Dramatic emergence of the 8th National Assembly

The eighth National Assembly has been duly constituted, for every practical purposes but the process and exercise has raised many questions, much rumblings and some drama. The key issues emerging, however, from the dramatic elections have to do with the state of our democracy - internal democracy among the parties with regards to party cohesion, the question of the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature on the one hand and its perception by the political parties on the other. But first, the reality on the ground after the elections into the upper and the lower houses conducted on Tuesday.

At the Senate, Bukola Saraki of the APC won the presidential slot with 57 votes and was pronounced elected unopposed. Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP and former deputy president of the Senate was re-elected with 54 votes to Ndume of the APC’s 20. At the green chamber, and in what was the most keenly contested position, APC’s Yakubu Dogara emerged as the Speaker of the House of Representatives with 182 votes beating Femi Gbajabiamila (APC) who polled 174. For the position of the Deputy Speaker, APC’s Suleiman Lasun Yusuf defeated Mohammed Mongunu also of the APC with 203 votes to 153.

On the surface of the matter then the, APC has claimed the day with three of the positions, while the PDP got only one. That being the case, the APC should be jubilating. But as it has turned out, the APC as a party is not only furious, and displeased, but its officials have declared that it has not only rejected the outcome of the election, but it cried blue murder over the action of its elected members. They are threatening brimstone and trickles against their ‘disloyal and treacherous’ members who broke the in-party rule which picked different candidates for the positions.

What has gone amiss? Has the election been duly conducted in accordance with the dictates of the constitution? Not even the disgruntled leaders and spokesmen of the APC are contesting that. What seems to be the bone of contention and the cause of their agro is the issue of internal democracy, party discipline and all that. Lai Mohammed, the mouth organ of the party, has stated the charge of party indiscipline, amounting to “treachery and disloyalty” by its members who went ahead to contest elections in utter disregard of the party’s decision where different candidates were put up in a mock election and which the “erring” candidates and all party members ought to hold as sacrosanct as according to him: “All National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision.”

Mohammed ruled that: “The party is superior and its interest is superior to that of its individual members. That is the official dictum of internal democracy and, as such, non-adherents to that party dictation will have to be whipped back on line when discipline is re-established and reprisals/ sanctions will be appropriately meted out to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal which is capable of subjecting the party to ‘ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration.” Heavy words! This is a case of a threat to the internal cohesion of the party and thus a flouting of the principles of internal democracy.

How have the ‘culprits’ of this charge of indiscipline, disloyalty, betrayal and treachery perceived this accusation by the organs of the APC? What effect will the threat of reprisals, whatever the nature of reprisal, have on the reality on the ground, including their perception of it? The Senate President of the eighth National Assembly, Dr. Bukola Saraki, finds the independence of the legislature a superior guide to the party position on a democracy. He and Dogara, the new speaker, believe that the entrenchment of the principle of separation of powers between the executive and the legislature will serve the change agenda of the new government of the APC better than an undemocratic decision of the party in which only 33 senatorselect out of 59 participated. They find the mock election a flagrant mockery of democracy.

Saraki, in his acceptance speech as the Senate president, opined that the election revealed the victory of the independence of the legislature from both the executive and the parties. The election, he argued “demonstrated that even though we may belong to different parties, we are ultimately united by our common desire to entrench democracy and allow its principle guide our conduct.” Saraki has allowed the principle of democratic pragmatism, which his party interpreted as opportunism, to way with him in his decision to contest and ultimately win the election to the presidency of the Senate outside of the expressed platform of is party which favoured somebody else other than himself. Ditto for Yakubu Dogara, whose election, in some way echoed that of Tambuwal who came into the speakership against the favoured candidate of the PDP in 2011.

The APC may need to go back to the drawing board to foment internal democratic cohesion as it commences governance in this change era. It may need to restructure its organs and properly cement the merging bodies and amalgam that constitute the party presently. It is instructive that President Buhari has taken a different and more acceptable view of the whole process of the election in the National Assembly. He had, right from the outset, and as manifest in his inaugural address, opted for the independence of the arms of governance. He has chosen a neutral ground and has gone ahead to congratulate the winners of the elections, charging them to be guided by the change mandate of the new government in the overall interest of the progress of the nation.

What this election may have revealed is that the internal cohesion, which the APC canvasses is not yet concretely established in the new party and the merging bodies constituting it as it stands, are yet to mesh properly into a wellintegrated body. It would appear that the parties which went into the merger on the eve of the election are still acting, largely, in loyalty to their original parties or, at least testing the waters in the new formation which won the election under the change broom of the APC. of the National Assembly. Kwankwaso was a presiding officer at the national legislature in the early 1990s and a governor of the most populous state in Nigeria for eight good years. The meaning here is that the guy must have acquired tremendous experience in the two arms of government, so his views needed to be heard and respected.

The party leaders thought otherwise. They were in the dreams of doing the PDP jack-boot politics by decreeing that their members behave in any particular way. They are dead wrong and they got a raw deal. Of course, majority of the legislators from the party may desire to conform but the possibilities of recalcitrance on the part of others cannot be overruled and that is precisely what happened on Tuesday in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I think the APC should worry more about the Senate where it is sharing powers with the PDP, a party that never allowed any other party in parliament enjoy from its booties. The failure of the APC to deploy efficient and effective brinkmanship at the point of success has denied it the latitude to enjoy maximally what ordinarily is

This is not really a surprise because party formation and its cohesion is a process which cannot emerge overnight and the APC is well advised to appreciate this gestation culture in party formation. The APC must learn its lessons and depart from the instruments of political praxis which led to the loss of the 2015 elections by the new opposition party, the PDP. They should be instructed by the action of the president, even though; according to Lai Mohammed is only one of the leaders of the party!

Now, if the APC expects the PDP to fold its arms while it grows, then it has to do a critical political rethink. Saraki and Dogara may have acted in a way that displeases their party by deploying other platforms other than their own party to win, but their actions should send a signal to the APC that party politics is an enduring and dynamic game and no rule of the thumb ever carries the day since human interest is involved. The PDP has read the political barometer more insightfully on this occasion and has thrown the APC into confusion, if not into total disarray.

Why will the party be holding an internal meeting while the National Assembly election was going on? How will the party win an election in which its preferred candidate did not participate and was not nominated as happened to Lawan - who may be heading to the courts? The loss of the APC, if it has really lost, since, as I stated earlier, 75 percent of the top four positions in the National Assembly still belongs to the APC, albeit not its preferred candidates, has become the gain of the PDP. It is not an occasion for the PDP to gloat but it is a moment for a serious rethink for the leaders of the APC to begin to act as a party and not as parties-within -a-party.

As we congratulate the new leaders of the National Assembly, we urge them to mesh pragmatism with patriotism and place national interests above personal ones so that real change may be galvanised in the life of this new government and this new National Assembly. theirs. This is sad and millions are angry with this poor handling of the issue.

One important blunder that the APC leadership seems to be closing its eyes to is the configuration that made up the party and wrestled power from the PDP. ACN came with six governments, ANPP with three, CPC with one and the enigma of GMB while Okorocha’s faction of APGA also was part of the formation. Later came a very powerful group, which can be said to have dealt the final blow, and took the PDP to its grave known as nPDP, with five state governors. The battle was fought and won together. How would the sharing of the benefits of victory occur without this group? This is a blunder and it is a tragic mistake.

Let me advise Lai Mohammed and other leaders of the party that the best way to address this crisis is not by blowing hot and going to press at the slightest opportunity. In fact, what the party needed to do was not to talk to the press soon after the events had unfolded. Taking any decision at the point of anger means a lot and is negative in most cases.