APC and the crumbling edifice

Like King Nero who fiddled while Rome was on fire, the All Progressives Congress (APC) went to sleep at an hour when they were supposed to keep vigil. Or how else would anybody describe a situation where 51 senators-elect decided to go for a meeting elsewhere with President Muhammadu Buhari at a time senators-elect had been told to converge for the election of principal officers of the upper legislative chamber.

Like a clean goal scored from a free kick, while the opponents were still busy positioning themselves to guard their goal post, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in alliance with some APC members, demystified the broom party and tutored the now ruling party on the rudiments of politicking.

The emergence of Bukola Saraki, unopposed, as the Senate president of the 8th Senate, following his nomination by Ahmed Sani, seconded by Dino Malaye, has been described as a positive development and a sign of good things to come in the present dispensation.

Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa who presided over the election announced that 57 senators-elect were present for the election of Senate President. According to him, the quorum for the election of the Senate President is 38.

The emergence of Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as deputy Senate President was also unexpected, considering the permutations that were bandied about before the elections. The sing song was that the PDP was not likely to hold any reasonable position in the 8^th Senate.

While the chieftains of the party were plotting to foist Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila on the National Assembly, some other thorough-bred politicians were also putting heads together to foil the APC plot. Dogara beat Gbajabiamila by 182 to 174 votes to clinch Speakership position.

Speaking on the outcome of the elections at the National Assembly, an analyst said: “You know PDP has been in power for 16 years and know the game too well. Forget that the party lost the Presidency in the last election; that lost was purely because Nigerians had lost confidence in the party; but when it comes to play politics, APC cannot match PDP any day. What happened at the National Assembly Tuesday was purely a manifestation of determination on the part of some people to do things differently.

“Don’t forget that President Muhammadu Buhari had publicly said he did not mind whoever that would emerge as Senate president or speaker of House of Representatives. What really happened was that some people thought they could ride rough shod over the generality of Nigerians.”

What transpired at the National Assembly reminds one of the events of June 6, 2011 in the lower chamber when members of the House of Representatives defiled the wish of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to elect Aminu Tambuwal as its speaker.

Like Tambuwal, Yakubu Dogara (APC-Bauchi) was elected amidst cheers during the inauguration of the 8th session of the House of Representatives. His election may have ended a long drawn battle for the position occasioned by a controversial adoption of Femi Gbajabiamila (APC-Lagos) for the position.

Dogara has since been sworn in for the office by the Clerk of the National Assembly.

The House, for weeks, was hotbed of intrigues, allegations and counter allegations, with many members vowing to disrupt the party formula by electing their leader without outside interference.

Before the Tuesday elections, a good number of members and opposition lawmakers in the legislature had questioned the mock elections staged by the John Odigie-Oyegun-led APC which threw up Dogara and vowed to remain defiant by pushing for a candidate independently chosen by the House.

It would be recalled that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was the national leader of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and other leaders of the party were at the National Assembly gallery on the inauguration day to influence their members to ensure they voted Tambuwal as against Mulikat Akande-Adeola from the South West who was the anointed candidate of the PDP.

Last Tuesday, Tinubu was also at the National Assembly with leaders of the APC to ensure that members of the party voted according to plan.

It is expected that as the election of Tambuwal as speaker enthroned democracy in the National Assembly, the emergence of Saraki as the Senate President and Dogara as speaker, would further move the country to democratic maturity.

An observer said: “It is a very bad outing for APC. By this error of commission of APC refusing to zone the Senate presidency, we now have PDP playing the role of spoilers in the two chambers and stealing the show from APC. They (APC) have paid a heavy price for their sloppiness.”

Shortly after the mock elections of Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as APC anointed candidates for Senate presidency and House of Representatives’ speaker, Coordinator of Buhari/Osinbajo Coalition, Yusuf Nadabo had asked the APC to steer clear of NASS leadership and allow legislators to elect their leaders in an environment devoid of imposition.

“We believe in sustainability of democracy. We don’t want a mock election. We want a proper election.
“We are members of this party, so if an election is conducted, if not open, then we can guarantee you that we are at liberty to protest to ensure that a proper election is conducted for everyone to see.

“We agitated for change for a very long time. And now that the government had come to stay, we expect that the leadership of the party will see how responsible its members are towards checks and balances of how it regulates its process,” the group said.
Jubril Mohammed Babangoshi, a member of the group, had reminded the APC leadership that “The only time that we had sustainability and peace in the National Assembly was during

Tambuwal, because he was democratically elected by members of the House. Let internal democracy prevail in this election. Let the members of the National Assembly elect their leaders.”

Rejecting the selection of Gbajabiamila by the party, Abdulmumin Jibrin, staunch supporter of Dogara, had described the “mock” election as an “ambush.”

He said: “Our position is that we are not a party to what they did and we maintain that the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot be conducted outside the chamber of the House and we are ready to participate in that process on Tuesday 9th June, 2015.”

The APC appears to have put its wrong foot forward by its obvious partisanship in the race to the House speakership.  The statement by the APC rejecting the outcome of the elections at the National Assembly, may have given the party away as a bad loser. Reacting to the APC’s anger over Saraki and Dogara’s emergence, the PDP taunted and urged the broom party to “stop weeping.”

Pundits are of the opinion that the APC, which preaches change and which wants to teach and show Nigerians a better way of doing things appears to be following the old path. It is also the belief of the observers that the party may soon lose the good will and the charm that drew the voting masses to it during the election in March.