The Presidential victory of former military Head of State Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the emergence of an APC dominated National Assembly did not come to many Nigerians as a jolt from the blue. Even moderate members of the then ruling but now opposition party; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepared their mind for the eventuality of an APC victory at the March 28th Presidential and National Assembly polls.
Who wouldn’t? With the conglomeration of forces both within and outside Nigeria poised to exit the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by commission or omission, “promises” of parallel government, the drums of war sounding out; backed with sectional threats of a repetition of the pre-civil war pogrom on a particular ethnic group, should the APC loose the elections. Thankfully, with the statesmanlike display of Otueke-born former university don who shamed doomsday prophets by conceding victory to Buhari before the completion of the computation of the results, thereby averting bloodshed and placing Nigeria among the comity of democratic nations.
Loading ...With the swearing-in of President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday on the 29th of May 2015, all eyes have been on the in-coming National Assembly, a theatre that has produced much intrigues, generated discuss, and ultimately showcased the APC as a party that will might go into extinction through an inevitable implosion, as a result of the unpretentious lack of internal democracy within their ranks. A party whose propaganda machinery and grip on a biased media have played the ostrich in hiding their disdain for intra-Party democratic tenets, through its in depth practice of cult figure and godfather centred politics; something they have always accused the exiting PDP of.
It is no longer news that as the 8th National Assembly get set to be inaugurated on Tuesday 9th June 2015, all is certainly not well within the party that will constitute the majority in both chambers of Nigeria’s Capitol Hills. This is owned to the naked ambition of some of their leaders who are bent on hoisting on Nigerians, a legislature that will be remote-controlled from the cosy living room of some power-drunk megalomaniac who sees themselves as Fuehrers of the CHANGE cosmology. In a contest where even the constitutionally all-powerful Nigerian President and former military helmsman Muhammadu Buhari has “publicly” declared that he is not interested on who emerges the principal officers in both chambers of the legislature; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State Governor and undisputed national leader of the APC have decided to wrestle the democratic forces of the 8th Assembly through his inordinate scheme of instituting his stooges (Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila) as Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives respectively. An ambition which without doubt has set the APC house on the path of irreconcilable collision, as the true progressives within the APC and the new but formidable opposition, PDP are posed to give Nigerians officers that will be truly the people’s choices come the 8th Assembly.
Interestingly, the Tinubu arrogance as most Nigerians will like to term it, is on a futile collision course with a formidable team steered by the no-nonsense former Kwara State Governor and the most enigmatic Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum; Two Term Senator and cerebral bridge-builder Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, a scion of the indomitable Saraki Dynasty which has its roots in the first Republic Nigerian politics. Without doubt, Saraki, a principled and well cultured politician who sees equity and fair play as a hallmark of modern day Nigeria, ( Remember, he wrestled his father Oloye Abubakar Olusola Saraki to make Kwara a republic by denying his sister Gbemi the governorship in place of the incumbent governor Abdul Fatah Ahmed); An icon of stability, who throughout his stay at the helm of affairs as the Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum worked harmoniously with the Presidency on issues of development. However, his greatest asset remains his ability to cultivate and maintain friendship across all strata of the Nigeria’ socio-political divide. ABS, as Saraki is known remains one single politician, who though left the PDP as a result of the injustice meted out to him and some of his colleagues, have refused to mount the rostrum to pour venom on the on the former ruling party or the dramatis personae that orchestrated their exit, neither has he exhibited any form of arrogance in being one of the strong components that shoved the PDP out of power and brought to an end fifteen years of the Umbrella dominance in the Nigerian political firmament. The most interesting part of the ABS candidacy, is the inability of his opponents to pin him to the sponsorship of any godfather, a trait which Nigerian need at this time in our polity.
Senator. Ahmad Lawal on the other hand, came to the fore through the arrogant publicity thrust of Senator. Remi Tinubu at the first gathering of legislators-elect where she made it clear that Asiwaju have withdrawn his support from Sen. George Akume (whom they judged a feather weight in a contest with Saraki) and is now backing the five-time senator. This was followed by a mirage of media blackmail on the personality of Saraki; while they tried inciting the North to deny him for not being a core Northerner; they were drumming it in the South-West that he is an Hausa located in the North-Central geo-political zone.
However for those who know Senator Ahmad Lawan, a temperamental personality. His trump for the post is his longevity in the Red Chambers. Not the quality of debates and or discuss he has generated, but for his ability to find his way back to the chambers after every election since 1999. Lawan’s inability to cultivate friendship and build bridges is one area that that will strongly militate against his chances, coupled with the political marriage he has entered into with a clique whose fortunes are set for a nose-dive in the emerging Nigerian political calculations. The charade called APC Senate Presidency Primaries notwithstanding.
For Mr. Femi Gbajabiamilla; a legislator who has not been able to clear the toga of criminal conspiracy and breach of the trust hanging on him in the United States of America, being a very visible stooge and fierce loyalist of the Tinubu clan posits him for imminent failure, as Nigerians are not ready to witness the emergence of political leviathan who has positioned the Vice President and wants to dictate what happens in the National Assembly also; the fact that Gbajabiamila and the incumbent Vice President Prof. Yomi Osibanjo are both from Lagos state raises the moral question of the spirit of fairness within the ranks of the APC in the South-West. Sadly for Gbajabiamila, there are insinuations that some members-elect from that region are set to clip the wings of Asiwaju by voting against his wish. Thank God it is a secret ballot.
For the APC, they are beginning to show their lack of capacity to handle big things, while exhibiting their ineptitude in political history, an act that might lead to its loss of focus and possible disintegration. Bearing in mind that it was the meddlesomeness of some non legislative interlopers led by former President Obasanjo that led to the emergence of a Tambuwal Speakership; a situation which the then ACN capitalised on to set the PDP house on the path of disintegration on through its romance with the “renegades”.
Talking about justice, fairness, and equity. Traits which the new ruling party have always accused the PDP of lacking, they have shown the absence same in their lexicon. Of the four and half groups that came together to form the APC, THE CPC have produced the President, , ACN the Vice-President , ANPP the National Chairman of the Party, while the NEW-PDP and the renegade APGA elements are still left without any visible office. Yet the LION is ROARING to cart away with the portion of the LAMB. This the legislators of the 8th National Assembly; men of Honour and undoubted integrity on whose shoulder lies the future of our great nation must rise up and say NO! to, this perfidy must not stand. THIS LION MUSTBE TAMED!
Odozi Nwodozi
A Journalist and Public Affairs Commentator, writes from Abuja.
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