By Augustine Adah – Lagos
In a bid to ensure a rancour-free Eighth National Assembly, the new Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has extended the olive branch to senators opposed to his emergence and the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC). Saraki was elected by 57 out of 108 senators on Tuesday, June 9, when majority of APC senators were at the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja waiting for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the party.
But before they returned to the National Assembly, Like Minds senators loyal to Saraki, in connivance with PDP senators had elected him as President of the Senate. He was elected unopposed. But the decision did not go down well with the leadership of the party which described the action as gross indiscipline on the part of Saraki, with Dogara who was also elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. The party swore that the affected members would face the party disciplinary action. But the party made a u-turn on Friday when the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said that the party had no option but to accept the election of Saraki and Dogara and live with the reality.
The decision of the party to soft-pedal on the matter could be attributed to the case of former Speaker of the House of Representatives who defied his party’s arrangement and became the Speaker through the support of ACN members in the House of Representatives. Consequently, PDP sidelined Tambuwal on many occasions until he defected to APC with his supporters. It appears the APC was careful and did not want such experience in the party.
“When Tambuwal emerged against PDP’s will, instead of finding a way to manage it, they alienated him until he left them with a lot of his colleagues to join us (APC). We will not allow this to happen to us,” a party source said.
According to a senator loyal to the new Senate President, Rafiu Ibrahim, the move by Saraki became necessary to ensure a rancour-free National Assembly.
He said: “We are currently meeting with our colleagues in the Senate. Apart from the fact that the Senate President has been meeting with those who are aggrieved, we, members of the Like Minds senators, are also engaging them on one-on-one basis.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“We are also meeting with our party leadership and I think the peace moves are achieving good result. It is in the interest of everybody that we have a united Senate.”
Some members of the Senate Unity Forum, who are loyalists of Senator (Ahmed) Lawan, also confirmed that Saraki and some of his supporters were making overtures to them. Nigerians have described the action of Saraki as a good omen for the polity and peace of the Eighth National Assembly. The party source also revealed that as part of efforts to further douse tension, Saraki and Dogara would be prevailed upon not to sideline their defeated colleagues. Towards this end, they are expected to concede the chairmanship of some of choice committees in both the Senate and the House to members of the other camps.
The National Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Comrade Tanko Yusuf, who commended Saraki for the decision to extend the olive branch to the aggrieved senators, described him as an astute politician that knows his onion, who must do everything necessary to carry his colleagues along in the scheme of things. Yusuf said that what Nigerians need at the moment is leading the country in a right direction so that the country can witness development. Tanko believed that the National Assembly under Saraki would witness robust leadership that would translate into effective legislation. He also stated that Saraki may also concede some key position to aggrieved senators so as to ensure peace in the Senate.
Also, the Delta State Chairman of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Mamuzo Gabriel (JP), said he believed that the election of Saraki as Senate President would bring a positive change to the legislative arm of government in the country. “The election of Saraki would bring a positive change to the development of the country especially in making laws that will bring development to the country,” he said.
He commended the new initiative to placate the aggrieved members which would go a long way to bring a harmonious relationship among members of the upper chamber. According Gabriel, Nigeria would benefit from the emergence of Saraki as Senate President and Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President because their election which was not tied to godfathers would give them the required opportunity to offer their best service to the country.
However, Shehu Sani, a senator representing Kaduna Central, is not impressed with the present development at the National Assembly. He decried the existence of several groups in the Senate and urged his colleagues to put the interest of the country above personal one.
“The tradition or convention of permitting the legislature to set up cluster groups in the National Assembly, with all sorts of appellations and goals, sows the seed of the pursuit of narrow interests above national interest.
“Such groups operate with divisive and inimical tendencies of either a cult or a mafia gang. In this circumstance, elected legislators with a sworn mandate to uphold nothing but the constitution and the state are entangled by a competing and, at times, conflicting agenda of allegiance or loyalty to such groups.” he said.
The human rights activist cum politician said that the party was struggling to accommodate divergent interests but maintained that the APC would overcome its challenges.
“The APC will overcome its post-election internal rift and will emerge stronger. The termites and the bugs that find abode in the cracks will at the end be squeezed out. Every revolution staggers in its early days. The challenge before the leaders of change is how to walk the landmines and disentangle the web without crashing the revolution.
“We have defeated a common enemy and are now facing the contradiction of divergent internal interest. The spirit that led us to the mountain top to hoist our flag will keep the same flag flying.”