IT is no longer news that the Senate is in turmoil. It is also obvious that the nibbling crisis of confidence in the upper chamber is likely to get worse in the days ahead. It may be safe therefore to postulate that something may give for peace to return to the Red Chamber.
Monday’s arraignment of Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and two others for alleged forgery of Senate Standing rules 2015 further threw mallet at already gloomy scenario in the Senate.
The event of June 9th 2015 that threw up the whirlwind in the Senate has long assumed a life of its own. The rat race may have begun in the Senate with no hiding place for anybody.
Many questions are being asked. Keen observers are wondering whether the centre can still hold. Curiously, those who should act fast to save the day are missing in action.
A series of crises that trailed Senator Evan(s) Enwerem and Senator Chuba Okadigbo’s Senate Presidency are seen by many as a child play to what is playing out in the Eight Senate.
The theatre of musical chairs that prevailed in the Senate, which also extended to a large extend into the House of Representatives, was only brought to normalcy in the sixth and seventh Senate when Senator David Mark emerged President of the Senate.
The air of stability and conviviality Mark brought to bear in the Senate as primus inter pares may have provoked the trending question: Where is David Mark while Senate burns?
At the proclamation of the Eight Senate on June 9th 2015, Mark was accorded a mark of honour in apparent recognition of his primacy. The Benue South lawmaker was the first to be inaugurated after Saraki and Ekweremadu had controversially taken their seats.
The inauguration of Mark before his colleagues almost engendered some unintended interpretations, especially when a national television station went on air to announce that Mark had been elected Senate Leader. It was far from the truth. The goof was not only embarrassing to Mark, it was even more so to the Senate.
As the Senate boils, some observers say Mark has unduly distanced himself from the Senate crisis at a time the former President of the Senate should have stepped in to ignite his legendary magic touch.
That Senator Mark presided over the 6th and 7th Senate with unparalleled maturity and a sense of purpose may not be deniable. His use of native wisdom in handling plenary sessions was also unequalled.
Observers say perhaps Mark’s maturity, sense of purpose and artful display of native wisdom may have been the magic wand Mark armed himself with in his days as Senate President.
The retired Army Signal General variously described as “a master of the game on the political chessboard,” who has been in the upper chamber since 1999, may have aptly mastered “the art of blending military strategy with political deftness” to plot his way in the Senate.
The Idoma-born politician is also at home with power game and knows when best to strike to disarm even a deadly enemy. When few senators were throwing stones at him as he presided, he remained cool, calculated, and ignored them.
He was there when Senators Enwerem and Okadigbo fell as Senate Presidents. Mark was also there when Senator Adolphus Wabara’s Senate Presidency crumbled like a pack of cards.
In the 5th Senate when Senator Wabara’s Senate Presidency was wobbling, Mark was also there. He was leader of the G86 Senators who played one or two roles to ensure that things did not get out of control. When President Olusegun Obasanjo eventually invited the Senate leadership to talk over the rumbling in the Senate, Mark led the G86 Senators to the parley.
After President Obasanjo’s aborted Third Term Agenda, Mark mobilised majority of Peoples Democratic Party Senators to rally round Obasanjo to ensure that whatever was left of Obasanjo’s legacies were not completely rubbished. It worked. Mark thereafter transformed himself into a pivotal rallying point for his colleagues in the chamber. What was not known to some was that Mark was more or less bidding his time to be crowned Senate President?
Mark’s invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity to solve the political logjam that enveloped the country on account of the near absence of leadership in 2010 unarguably saved the nation from the precipice.
The novel Doctrine of Necessity was seen as a master stroke that neutralised and disarmed the shadowy elements that attempted to seize the reign of power in the country when former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was indisposed.
The Benue South lawmaker suffered a setback when his election was nullified in 2015, a development that took him out of the Red Chamber for about three months. The cancellation of his election and the subsequent preparation for a re-run, insiders say, created a major disconnect between Mark and Senate.
Many political pundits are still wondering how Senator Mark won the February 20 rerun election in spite of the massive opposition against him.
When Mark stepped into the Senate chamber after he successfully prosecuted his re-run election, his presence ignited instantaneous camaraderie in the chamber. Senators on both sides of isle struggled to embrace him. It was a moving spectacle that was never witnessed since the inauguration of the 8th Senate.
His unwavering commitment, patriotism and service to country may not be in doubt. This may have given fillip to the desire in some quarters that Mark should step up and do the needful.
Opinions are however divided about how far Mark can go in a matter that has become a subject of litigation.
It is not certain what will give in in the Senate for peace and tranquility to return. What is certain however is that whichever way the pendulum swings; the 8th Senate will never be the same again.
