It’s no exaggeration to say that one of the problems of Nigeria is that history keeps repeating itself. Funny enough, it’s bad history that is always repeated. Indeed, successive Nigerian leaders, in government and corporate institutions, have always failed to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and others and, therefore, do the same wrong thing. And this has left the country in a vicious circle of mistakes, some of which are avoidable, if lessons are learnt. As it’s with individuals, so it’s with institutions also. Four years ago, the House of Representatives was embroiled in crisis over the selection of a Speaker.
At that time, the political party in power, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose member was to occupy the position of Speaker, had figuratively played god. The PDP had decreed that the position of Speaker had been zoned to the South West. It also endorsed Hon. Mulikat Akande to occupy the position. Despite this PDP directive, then Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, now Governor of Sokoto State, with the backing of the majority of the lawmakers, joined the race and chose Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, as his sparing partner or running mate. In the contest, Hon. Akande stood a chance. Tambuwal was voted as Speaker and Ihedioha, Deputy Speaker. And the House of Representatives, on that score, affirmed its independence, telling the PDP and the Executive/Presidency, which supported the zoning and imposition of a candidate for Speaker, to go to hell. Nigerians waited for the sanctions PDP promised those who defied its order. The punishment never came. In that Speakership saga of 2011, the opposition party served as the arrowhead in the rebellion against the PDP and the Presidency.
The opposition provided the guillotine with which the head of PDP was chopped off. This demystification and disgrace of the PDP at the House of Representatives did serve as the beginning of the end of the political party. With that defeat, PDP exposed itself as vulnerable and not invincible. With that, politicians knew that the PDP could be taken on and defeated. And they did take PDP on, which, in one way or another, contributed to the party’s loss of power last March. Now, four years after, who could have believed that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which came to power on the mantra of “change,” could make the same mistake? Repeating history, the APC did choose those who would be Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. And it did order its members in the National Assembly to vote for them. The irony is that an APC, which criticised the PDP in 2011 for trying to impose a leader on the House of Representatives, is the one that chose Alhaji Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as the preferred candidates for Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives. Like PDP in 2011, APC played god, ordering its members in the National Assembly to line behind those it had so anointed and imposed on them. But just as it happened four years ago, the National Assembly members said no to such imposition of candidates.
Senator Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, got elected as Senate President, while Hon. Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi State emerged as Speaker, House of Representatives. And the surprise of the century is that the distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the PDP, was elected as Deputy Senate President, in a Senate that has APC members as the majority. What I said in 2011, when members of the House of Representatives ignored the orders of PDP and elected Tambuwal as Speaker, is what I will repeat here, in 2015: Members of the National Assembly were right in rejecting imposition of leadership. Indeed, what happened at the National Assembly is a step in the right direction. By rejecting and resisting imposition of candidate, federal lawmakers have underlined their determination to be independent. They have passed as vote of no confidence in APC.
They have demonstrated that they, as legislators, are ready to function in their offices, independent of external interference, in the spirit of separation of power. I must say that it’s surprising that the APC, which criticised everything that the PDP did while in control of the Federal Government, is now guilty of the same sins. Where is then the change that APC promised Nigeria? If APC would impose candidates for Senate President and Speaker and ordered its senators and representatives to support the choice, against their will, what’s then the difference between APC and PDP? Yes, if APC will threaten senators and representatives with punishment for votingaccording to their conscience, in the choice of Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives, what is the difference between it and PDP?
Besides, where’s the place of justice, equity and fairness, when APC wanted to have a Senate President (Lawan) from North-East, Deputy Senate President (George Akume) from North-Central and Speaker from South West, in a country that already has a President (Muhammadu Buhari) from North-West and Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo) from South West? In such setting, power is overtly concentrated in North and South West, to the total exclusion of South East and South South. Perhaps, if APC wanted to be fair, it could have zoned Speaker, House of Representatives to South South, where there are ranking representatives, since the South East does not have returning representatives of senators. But the party leaders and godfathers will not have any of this.
They would rather concentrate power in zones that already have a share and give no damn. I find it really funny that the APC is shouting wolf, owing to the rebellion in the National Assembly. This is a political party, made up of elements, which supported the same rebellion in the House of Representatives four years ago. To be sure, members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), who are now part of APC, gave impetus to the anti-Akande movement in the House of Representatives and, therefore, brought Tambuwal to power as Speaker.
Now the APC, having got a taste of its bitter medicine, at a time when PDP members supported Saraki and Dogara to thwart its imposition project, is shouting sabotage and treachery. Perhaps, APC never reckoned that a day like last Tuesday, June 9, 2015 would ever come when justice would be served. Now justice, or is it injustice, has gone round. The bees that stung PDP are now swarming around APC. Reading Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s press statement, expressing the APC frustration about Saraki and Dogara’s victory at the National Assembly makes one to wonder if the party actually thinks that democracy is dictatorship. APC had stated: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as totally unacceptable and the highest level of indiscipline and treachery the conduct of Tuesday’s inauguration of the National Assembly that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara, as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
“Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker. The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives. All National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision.
“The party is superior to that of its individual members. Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration. “APC described a situation in which some people, based on nothing but inordinate ambition and lack of discipline and loyalty, will enter into an unholy alliance with a very same people whom the party and, indeed, the entire county worked hard to replace and sell out the hard won victory of the party.
“There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party. The party vowed to resolve the matter using all constitutional and legal means available to it.” Pray, was Alhaji Mohammad talking for the APC or for a few people in the party, who think that they are the ultimate deciders of what happen, who want things to go their way, in their selfish interest? If this is really the position of APC, then it is rather unfortunate.
APC, which encouraged treachery in PDP in 2011 is now crying over the same measure in its fold. Indeed, wonders will never cease. It is obvious that APC is already going the way of the PDP. What happened to the PDP would definitely happen to it. The APC, party of the progressives, does not want its senators and representatives to make their own choices. The APC, the puritan, wants to sanction people who exercised their franchise in a democracy. The APC is now arrogating to itself the power to decide what its members must do. The APC wants to be the legendry emperor, whose word must be law.
I am waiting for the sanctions APC promised against Saraki, Dogara and others who ensured that its anti-democracy move failed. However, if there is anybody to punish, it’s APC godfathers, who want to determine who gets what in government, as their intention is not in the interest of the country, but selfish. Come to think of it, does the APC want us to take it seriously over the theory that it was right to have called its senators-elect to a meeting on the same day that they were to be inaugurated?
Does the party want us to take it seriously, in its campaign that the Clerk of the National Assembly should have waited for its members to return from their meeting before the inauguration of the Senate? The APC could as well tell the country to stop because it’s asleep. For the avoidance of doubt, Buhari sent a Proclamation mandate, which empowered the clerk to enforce it at 10am. Why should obedience to constituted authority now be an offence? APC does not have any case. To say the least, the APC is like the man who was dancing an his manhood broke (excuse my usage of this adage from my native Item community).
The party has no point whatsoever. And for those who said that the South East lost out because of its pattern of voting in the last general elections, as, according to them, the zone would not occupy the numbers one, two, three, four, five, six to 10 positions in the power echelon, I guess they have learnt a lesson from what happened at the Senate. Senator Ekweremadu, an Igbo in PDP, is the number fifth or sixth man in the hierarchy of power in the country. Some may say it was an accident of history, but I call it the hand of God. It’s only God who decides what happens at any point in time. Human beings can make calculations and projections. But God is the decider.