Saraki/Lawan: Before the Crucifixion of Mark
Since the election of Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate last June 9, there has been a subtle but noticeable effort in an angle of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to carve a subterfuge role for Saraki’s predecessor, Senator David Mark, in the dramatic poll between Saraki and Senator Ahmed Lawan.
Ordinarily, such innuendoes and halftruths would have been left in the realms of half-literate and back-street urchins but where respectable men and women begin to buy into such fabricated lines as ecclesial truth, it becomes mandatory to revisit the events that characterized the election.
The immediate past President of the Senate, Senator David Mark’s pre-occupation before last June 8 was to provide a leadership for Senators-elect on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) to present a credible opposition to the APC.
Senator Mark held series of meetings with PDP’s stakeholders as well as Senators-elect on the platform of his party with a view to achieving a consensual approach to his party’s position. He did likewise for House of Representatives members-elect of the PDP stock. He desired and worked to ensure that PDP Senators as well as Members-elect were united in their choice of presiding officers.
It is also imperative to state that both Saraki and Lawan as well as their respective promoters expectedly sought the support of the PDP Senators-elect and also importantly the support of Senator Mark. The stage was set for the election of the presiding officers.
On the night of June 8, a meeting was held at the residence of Senator David Mark. Present were the governors elected on the platform of the party, a handful number of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) and the
senators-elect. The agenda of that meeting was to decide the course that the caucus would thread.
As the meeting progressed, no fewer than three grounds were formulated - to present nominations for Senate President and the Deputy Senate President; to support APC for President of the Senate with a PDP-member Deputy Senate President; and, to turn down the two major contenders - Saraki and Lawan - then support another candidate.
The first ground crashed as Senator Mark made it clear that he will not join the race for Senate President. The third ground also collapsed as the timing was considered inexpedient. The meeting was left with the second formulation - supporting APC Senate President and PDP Deputy Senate President. There was a need to choose between Saraki and Lawan who the APC candidate would be since the immediate past Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, did not decline to be Deputy Senate President.
Both Senators Mark and Ekweremadu however opted not to cast a vote in the mock election. When the lot was cast, Saraki garnered 28 while Lawan won 17 votes. The meeting then resolved to support the candidate with a majority vote, Saraki, and that Ekweremadu will run as his Deputy Senate President. It is important to stress that decisions like these are never cast in iron. Sometimes, they could be re-defined by political expediency.
When the meeting closed, it was already 3am and the Senate Inauguration had been scheduled for 10am by a Proclamation issued and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari and presented to the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA) Alhaji Maikasuwa.
President Buhari’s proclamation was not addressed to Mark as he (Mark) had ceased to be the presiding officer of the Senate since the previous week. He was on the floor of the Senate like every other Senator-elect to cast his vote for a President of the Senate and take his turn for oaths. It is therefore ludicrous for any of the clans of APC to accuse the twoterm President of the Senate of manipulation of the electoral process that gave Saraki a unanimous victory.
Rather, what has confounded every parliamentary politics watcher is how Senator Lawan, with his mastery of parliamentary practice and procedure, could be easily snookered through a yet to be confirmed scheduled meeting with President Buhari. Did it not occur to Lawan and his handlers that a presidential proclamation, which is a public or official announcement of an important matter, cannot be reversed through mere text messages to APC Senators-elect only in a chamber populated by the two major parties?
Senator Mark cannot be crucified for the failings of the APC apparatchiks. His actions in the horse trading and election of the Presiding Officer for the Senate last June 9 was honest, noble and sincere. Above all, Mark deserves to be commended for his statesman rejection of a ploy to drag him to contest for the Senate President when it became obvious that majority of the APC senators-elect had absented themselves from the floor.
–– Ologbondiyan, a parliamentary news reporter and political editor, served as special adviser (media and publicity) to the immediate past president of the Senate, Senator David A.B Mark