Omoniyi Salaudeen
Learning from the last experience, the leadership of the 9th National Assembly should ordinarily evolve without much ado. This is more so as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has the majority control of the two chambers.
But surprisingly, interested forces are seriously contesting the consensus arrangement mulled by the party leadership. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had zeroed in on Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon Femi Gbajabiamila as the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
This has, however, raised some dust within the fold, which is an indication that some members-elect are not on the same page with the party.
Those who have grouse against the consensus arrangement are doing so against the background of the seeming imposition and lack of fair play. Senator Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje are the two leading rival contenders to Lawan’s candidacy. By the zoning arrangement agreed to by the party, the position of Senate President is an exclusive preserve of the Northeast. And coincidentally, all of these contending candidates are from the zone, so they have equal rights to aspire to the coveted seat. But the power brokers do not appear to be so much favourably disposed to any other aspirant other than Lawan.
The opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) on the other hand, not ready to play the second fiddle in the unfolding power game, is thus poised to play the old trick. Speculation is now rife that the party’s caucus in the Senate is already scheming to pitch tent with Goje against Lawan. Even at that, the APC’s spokesman, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, insisted that Lawan candidacy is a done deal. At a recent press conference in Abuja, he said: “If election to select the principal officers of the National Assembly would hold, it would only be mere formalities.” He further reinforced the earlier declaration by the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, that the ruling party would not share any position in the National Assembly with members of the PDP.
His words: “In a presidential system of government, it is winner takes all. There is no room for power sharing with PDP. The news on whether the party has settled for Lawan has been out. There was an interaction with the senators-elect, with the president, governors, leaders of the party and NWC members where it was presented to the stakeholders that the ruling party has decided on who will be the next Senate President according to what the democratic rule says and the person’s name is Senator Ahmed Lawan.
“We don’t need them to head any committee where they are going to compromise on the promises we have made to Nigerians. Nigerians cannot give us a mandate to take part of it and hand it over to the people they have rejected.”
This is a quick reminder of the last experience that led to the sudden emergence of Saraki as Senate President against the wish of the APC, the platform on which he was elected. The National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his recent tirade, berated the Saraki-led leadership for constituting itself as a cog in the wheel of progress of the Buhari administration.
He said: “The Senate leadership, and to a lesser degree the House leadership, stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious, reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation.
“National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them.
“Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefitted the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly.”
Already, there is speculation that President Muhammadu Buhari might wade into the matter to avoid the pitfall of the past. That is yet to be seen.
Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan was born in 1959. He received a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of Maiduguri, a Master’s degree in Remote Sensing from Ahmadu Bello University and a doctorate degree in Remote Sensing/GIS from Cranfield University, UK.
He was elected to the House of Representatives for the northern state of Yobe in 1999, where he chaired the House Committees on Education and Agriculture.
He was elected to the Senate in 2007. In 2008, he was a member of the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Constitution Review.
In 2011, Lawan ran for re-election in Yobe North Senatorial District on the ANPP and won. In 2015, he was primed for the plum job, but Saraki outsmarted the party to emerge the Senate President.