SIR: In real political life situation, there is nothing like consensus. What many erroneously liken to consensus is tilt of influence. The false believe by the leadership of All Progressives
Congress [APC] that they can actually zone offices in the National Assembly [NASS] to various power blocks in Nigeria without implosion in the party will soon give way to frustration, if the President elect, General Mohammadu Buhari fails to take a step in the direction of sharing the offices at NASS to those he feels can complement his effort towards repositioning Nigeria. If General Buhari thinks that his party, APC can resolve the issue of whom, which zone gets what at NASS, then, he is dead wrong. He may recall that in 1999 when democracy returned to Nigeria, the then President elect, General Olusegun Obasanjo offered the post of Senate President to former Vice President Alex Ekwueme. Though, he, Ekwueme rejected the position and offered to bring his associate, Senator Onyeabo Obi, Obi’s candidature could not scale through as he was not an elected Senator then. The then President-elect had no other choice than to settle for late Senator Evans Enwerem. It was from Obasanjo’s offer of Senate Presidency seat to a Senator from South-east that modern zoning was born in Nigeria. The point being made here is that former President Obasanjo felt he could work with Ekwueme to move Nigeria forward and did not hesitate in making public his decision. In any case, only an elected President can allocate offices to various geo-political zones without rancour and bitterness capable of tearing a formidable party apart.
By allowing his party, APC to come up with geo-political zoning of offices, the President-elect can only cause political trouble for himself. The reason is not far-fetched. Any zone that comes top in the current scheming will surely boast of beating other zones to the coveted prize through body language and related ways. But if the President-elect gives Senator A from X zone the position of Senate President, he can effectively manage the fallout from his decision by promising
commensurate compensation to other zone[s] that may feel it should have produced the Senate President. Understandably, the President-elect may feel that by interfering and deciding who should be Senate President and so on, could present him as undemocratic President. The truth is that the cost of President-elect not deciding who and which zone gets what at NASS will be more catastrophic
to APC as a party than his direct intervention. For instance in the extreme case of a PDP Senate President (remember the Hon. Aminu Tambuwal saga) being speculated in some quarters, via alliance with APC lawmakers from a certain part of Nigeria who feel their zone should produce Senate President, will APC still remain the same as a party? General Buhari is reminded that the quality of cooperation he gets from the eighth NASS will determine the level of democracy dividend his administration can give to Nigerians. Already, expectations of Nigerians from in-coming
regime are high. The President-elect cannot afford to start on a faulty note, dealing with strange bedfellows as leaders in both chambers of NASS.
General Buhari can contain the apparent storm that may arise from doing what is needful now, than the real storm that will surely come if he fails to do what is needful – deciding who gets what at NASS!
•Emeka Oraetoka,
Garki-Abuja.