Presently, the struggle over supremacy in the APC leadership is aptly described as unending cold war, for, there seemed to be no end in sight to the disputes. EZREL TABIOWO narrates the turn of events which inflamed the raging feud between the All Progressive Congress and newly elected Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
The All Progressive Congress, APC, following its failure of ensuring internal party democracy in producing candidates for the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly recently, has found itself engaged in a cold war with the newly elected Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
The determining circumstance which surrounded the emergence of both leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives, was particularly the first acid test for APC, sequel to its emergence as the ruling party during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections.
Having failed in its bid to enthrone its preferred candidates, Senators Ahmad Lawan and George Akume, as both Senate President and Deputy respectively, and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker in the House of Representatives, the All Progressive Congress might face tough times in ensuring executive-legislature synergy under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Recall that the new Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had twice defied the position of the ruling party and rebuffed a couple of attempts at reconciling aggrieved members of the party.
During the climax of the heat leading to the election of the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly on June 9, the All Progressive Congress determined to unite the existing factions among APC senator-elects in the upper chamber, summoned two meetings, one at the instance of the Vice-President, and another by the President.
But the Saraki-led Like Mind group, in a show of outright disregard to the President and Vice-President, called the bluff of the party by shunning the invitations extended for both meetings.
Swaying Senators belonging to the minority Peoples Democratic Party, the Saraki-led Like Minds group, teamed up with the opposition and produced Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy respectively, to lead the 8th senate.
Some leaders within the All Progressive Congress such as former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, called for the disciplinary measures to be meted out on members of both chambers of the National Assembly who engaged in the gang up that produced the leadership of the senate and House of Representatives against the party’s wishes.
Sensing the provocative damages which wielding the big stick might cause, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, opted for another round of reconciliation with the hopes of resolving the dispute among aggrieved members of the party belonging to the Senators of Like Minds and Senate Unity Forum in the upper chamber.
Oyegun had on Monday, June 22, met with Bukola Saraki and Ahmad Lawan to resolve the crisis rocking APC following Saraki’s emergence as Senate President.
Clearly misled into thinking that fences had being mended, Oyegun last week Monday in a letter written and addressed to the senate president, had presented the names of the party’s preferred candidates for the remaining position of Majority leader, Deputy leader, Chief Whip and Deputy, respectively.
The APC National Chairman, John Odigie Oyegun had in the said letter, recommended Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) for the position of Senate President, George Akume (Benue North West) for the position of Deputy Leader of the Senate, Shola Adeyeye (Osun Central) as Chief Whip of the Senate and Abu Ibrahim (Katsina South) as Deputy Chief Whip).
But defying the recommendations of the party Chairman, the Senate President yet again last week failed to acknowledge the letter written by the National Chairman of the party following his refusal to read same during Tuesday’s plenary.
The interpretation and implication of Saraki’s refusal was plainly suggestive as an outright rejection of Oyegun’s request which was subsequently confirmed by events which played out during plenary last Thursday.
The Senate had during plenary, and before adjourning till July 21, 2015, filled out three of the positions without consideration for the earlier request made by Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun.
The three positions announced by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, were that of the Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader and Deputy Whip of the Senate.
Senators Ali Ndume (Borno South), Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Kebbi South) and Francis Alimikhena (Edo North) respectively emerged for the positions through nominations from their various zonal caucuses.
Saraki, who read out letters written to him by the APC senate caucuses from the North East, North West and South South during the commencement of plenary, said the North East Senate caucus had endorsed and nominated Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; North West caucus adopted Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah as the Deputy Leader, while the South South caucus adopted Senator France Alimikhena as the deputy whip.
The Senate President, however, did not announce the candidate who emerged for the position of Chief Whip among the APC south west senators because members of the caucus which should produce a representative, did not write any official letter on grounds that the party’s decision as contained in its letter to the Senate President three days ago was sufficient.
But an aggrieved APC senator, Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) interrupted the Senate President midway into reading the APC’s zonal caucuses letters and announcement of appointments of the three nominated principal officers, with a point of order which was however countered by another raised by the Deputy Senate President, Ike EKweremadu.
The Deputy Senate President who cited order 18, stressed that when the Senate President is speaking, he should be heard in silence by all senators.
However Senator Kabiru Marafa, (Zamfara Central) when eventually allowed to speak, kicked against the appointments of the three principal officers on the grounds that they were not in line with that recommended by the National leadership of the party as contained in the unread letter.
In kicking against the appointments on behalf of himself and some other aggrieved APC senators, Marafa raised two different points of order. The first is order 28 (1) and Constitution point of order 65, (1E).
He argued that order 28(1) states that “There should be a majority leader of the Senate who should be a senator nominated from the party with the highest number of senators, saying this point of order was raised yesterday and another colleague raised another point of order distinguishing between the word, from and by.
He said: That is why I am joining it with order 65 (1d) of the constitution. It says subject to the provisions of section 66 of the constitution. A person shall be qualified for election as a member of the senate if he or she is a member of a political party and sponsored by the political party.
“There is a communication from the APC which is the party with the majority representatives in the senate. However, for reasons best known to you Mr. President, you declined to read it yesterday on the floor of the senate. When your attention was drawn to the communication from the party.
“The constitution provision just cited, clearly put the party ahead of any other caucus from anywhere. Therefore, if the communication from the party, can so be regarded, I suggest that you, Mr. President cannot read any communication from any caucus because there is no caucus that is bigger than the political party.
But another Senator, Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), countered him through another point of order saying, “Senator Marafa raised the same order yesterday and the Senate President ruled that the issue had been discussed and should not be opened again. I don’t know why the issue is being reopened.
“This is contrary to the rules of the Senate. We are the highest law making institution in the country, if we cannot observe our rules, we don’t have rights to be making laws for the country. Therefore I will like Mr. President to stand by the ruling of yesterday that the issue had been settled.
“Secondly, the issue of leadership within the chamber is our own responsibility as senators. We have been sponsored by political parties to come to the senate. Nobody or law says the chairman of the party should apport the Senate President. The law clearly states that we, the senators should appoint our own leaders within the chambers. This is the first time this type of things will be happening in the senate since the return of democracy in 1999. Caucuses have been nominating their leaders and I have been participating.”
The senate president thereafter ruled Marafa out of order using order 53(6) of the senate standing rule.
He said: “Let me refer to order 53 (6) which states that it will be out of order to attempt to reconsider any specific question upon which the senate has come to a conclusion. This matter had already been raised and ruled upon. Also order 25 (3, 8) which talks about interpretation of rules. On this two issues, I will have to rule senator Marafa out of order.
The cold war
In a narrative which confirmed an ongoing feud between the Senate President and the All Progressive Congress, Senator Saraki last Saturday has disclosed that attempts were made to abduct him just so as to prevent his election as President of the 8th Senate.
Speaking on the circumstances that led to his emergence, the Senate President declared that he never got any message to go to the International Conference Centre (ICC) for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on the day as well.
He said: “First of all, as regards the meeting (at ICC), on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4:00 of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get access into the chambers.
“So, as early as 4:00am and 5:00am, I had made contingency plans that I must get into the National Assembly because the plan before was that Senators-elect should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around 8:00clock and 9:00am to proceed to the National Assembly.
“But I was advised that it would not be safe or secure for me to do that because some people made sure…if I didn’t get into the chambers, it would t be possible for me too be nominated, for the nomination to be seconded and for me and to accept the nomination.
“I can tell you today that I was in the National Assembly Complex as early as 6:00 in the morning and I stayed in a car in the Car Park, from 6:00 in the morning till quarter to 10:00am. This is the truth. I stayed there and I was there with no communication whatsoever.
“So, anybody who said they spoke to me to go the ICC was not true because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving the Complex.
“It was at quarter to 10:00 I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly had entered the chamber. So, I got out of the small car I was inside, stretched myself and put on my Babariga because I didn’t have it on before then.
“I walked from the Car Park into the chambers…That was why some of you would have seen that I looked very tired on that morning.
“Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed was that it appeared that some of our Senators were not in the chamber but the fact that my colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that they were on the way and by 10:00am, the programme started.
“Before I knew it, my election had come and gone. Even my people were worried, it was only when I got into the chambers that they were relieved.”
The Senate President also dismissed insinuations that for him to win, he had to enter into a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He reiterated that rather, it was the absence of APC Senators in the chamber that ensured the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy.
His words: “Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some Senators would not be present on the day of the inauguration.
“In my own view, and in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my election, I had direct contact with every single Senator, one on one; weeks leading to the election I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard; both in our party, the APC and out of it.
“I approached every Senator, I talked to them…we built confidence, not only in the APC, but, also, in the PDP. I talked to them. That was why I laugh when people said I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu.
“I didn’t need any deal to win. I had penetrated…There was no deal; I didn’t need any deal in the first place. I had worked hard such that every body who was a Senator, I campaigned hard and canvassed for their votes and won their confidence.
“At one of the meetings held at Transcorp Hilton which Senator Godswill Akpabio co-chaired with Senator Ibrahim Gobir and a few others, which had both APC and PDP members,
“At that meeting, if you heard most of them there, the position they took was that ‘this is the Senate President they want.’
“Across party lines, they day they believe in me and that this is the Senate President that can lead us… there was no deal.
“Sometimes, I wonder how some of our colleagues found themselves at the ICC…If it had been a case of the CNA had made an announcement that the event had been postponed or it was no longer holding, plus, the invitation…I’m sure some are asking now, what really happened?”
He explained further that the support the PDP senators gave to him before , during and even after the election now, should be understood by all watchers of politics, going by the statement they issued even before the inauguration cum election that day, saying “ “First of all, the PDP Senators had announced to the public that they were supporting me without even meeting me because in their own meeting, majority had decided to vote for me.
“
In their own interest, strategically, the decided that, look, this is a fait accompli because 30 of their own Senators were going to vote for this man anyway and the remaining felt it was better to join.
“It wasn’t until 2:00am that they called us to tell us their decision .
With regards to the deputy, when they told us that they had a candidate, we, too, told them we had a candidate for Deputy Senate President in the person of Senator Ali Ndume!
After our own meeting, it was our thinking that it was after the election of the Senate President that the two groups in APC would meet and we would agree on a candidate.
“We never in our imagination thought they would not turn up. By the time we got there, we were only 24 while the PDPwas more than 40.
“In an election, there’s no way they would not have defeated us and that was what happened? And now, when people say it was a deal, I say that if the CNA had started the procedure in the House of Representatives first, and moved to the Senate thereafter, today, we, the APC, would have had a deputy Senate President.”
Saraki noted that: “It is unfortunate that we have a PDP man as deputy Senate President. It is painful. It is painful for any APC member because when we went through the struggle. That was not what we signed for. But it has happened; but it is unfortunate and it is not fair to put the blame on one side because it is a combination of errors and miscalculations that led us to have, in that morning, some Senators at another place instead of being there.
“So, to suggest that it was out of a desperate act to emerge is what I reject completely and those who followed the events would know that I didn’t have that deal to emerge.”
