November, December Guber Polls In Kogi, Bayelsa: The Die Is Cast
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has just released the electoral time table for the governorship elections in both Kogi and Bayelsa States.
According to the time table released yesterday, campaigns by political parties would commence on July 24 and end on November 19 for Kogi state while the campaigns for Bayelsa commence on September 6 and end on December 3.
The actual elections would be conducted in Kogi and Bayelsa states on Saturday, November 21 and Saturday, December 5 respectively.
While we in Greenbarge Reporters commend INEC for the early release of the time table, in accordance with the electoral law, we will not fail to caution that all necessary measures must be taken to stem confusion that is likely to be caused by the new political blocks in the system.
In other words, the elections in these two states are coming as the first test-case not only for the new acting chairman of the INEC, Amina Zakari who of course is not new in the system, but as a test case also for President Muhammadu Buhari. Since becoming President over a month ago, these elections would be first that his government will conduct.
Indeed, while the election in Bayelsa may be a straight fight along party line, that of Kogi will certainly be a big contest among different contending forces, most of which are antagonistic to one another.
There is already a clear show of superiority complex by one ethnic group that has held on to power since the state was created in 1991, even as some other ethnic groups are trying to find their bearings.
Just a few days ago, the Kogi Central and West Senatorial Districts began what could be termed as a political alliance to wrench power from the Eastern Senatorial District, which had relied on numerical strength to continue to rule the state.
Of course, the ingredient of election in democratic system is based mainly on what has come to be known even in local parlance as “majority carries the vote.” But if you stretch that principle beyond Kogi state, another requirement in the type of the society we are in, would make fairness, balance and justice parts of the bid deal among contending ethnic nationalities.
In other words, there is no other part of the country that would have gotten nearer to Presidency if the three other principles were not taken into consideration: there was no way Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan would have won election and ruled the country for a combine 13 out of over 16 years of this democracy.
It is on record that the incumbent governor of Kogi state, Captain Wada Idris is qualified to seek for a second-term on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket, the ticket that he is likely to get at the party’s primaries, but the three principles, aside from “majority,” need to be addressed, especially, by the political stakeholders across the state.
Should Wada insists on second term, and even should former governor Abubakar Audu insists on going ahead to seek for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket and possibly gets it, there is likelihood of the political waters in Kogi state being coloured.
On the political leaning, it is also in Kogi, not Bayelsa state where two contending political parties (APC and PDP) will fight themselves to finish. With the “Buhari-Change Fever” catching on, the APC may suddenly develop some kind of strength, enough to give PDP a bloody nose.
How ever, in all, the body to watch in the scenario that is about to play out, especially in Kogi state, is the electoral umpire.
The immediate past INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega was able to set a standard where votes of the electorate counted. We expect nothing less from Amina Zakari, and even an improvement, so that when the chips are down, whoever looses the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states would have the cause and conviction to concede defeat, the way former President Jonathan did. [myad]
Senate Leadership Saga: Between Politics And Morality, By Ariyo Dare
It is indeed heartwarming that partisan Abba Mahmood, in his Thursday column in Leadership newspaper titled: “Urine Cannot Clean Faeces,” decided to cite celestial factors- righteousness and justice- as the forces that will win the final political battle in the All Progressives Congress (APC). Very gratifying! The implication of this is that the writer fully understands the place of truth and fairness in the complex game of politics; meaning, we can x-ray and place what transpired before and on June 9, 2015 in the National Assembly on a moral pedestal.
But before looking at the intricacies surrounding all that led to the legislative leadership tussle in the APC, a simple check with recent history could have saved the writer the needles journey through the path of political religiousness. Less than eight months ago, APC which was in a hurry to grab government at the center, consolidated its gradual incursion into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government through the former Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal (now Governor of Sokoto State). A proxy of the minority party succeeded in presiding over the majority. I will dwell more on this later.
Another worrying aspect of the July 9, 2015 column was the subtle attack on the person of the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Salisu Maikasuwa, who has ever remained impartial in the legislative enterprise of the federal lawmakers. The CNA is largely concerned with the administration of the NASS bureaucracy. The Clerk to the Senate and his counterpart in the House of Representatives tend to the legislators’ lawmaking business on the floor, including providing guidance on issues of legislative rules. It is important to make this point so that people like Mahmood will refocus when they try to point finger of guilt to quarters in the alleged alteration of standing rules.
Now, let us look at another perspective in the legislative saga: if Maikasuwa is so powerful to the extent that it was within his bureaucratic powers to shut out some lawmakers from the Senate chamber, can we then safely conclude that Maikasuwa colluded with the APC to allow Tambuwal to gain access into the Green Chamber, when a PDP-led government was against him (Tambuwal)? But here is a bureaucrat that understands how to rise above politics, partisanship and pettiness in the discharge of his duties, perhaps always guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as demonstrated on June 9, 2015.
From all indications, the modest measure of stability in the National Assembly is still due to the wisdom and good conscience of the CNA, who I will like to meet one day. If Maikasuwa had allowed himself to be used for politics sans morality and refused to open the 8th Assembly for business after the President had conveyed his proclamation to him, possibly, NASS would have been caught in a serious disaster and worse situation; and, without any other corresponding letter from the President directing him to suspend or shift the date of the inauguration from 10am on June 9, 2015, the leadership of APC would have denied him and the whole world would have been asking for his head. It is therefore not Maikasuwa yaci kasuwarsa kawai (Maikasuwa just ate his market) as Mahmood magisterially declared in his treatise but Maikasuwa ya gyara kasuwan democratiyan Nigeria (Maikasuwa has succeeded in helping to strengthen democracy in Nigeria).
Back to the leadership matter: that Mahmood did not capture a very recent episode for justice to be complete beggars belief. Can we then safely say he sanctioned the Tambuwal incident? Of course, like the APC camp, the PDP too was not happy with that development. It employed all manner of tactics to stop Tambuwal but several Nigerians, galvanized by the APC, stood against the PDP and Tambuwal had his way. It was then that “they” made us to realize that there was nothing wrong in the minority presiding over the majority. We had Tambuwal (APC) as Speaker and Emeka Ihedioha (PDP) as Deputy Speaker. The question now is: did Tambuwal act based on righteousness, justice and progress according to the editorial parlance of Mahmood?
Maybe the PDP should even be blamed for having a rare opportunity to take the bigger apple; but had, instead, humbly elected to go for the smaller one in the 8th Assembly, to wit: deputy senate presidency. Heaven would not have fallen if David Mark, for instance, had returned as the Senate President like some hawks in the PDP had wished and even advised. It would have been so easy for the PDP to have played a smart political coup d’état against Bukola Saraki on the floor of the Senate and beat him to it. Validation: the House was already convened and quorum formed, yet the 49 PDP senators, out of magnanimity, decided to honour an earlier pact, as widely reported in the media, to take the Deputy Senate President.
To conclude with the alleged doctoring of the Senate Standing Rules, I would like to posit that the APC has scored another first by externalising an internal matter that should have been left for the Senators to resolve. I can understand the desperation of the other camp in the APC to vitiate, at all cost, the process that produced Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively. Its only strategy is to externalize the issue and seek to heap a moral burden on the senate leadership. But the other camp should know that inequity cannot be fought with chicanery.
I will counsel Mahmood to be prepared to, in the months ahead, write a similar piece to criticise police involvement in an issue that could later affect those on his side of interest in the National Assembly. Yes, what goes around comes around. I hope when it eventually happens, he will not forget this current episode.