similar coup was successfully staged in the House of Representatives where Yakubu Dogara defied the party position to defeat Femi Gbajabiamila and mount the saddle as Speaker. The notable differences between the two cases of defiance were that the election of the Senate President was conducted when most of the APC senators were still at the International Conference Centre where a meeting had been scheduled with President Buhari; and then, Yusuf Suleiman Lasun, the new Deputy Speaker elected by the House, is also an APC member as against what happened in the Senate.
The national leadership of the APC had been publicly humiliated; unbridled ambition had trounced party supremacy.
President Buhari had tried to stay above the fray from the very beginning, declaring publicly that he had no favourites among the contenders and that he would work with whoever emerged as leaders of the National Assembly.
Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had warned shortly after the elections that the party should quickly zone the prime positions in the National Assembly and agree on its candidates to avoid rancour. The party didn’t take his counsel, making Kwankwaso look like a prophet now.
Let’s get it clear: what happened was the height of party indiscipline, betrayal and treachery on the part of the three APC conspirators who now occupy prime positions in the National Assembly. Their hidden sponsors within the leadership of the party are equally condemnable. How do people make a career of treachery and call it politics? No, this is not about Bola
Tinubu. And, in the case of Saraki, he carries a lot of ethical baggage with the various cases of financial impropriety against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. How such a man would support the anti-corruption crusade of President Buhari remains to be seen.
My friend, Adedayo actually thinks the PDP-backed coup would have a negative effect on the Buhari presidency in the following ways:
*Buhari can be impeached if his anti corruption crusade gets too hot for the horde of treasury looters in the Senate.
*The President has to factor in the PDP and its antics when strategising henceforth.
*The President’s Bills may not sail through with ease.
*APC’s manifesto may no longer be implemented fully.
*Some APC legislators, aping Saraki and Dogara, may start defying the party
*Foreign investors will temper their initial enthusiasm with caution, realising that many of those responsible for Nigeria’s economic adversity are now Senators and Rep members.
*Things will no longer be the same in the relations between the various leaders of the APC
However, comments from many other quarters remind me of the Yoruba proverb, “From the black earthen pot comes the white pap”. Meaning: some good can come out of something dirty. In politics, nothing is cast in stone. The white pap that came out of the earthen pot was the inclusion of somebody from the South-East in the mix which made one of my friends from those parts celebrate for several days on end. I have also noted the sentiment expressed by some analysts that there is a ‘balance of terror’ in the way the four positions were shared equally between Christians and Muslims (the Nigerian political equation never considers adherents of African Traditional Religion). Then there is the point that a leadership freely chosen by the legislators would be more independent than one imposed by the party — the jury is out on that.
I hear that Senator Ahmed Lawan who emerged the APC candidate for Senate President after the party’s shadow election is heading for the courts, probably relying on Chapter 2 of the Standing Order of the Senate as amended. Section 3(2)(k) under Presiding Officers states: (k) *”all Senators-elect shall participate in the nomination and voting for President and Deputy President of the Senate”.* The operative word is ‘*all’*. The Presidency and the party have put their embarrassment aside and congratulated the Senate President and the Speaker. The emergence of an opposition member as Deputy Senate President in a presidential system is unprecedented in Nigeria. It is like eating eba with mayonnaise.
The PDP has been lapping it all up, stopping short of deploying Nnamdi Azikiwe’s coinage of “political resurgimento” in their triumphalism. But any political marathoner knows that the coups in the Senate and the House will not lead to the destruction of the APC; rather it will make the party tighten its rules and be more dynamic strategically. Gloat not over these developments, PDP; the next ‘American wonder’ may render your celebration premature.