President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that Nigeria will continue to support all efforts aimed at the peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict even as. Said that Nigeria had recognized the State of Palestine 31 years ago Speaking at an audience with the outgoing Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Montaser Abuzaid, President Buhari reaffirmed Nigeria’s support for the Palestinian cause, saying that his administration will maintain and strengthen bilateral ties with Palestine. The President wished the outgoing ambassador well in his future assignments. Abuzaid extended the goodwill of Palestinian President, Mahmud Abbas to Nigeria and congratulated President Buhari on his assumption of office after a peaceful transition. He appealed for more support from the Nigerian government for Palestinian companies interested in doing business in Nigeria, particularly in the areas of construction and provision of critical infrastructure. [myad]
A none governmental organization known as Niger Delta Development Watch (NDDW) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to investigate the financial activities and transactions of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) since inception.
The group, through its Coordinator, Joseph Ebelo, said the investigation has become necessary in order to track the over N5 trillion that has been expended on the Niger Delta region through the NDDC without commensurate infrastructure development on ground to show for the humongous expenditure.
According to the group: “NDDC was an interventionist agency created by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 1999 to cushion and alleviate poverty in the Niger Delta region, but instead, the Commission has not improved the economic and social wellbeing of the down-trodden people of the region.”
The group said that a member of the House of Representatives, Hon Nicholas Mutu (an Ijaw from Delta state), who has been chairing the Committee on NDDC since 1999, should be held responsible for alleged misappropriation of funds budgeted annually by successive administrations, because of his complicity in many of the deals as well as failure of oversight.
It alleged that Mutu has been colluding with some top officials of the NDDC and contractors to defraud the Commission of tax-payers’ money in the award of contracts that were never executed.
The group referred to the multi-billion naira Nworie River Dredging contract, among others, which was never executed while payments were made to Roudo Nigeria Limited owned by Chief Tony Chukwu, who was said to have been awarded a contract before the 2015 general election by the NDCC to supply 50 Toyota Prado Jeeps. He allegedly failed to also execute the contract.
A former Imo State governor (Ikedi Ohakim), the group alleged, was also involved in the bogus Nworie River Dredging contract.
According to the group, “So much money has been siphoned from the NDDC coffers through contractors and many other phony deals through the instrumentality of the Hon Nichola Mutu-led Committee on NDDC in the House of Representatives.
“The buck stops at his table as the Chairman of the NDDC Committee since 1999. Rather than ensure proper oversight of the activities of the NDDC in order to accelerate infrastructure development of the region through judicious use of funds, he has promoted his pecuniary interests over and above the collective interest of the region.”
The group said Hon Mutu, who has won re-election into the 8th National Assembly, must be called to account, threatening that that it would not sit idly and watch him perpetuate himself as live chairman of the NDDC Committee in the House of Representatives only for his personal aggrandisement.
“If the hard stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration against corruption will hold sway, matters like this one which has denied the oil-rich region of the Niger Delta its right to rapid development, should be quickly dealt with through a comprehensive probe of the financial activities of the Commission since it was established.
“We therefore call on the security and anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and the ICPC to swing into action of investigating those who are involved in the alleged looting and financial misappropriation in the NDDC since its inception, including a certain Deputy Director (Projects) from Delta state, who is fingered in the sale of contract papers to highest bidders and putting up documents for payment for contractors in whom he has vested interests,” the group said. [myad]
The Permanent Secretary in the federal ministry of defence, Alhaji Suleiam Aliyu Numan has described how President Muhammadu Buhari updated and enriched the strategic plan of the Nigeria military leadership on the way to bring the activities of Boko Haram to an end in a shortest possible time.
Numan who answered reporters’ questions shortly after the President ended a meeting with service chiefs at the Presidential Villa today remarked: “Nigerian armed forces are very ready. We briefed him (President Buhari), but one most interesting thing about it is that we are going out much happier because he has shown to us he is still a soldier.
“He has updated and enriched our strategic plan and we are happy. “We briefed him on how far we have reached on that; on that one again he has given us some additional assignments but very soon the centre will be on. I want to assure Nigerians that with what we have come out from this meeting, we are very enthusiastic that the issue of Boko Haram will soon be over. “I as a permanent secretary, also feel like going to fight the war because he has given us hope and we have seen peace and security in the very near future.” The permanent Secretary also said that the Joint Multi National Task Force on Boko Haram had restrategised to combat terrorism in the sub region, adding: “now, we have come as a united front. We have Chad, we have Cameroon; we have Benin; we have Niger. We have all restrategised and coming out with one strategy that we are going to use to address Boko Haram, unlike before.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has bemoaned the kind of Nigeria he inherited from the government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, describing the situation Nigeria faced up to May 29 as ‘disgraceful.’
The President, who had a meeting with members of the State House Press Corps, comprising senior journalists and editors covering the activities of the presidency, said that a nation that fails to pay its workers should cover its face in shame.
“At least, workers should be able to enjoy the fruit of their labour at the end of every month. But, what we inherited were empty treasury, huge debts, collapsed infrastructures, including none availability of power as well as many states, as well as some sections of the federal ministries not able to pay their workers’ salaries for several months.”
President Buhari, who later took time off to have a hand-shake with each journalist, appealed to them to cooperate with him in the onerous efforts at fixing the numerous problems facing the country.
He admitted that as a uniform Head of State he had a rough relationship with the media, saying however, that as a born-again democrat, he is ready to work in harmony with journalists for the purpose of collectively uplifting the economic, social and political status of Nigeria.
Buhari broke record of being the first President in a long time to have such a hearty meeting with the State House Press Corps, especially on his first day of resuming work as President of the country from Aso Rock. He has been operating from the Defence House since he was inaugurated on May 29. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate dismantling of security check points mounted by soldiers on major high ways and other selected points across the country. The President has also given the security operatives a short possible time to move quickly and finish the job of eliminating Boko Haram from the country, in conjunction with the military personnel from the neighbouring countries. Speaking to newsmen shortly after hours of meeting with service chiefs in the Aso Presidential Villa today, the Permanent Secretary in the federal ministry of defence, Alhaji Suleiam Aliyu Numan said that President Buhari ordered the chief of defence staff to immediately remove all the military check points across the country. He did not give reason why the President gave such directive, even as he said that from the way the President is determined, it is clear that the issue of Boko Haram would soon be put behind us. [myad]
A junior staff in the Presidential Villa, whose name was not immediately known, had the privilege of leading President Muhammadu Buhari in the late noon Muslim prayer today. The President, who emerged from a marathon meeting with service chiefs, walked into the Mosque shortly after the Imam had completed the prayer with many Muslims in rows. However, Buhari quickly joined a few of those who arrived late and formed yet another row. The prayer was led by a junior staff who did not even know that President Buhari was behind him. [myad]
The change Nigerians yearned, even fought for, eventually came as an omelet on the breakfast table – the Senate Presidency. To the surprise, even embarrassment of many, President Buhari and the APC made a mess of eating it. Buhari said he has nothing to do with it. I think that was the most naïve thing for an elected President to say. Buhari has been struggling these past thirteen years to be President of Nigeria. Was he doing it for a ceremony? Nigerians voted for him because he said and they saw that things were going wrong. He wanted change and Nigerians supported him because they felt he possessed the capacity to change things. Can Buhari change things without legislative support? Certainly, no President under our current constitutional arrangement can do that. How then can he pretend not to be interested in what is going on in the senate? The statement that he is not interested in the power tussle and will work with anybody elected to lead the legislature was the most reckless and ill informed thing to say. What if the Senators are planning to impeach him? Will he say what is going on there is not his problem and he cannot interfere with it? Faced with a similar, even worse scenario, Shehu Shagari, the taciturn President elect in 1979 did not say anything. He moved. Awolowo, his arch political foe was already on the move. At the conclusion of the elections, Shagari’s party the NPN was in serious dilemma. He was President elect by mathematical interpretation – 12 2/3. His party had 36 Senators. The UPN had 28, the NPP 16, GNPP 8, PRP 7. After he lost at the Supreme Court, an angry Awolowo was mobilizing the other parties to cripple Shagari’s government using the legislature. If all the other parties came together, his government would be still born. Shagari quickened his steps. That was how the NPN/NPP accord came up. The NPP demanded a pond of flesh. First they wanted the Vice Presidency. Shagari refused to dump Ekwueme so they came down to Senate. Shagari refused to allow an opposition party to take control of the Legislature. They settled for the House Speaker. The struggle for Senate Presidency returned to an NPN thing. Joseph Tarka wanted it – had been promised it by Shagari after he lost the Presidential primaries. But after the elections, Shagari, the astute politician took a look at the figures and decided to reward the southern minorities in place of his friend Tarka. He broke his promise and turned his support for Joseph Wayas. He did it nicely and Tarka was in complete agreement with him. Alhaji Ishaku Ibrahim, the political strategist from Nassarawa State owes Nigerians an explanation as to how at Shagari’s behest he got Tarka to support Wayas. At the negotiations with the NPP Shagari was on top. He told the NPN delegates what to concede and what to hold tightly. He did not call a press conference to give an account of what he was doing. He did not call a press conference to disclaim what he was not doing. He simply moved fast – stealthily. If Buhari messed up the situation in the Senate, his party, the APC did worse. The normal thing in a democracy – parliamentary or presidential – is that when a party graduates from minority status to majority status, the minority leader is promoted. In our own case Senator George Akume who was minority leader ought to have been given a lift to the status of Senate President. In the same vein, Hon Gbajambila, the minority leader of the House of Representatives deserved elevation to the status of Speaker. For some strange reasons, the APC could not uphold this simple democratic convention. The party fumbled and bungled; it could not stand on principle to support Akume’s claim to Senate Presidency. Another collateral blunder was the mumbo jumbo pronounced by its founding National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; ‘the APC was not going to embark on zoning because it was invented by PDP’. Could a man, so high up tell such a bare faced lie? The NPN started zoning, way back in 1978. The PDP copied it in 1999. The APC also copied it in 2014. At the APC presidential primaries last year, the party had four aspirants viz Buhari, Atiku, Kwankwaso and Isaiah – all of them were northerners. Was this not zoning? In the search for a Vice Presidential candidate to run with Buhari, the party went for a suitable southerner, a Christian. The party fished out a Pastor from a big Church with marital connections with the Awolowo family and made sure Buhari posed for a picture with Pastor Adeboye, the head of Osinbanjo’s Church. Why didn’t Buhari pick Kwankwaso, Atiku or even Nda Isaiah who is a Christian? Is it not because all of them are northerners? Which APC is Akande telling us does not believe in zoning? In 1978, Chief Awolowo made the tragic political miscalculation of picking Philip Umeadi a southern Christian as his running mate in the presidential race of 1979. The result was that his party was boxed into a tribal cocoon. In 1983, he did better by coming to Bauchi to pick a northern Muslim. If the great sage was taught a lesson in zoning, who is Akande to tell us that the policy is anachronistic and unprogressive? With its present architecture, the Buhari government badly needs a northern Christian to lead one of its third arms. Senator Akume fitted the bill. I have said so before on this page. Why did Buhari and the APC shy away from giving him the chance? Nigeria needs a strong leader with a capacity to hold us together and a strong party to act as a vehicle of national and rational mobilization. Nigerians thought they had both in the Buhari/ APC tally. But at the first test, they messed everything up. They handed the stage over to Yeriman Bakura, the man with the Taliban like beard. In the year 1999 he set this country on the slippery road to religious war by declaring Sharia as State law in his Zamfara state. He, it was who prepared the ground for some misguided young men to believe that theocracy is possible in Nigeria. The roots of Boko Haram are not too deep. On the 9th of June, he raised a motion in the Senate which is bound to frustrate the change Nigerians voted for. [myad]
Some have described what happened in the National Assembly on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, with the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, as the demystification of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by some of the elements who once worshipped and adored him. They called him the emancipator of Nigeria from the clutches of ultra-conservative hegemonists who had, in the noxious garb of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), maintained a vicious grip on the polity since 1999. The easily irritating, yet vociferous voice of Dino Melaye (now senator representing Kogi West) as he chanted the praise of Tinubu: “the Jagaban of Africa” in his capacity as MC on a number of APC occasions televised live, keeps ricocheting in my ears. It is unbelievable that it is the same man, acclaimed as their leader, the promoter of “common sense revolution” that dislodged PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan from power, who has been undercut and worsted by bi-partisan political intrigues and subterfuge, orchestrated by Melaye’s group of Like-minds Senators, which promoted and supported Saraki’s senate presidency. The group had been commonsensical (more than Tinubu) in its bid to clinch the plum position. Members of the group had proved to be good students of our recent history, wonderful emulators of the ways of the Jagaban himself. It was in 2011 that Tinubu deployed his strategy of disrupting the PDP zoning plan in the House of Representatives that would have produced Mulikat Akande Adeola from the southwest zone as speaker. Tinubu had lined all Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) legislators in the House to support the candidature of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from the northwest as speaker in defiance of the PDP decision. Tambuwal won along with Emeka Ihedioha as deputy speaker. The rest is now history. Tinubu succeeded in planting the seed, nay wind of treachery, watered and nurtured by disloyalty and disdain for party discipline in the House of Representatives, just four years ago. He did not care about anything as long as his interest was not threatened or injured. He was propelled by selfish agenda to bolster his political and pecuniary interests after the decimation of the PDP and dislodgement of Jonathan. That seed rapidly geminated and was ripe for harvest on June 9, this year; and as fate would have it, Tinubu was primed to become the greatest beneficiary of the whirlwind that was produced as typified by the defeat of his candidates, nay the APC decisions, in the race for the positions of presiding officers in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senator Ahmad Lawan was the party’s choice for the senate presidency while Femi Gbajabiamila was the choice for speakership. Both had emerged at different straw polls conducted by the party prelude to the inauguration of the National Assembly. The APC had even gone as far as choosing through the straw polls George Akume (Benue State) as deputy senate president and Tahir Mongunu (Borno State) as deputy speaker. Both Saraki and Dogara boycotted the processes. They had their own counter-plans, with their eyes fixed on the PDP legislators to produce some jokers. In the senate, the number is quite significant for the PDP which has 49 of the 109 Senators. The APC has 59 (one of its members had died shortly before inauguration). In the House of Representatives, out of the 360 members, the APC has 210 (minus one that died shortly before inauguration) as against the PDP’s 150 members; the stakes were quite high. Saraki and Dogara decided to reenact Tinubu’s sordid stratagem in 2011 by shunning their party decision and reaching out to the PDP lawmakers for strategic alliance in the Senate and solid support in the House of Representatives. The PDP was game. The leadership asked Saraki what was in the alliance for the party. Apparently determined to rubbish any obstacle on his way to the senate presidency, he readily accepted the proposal by the PDP to cede the deputy senate president to it (PDP). What that meant was a solid PDP bloc vote for him. That left the APC in disarray. The APC knew that with the number of senators behind him, there was no way it could stop him; which was why he (Saraki) spurned all entreaties and invitations for meetings with leaders of APC. Gloatingly, the PDP sealed the deal with Saraki, who was once in its fold. The party did not also hesitate to perfect the Dogara deal in the House. Dogara was, also, once upon a time, in the PDP. He, in fact, belonged to the Adamu Mu’azu faction of the PDP in Bauchi state. While the PDP settled for the deputy senate president, it allowed Dogara to pick a deputy speaker from APC and from any state in the southwest, provided that the candidate was not a stooge of Tinubu. In a way, the PDP was mindful of geo-political zone balancing in its counter plots to the APC’s plot. Indeed, the APC, according to some PDP leaders, got it wrong with the coupling of Lawan-Akume ticket, both of them coming from the north. Saraki, on that score, outwitted them by settling for an alliance with a southeast senator of the PDP in the person of Ike Ekweremadu, which effectively took care of the south in the arrangement. And for Dogara, his being a Christian from Bauchi combined pretty well with the choice of Lasun Yusuf, a Muslim, from Osun state. Dogara’s religious background also balances out the Muslim religious background of President Muhammadu Buhari (executive head) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed (head of the Judiciary) and Saraki (Head of the Legislature). Had Gbajabiamila emerged as speaker, all the heads of arms of government plus the speaker would have been Muslims. Unfortunately, the APC leadership had ignored the concerns expressed by some Nigerians that their choices showed insensitivity to another religion. Back to the man-Tinubu-who, in 2011,sowed the wind of treachery, nurtured by the water of disloyalty and indiscipline to party supremacy in the election of National Assembly leadership. It was learnt that he tried his best possible to avert the tragedy that befell him and his party. He actually put last minutes call to some PDP leaders to see how they could be of help to his interest. One of them reportedly told him that there was no way the Lawan-Akume ticket would be acceptable to the South. True, there is no way, according to top insiders in the PDP who were privy to the Saraki-Ekweremadu deal, the Lawan-Akume ticket would be overlooked for any other promise. Tinubu was said to have promised that there would be adjustment after the National Assembly inauguration, but he was advised to make the adjustment before the inauguration. His reach-out to the PDP was on the eve of the inauguration, which was pretty late to effect any adjustment. And, the Jagaban could not do anything to save his subsequent humiliation and demystification. All the theatrics that went into the mix have become history. Tinubu, wherever he may be today, must be ruing his defeat. If the loss in the senate was monumental, a Gbajabiamila victory in the House would have mitigated, to some extent, his loss of the senate presidency. But with the defeat of Gbajabiamila, his political son from Lagos, Tinubu can be safely said to have almost suffered a collateral damage. His saving grace is that he had already produced a candidate for the vice presidential slot in the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Regardless, the Jagaban has been swept up in the whirlwind of politicking in the National Assembly, where it matters most in a democracy. His imprimatur is missing in the Legislature. Perhaps, if he had succeeded in installing his candidates in the National Assembly, he might have been in a pole position pile subtle pressure on some power centres in furtherance of some selfish agenda and demands put together in the confines of his Bourdilon home in Lagos. Meanwhile, I am waiting to see how Asiwaju would be able to recover from this set-back and forcefully reinvent himself between now and 2019, especially now that Saraki has grabbed the senate presidency, which he (Tinubu) had wanted to frustrate in order to ensure that the Ilorin-born politician’s presidential aspiration in 2019 is not bolstered. If Saraki is able to keep his seat, it will certainly be salutary to whatever his aspiration is for 2019. Gbam!
Ojeifo is Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine in Abuja. [myad]
About three weeks after his inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally moved into the presidential Villa. The President had been operating and performing official duties from the Defence House in Maitama area of Abuja since he was declared President-elect in the March 28 Presidential election. Buhari continued to perform his official duty at the Defence House after he was sworn in as President on May 29. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu confirmed today that Buhari has moved to the Presidential Villa. Shehu had earlier in a statement issued on June 9, said there was no truth in the rumours that Buhari refused to move into the Presidential Villa because of purported advice from Senegalese spiritualists. [myad]
Former Nigeria Vice President and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar has vehemently denounced the increasing determination by some people whom he referred to as hatchet men within APC to draw a wedge between President Buhari and himself. His media chief, Mazi Paul Ibe quoted Atiku in a statement today as saying: “it has become crystal clear even to the blind that the motives of these hatchet men who are desperate to take every available newspaper space is to insult, vilify and calumniate me with the President. “We cannot allow liars, denigrators and blackmailers and their sponsors to use me as platform to ingratiate themselves with President Buhari and hijack his presidency under the pretext of loving him more than anyone else. These political ventriloquists are hiding behind the cover of anonymity to achieve their sinister agenda of making me the fall guy in the unfolding political developments.” The former Vice President’s statement was made against the backdrop of developments in the polity, which he notes are interplay of forces and interests that are dynamic, which he said must not be promoted to the point of being a threat to our democracy and the new administration. He acknowledged that it is legitimate and desirable for individuals or groups to seek to pursue their interest, but that it must be done with the benefit of sustaining our democracy and promoting equity, fair play and justice in mind. “Anything to the contrary may jeopardise our hard-earned democracy and constitute a clog in the wheel of the new administration.” Atiku made it clear that it is dangerous for any individual or group in the ranks of the ruling party to constitute themselves into an opposition even before the constitution and take off President Buhari’s government. According to him, because of the historic nature of the mandate of President Buhari and the arduous challenges ahead to deliver on making Nigeria work for all Nigerians, it is important, especially for members of his own party, to rally behind him in the quest to enthrone good governance, that will bring about security and stability, economic and social development, job creation, infrastructure renewal and above all a better life for Nigerians. The former Vice President call on the members of APC to emulate the unity of all the presidential contestants after the party’s Lagos primaries and support the President to form his government and get to work. Atiku exonerated himself from the purported hijack of the party and the National Assembly towards 2019, saying that it is figment of the imagination of those promoting it and asked Nigerians to ignore all such insinuation. He said that the recent outcomes of the National Assembly election, contrary to insinuations, are products of interplay of politics which is itself in constant motion. “In politics, it is a mistake to expect fixed outcomes. As the President has done, let’s all come to terms with what has happened in the interest of the system and move on. “Suffice it to say that the new administration should be allowed a smooth take off and be allowed the atmosphere to deliver. On this, I stand with President Buhari.” Atiku, who is the Turaki Adamawa restated his unalloyed commitment to the Buhari administration and pledged to back this commitment with all of the assets at his disposal. “Not only did Atiku Abubakar congratulate Buhari after his emergence as the presidential candidate of the APC at the party’s national convention in Lagos, he also handed over his best assets to the Buhari Presidential Campaign. The former Vice President enthusiastically handled the diplomatic assignment of seeking endorsement for Dr. Adesina as the President of the African Development Bank on behalf of President Buhari and would be available for any other assignments as the President pleases. “Make no mistake about it, Atiku Abubakar holds Buhari in the highest esteem, and would always remain loyal to him, and support him in every endeavour to succeed as president.” The APC chieftain called on Nigerians with members of the President’s own party to take the lead in giving their undiluted support to Buhari administration. “We, the members of the President’s own family need to lead in this direction for others to follow for the good of our nation and its peoples.” [myad]
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National Assembly Leadership: A Harvest Of Whirlwind, By Sufuyan Ojeifo
Some have described what happened in the National Assembly on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, with the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, as the demystification of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by some of the elements who once worshipped and adored him. They called him the emancipator of Nigeria from the clutches of ultra-conservative hegemonists who had, in the noxious garb of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), maintained a vicious grip on the polity since 1999.
The easily irritating, yet vociferous voice of Dino Melaye (now senator representing Kogi West) as he chanted the praise of Tinubu: “the Jagaban of Africa” in his capacity as MC on a number of APC occasions televised live, keeps ricocheting in my ears. It is unbelievable that it is the same man, acclaimed as their leader, the promoter of “common sense revolution” that dislodged PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan from power, who has been undercut and worsted by bi-partisan political intrigues and subterfuge, orchestrated by Melaye’s group of Like-minds Senators, which promoted and supported Saraki’s senate presidency.
The group had been commonsensical (more than Tinubu) in its bid to clinch the plum position. Members of the group had proved to be good students of our recent history, wonderful emulators of the ways of the Jagaban himself. It was in 2011 that Tinubu deployed his strategy of disrupting the PDP zoning plan in the House of Representatives that would have produced Mulikat Akande Adeola from the southwest zone as speaker. Tinubu had lined all Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) legislators in the House to support the candidature of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from the northwest as speaker in defiance of the PDP decision. Tambuwal won along with Emeka Ihedioha as deputy speaker. The rest is now history.
Tinubu succeeded in planting the seed, nay wind of treachery, watered and nurtured by disloyalty and disdain for party discipline in the House of Representatives, just four years ago. He did not care about anything as long as his interest was not threatened or injured. He was propelled by selfish agenda to bolster his political and pecuniary interests after the decimation of the PDP and dislodgement of Jonathan. That seed rapidly geminated and was ripe for harvest on June 9, this year; and as fate would have it, Tinubu was primed to become the greatest beneficiary of the whirlwind that was produced as typified by the defeat of his candidates, nay the APC decisions, in the race for the positions of presiding officers in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Senator Ahmad Lawan was the party’s choice for the senate presidency while Femi Gbajabiamila was the choice for speakership. Both had emerged at different straw polls conducted by the party prelude to the inauguration of the National Assembly. The APC had even gone as far as choosing through the straw polls George Akume (Benue State) as deputy senate president and Tahir Mongunu (Borno State) as deputy speaker. Both Saraki and Dogara boycotted the processes. They had their own counter-plans, with their eyes fixed on the PDP legislators to produce some jokers. In the senate, the number is quite significant for the PDP which has 49 of the 109 Senators. The APC has 59 (one of its members had died shortly before inauguration). In the House of Representatives, out of the 360 members, the APC has 210 (minus one that died shortly before inauguration) as against the PDP’s 150 members; the stakes were quite high.
Saraki and Dogara decided to reenact Tinubu’s sordid stratagem in 2011 by shunning their party decision and reaching out to the PDP lawmakers for strategic alliance in the Senate and solid support in the House of Representatives. The PDP was game. The leadership asked Saraki what was in the alliance for the party. Apparently determined to rubbish any obstacle on his way to the senate presidency, he readily accepted the proposal by the PDP to cede the deputy senate president to it (PDP). What that meant was a solid PDP bloc vote for him. That left the APC in disarray. The APC knew that with the number of senators behind him, there was no way it could stop him; which was why he (Saraki) spurned all entreaties and invitations for meetings with leaders of APC.
Gloatingly, the PDP sealed the deal with Saraki, who was once in its fold. The party did not also hesitate to perfect the Dogara deal in the House. Dogara was, also, once upon a time, in the PDP. He, in fact, belonged to the Adamu Mu’azu faction of the PDP in Bauchi state. While the PDP settled for the deputy senate president, it allowed Dogara to pick a deputy speaker from APC and from any state in the southwest, provided that the candidate was not a stooge of Tinubu. In a way, the PDP was mindful of geo-political zone balancing in its counter plots to the APC’s plot.
Indeed, the APC, according to some PDP leaders, got it wrong with the coupling of Lawan-Akume ticket, both of them coming from the north. Saraki, on that score, outwitted them by settling for an alliance with a southeast senator of the PDP in the person of Ike Ekweremadu, which effectively took care of the south in the arrangement. And for Dogara, his being a Christian from Bauchi combined pretty well with the choice of Lasun Yusuf, a Muslim, from Osun state. Dogara’s religious background also balances out the Muslim religious background of President Muhammadu Buhari (executive head) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed (head of the Judiciary) and Saraki (Head of the Legislature). Had Gbajabiamila emerged as speaker, all the heads of arms of government plus the speaker would have been Muslims. Unfortunately, the APC leadership had ignored the concerns expressed by some Nigerians that their choices showed insensitivity to another religion.
Back to the man-Tinubu-who, in 2011,sowed the wind of treachery, nurtured by the water of disloyalty and indiscipline to party supremacy in the election of National Assembly leadership. It was learnt that he tried his best possible to avert the tragedy that befell him and his party. He actually put last minutes call to some PDP leaders to see how they could be of help to his interest. One of them reportedly told him that there was no way the Lawan-Akume ticket would be acceptable to the South. True, there is no way, according to top insiders in the PDP who were privy to the Saraki-Ekweremadu deal, the Lawan-Akume ticket would be overlooked for any other promise. Tinubu was said to have promised that there would be adjustment after the National Assembly inauguration, but he was advised to make the adjustment before the inauguration. His reach-out to the PDP was on the eve of the inauguration, which was pretty late to effect any adjustment. And, the Jagaban could not do anything to save his subsequent humiliation and demystification.
All the theatrics that went into the mix have become history. Tinubu, wherever he may be today, must be ruing his defeat. If the loss in the senate was monumental, a Gbajabiamila victory in the House would have mitigated, to some extent, his loss of the senate presidency. But with the defeat of Gbajabiamila, his political son from Lagos, Tinubu can be safely said to have almost suffered a collateral damage. His saving grace is that he had already produced a candidate for the vice presidential slot in the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Regardless, the Jagaban has been swept up in the whirlwind of politicking in the National Assembly, where it matters most in a democracy. His imprimatur is missing in the Legislature. Perhaps, if he had succeeded in installing his candidates in the National Assembly, he might have been in a pole position pile subtle pressure on some power centres in furtherance of some selfish agenda and demands put together in the confines of his Bourdilon home in Lagos.
Meanwhile, I am waiting to see how Asiwaju would be able to recover from this set-back and forcefully reinvent himself between now and 2019, especially now that Saraki has grabbed the senate presidency, which he (Tinubu) had wanted to frustrate in order to ensure that the Ilorin-born politician’s presidential aspiration in 2019 is not bolstered. If Saraki is able to keep his seat, it will certainly be salutary to whatever his aspiration is for 2019. Gbam!
Ojeifo is Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine in Abuja. [myad]