Last week, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, asked Senate President Bukola Saraki to resign following his defection to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole said since Saraki had left the ruling party, he should leave behind the ‘crown’ that belonged to it.
Since the defection of Saraki from the ruling APC to the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) last week, some APC senators loyal to President Buhari, including Senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan; his predecessor, Ali Ndume; Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Abdullahi Adamu; his counterpart in Police Affairs, Abu Ibrahim as well as Ovie Omo-Agege have called on the Senate President to vacate the seat or be impeached.
Adamu who chairs the Parliamentary Support Group in the upper legislative chamber, insisted that: “Saraki had stepped on banana peel and should be prepared to bear the consequences of his action.”
In a statement at the weekend, Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State and one-time ally of Saraki, urged the nation’s Number Three Citizen to step down to avert consequences, adding that “he should honourably return the crown or be ready to bear the consequences.”
He vowed that with the defection, it would not be business as usual.
The lawmaker said: “If Saraki knows political intricacies and the political terrain or the path where the banana peel in political landscape is, he will be more cautious.
“The way he is going now, he has obviously stepped on banana peel and only God knows how far he will slip. I will not pretend. I think he made a mistake and he took a wrong decision. He will have stories to tell along the line.
“It is not the best he could have done. He had a duty to his father to keep the flag of the family flying but the way he is going, I do not think he is doing that.”
He explained that “the defection of Saraki and the other lawmakers is a game changer.
“We expect them to do it amicably and peacefully. They should make sure they do not run away with our crown.
“If they think they will go and nothing will happen and that it will be business as usual, then they need to think again.
“I will not say whether we will take steps or not take steps. We hope that between now and resumption of Senate plenary, more events will unfold. We do not want to be in a hurry to speculate.”
The lawmaker, however, said that if Saraki insisted on leading the Senate there would be repercussions.
On the argument that Saraki did not do anything constitutionally wrong by defecting, and that there was a precedence where former Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, defected but remained the Speaker, Adamu said “it will not happen this time. We are more educated on the rules now.”
But checks by BDSUNDAY on the Senate Standing Orders, 2015 (as amended) reveals that electing Presiding Officers is based on ranking and not on political leaning.
Specifically, Order 3(2) states that: “Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers and appointments of Principal Officers and other Officers of the Senate or on any Parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators. In determining ranking, the following order shall apply: (i) Senators returning based on number of times reelected; (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives; (iii) Senators elected as Senators for the first time”.
But Tambuwal, the Sokoto State governor who cross carpeted from PDP to APC in 2014 without vacating his seat, said the constitution does not recognise the election of Presiding and Principal Officers on the basis of party affiliation.
The governor, who was among the political heavyweights that returned to PDP from APC last week, accused the governing party of double standard.
Speaking at the 81st National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of PDP, in Abuja on Thursday, Tambuwal also condemned alleged attempts by some National Assembly members to forcefully reconvene the Senate ahead of its September 25, 2018 resumption.
His words: “We cannot afford to allow our country to drift further. It is not about any interest, it is about this country. This country is on a cliff. We must retrieve it, we must exposition this country and restructure it for the benefit of Nigerians.
“When they talk about cross carpeting, I begin to wonder. When I cross carpeted the other time, did they complain? When I hear that some people are trying to break into the chambers of the Senate to steal the mace and install a pseudo President of the Senate I wonder whether they actually know the rules of our democratic engagement. It’s not a Gestapo. We are in democracy. And the constitution of this country is very clear that members of the Senate and the House of Representatives can choose from among themselves their own President of the Senate or Speaker (of House of Representatives) without leaning to any political party. It is a question of confidence of members of the chambers.
“So if the senators have confidence in Bukola Saraki, they should continue to sustain him as President of the Senate. And so be it with Mr Speaker, Dogara”.
While urging Nigerians not to be afraid, he declared that any attempt to toy with the future of Nigerians would be resisted.
But the 1999 Constitution (as amended) has the answer as to the possibility or otherwise of impeaching Saraki based on the composition of the Senate at the moment.
Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) deals with the removal of Presiding Officers of both legislative chambers of the National Assembly.
Unlike the impeachment of the President or his vice, which takes a minimum of three months, impeaching the Senate President can be carried out at any legislative sitting so long as they meet the constitutional requirement of two-thirds majority of the house. This means a minimum of 73 senators are needed to impeach the Senate President.
With the current composition of PDP controlling the Senate with 55 senators as against APC’s 50, APGA and ADC one each and two vacant seats, it is impossible for either PDP or APC senators to impeach Saraki without the support of lawmakers from both sides.
Section 50 of the Constitution provides that:
50. (1) There shall be:-
(a) A President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and
(b) A Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.
(2) The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office:
(a) If he ceases to be a member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives; or
(b) When the House of which he was a member first sits after any dissolution of that House; or
(c) If he is removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of that House.
