The emergence of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as the president and speaker of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively is now a settled issue. So also are the treacheries and high-wire politics that followed the contests. This conclusion is however, without prejudice to threats from some quarters to challenge the elections in court. If what we have been told about extant procedure for inaugurating the assembly is anything to go by, it does appear not much will come from such litigation.
Diverse interpretations have been given to events that brought that pass. And they vary depending on the divide from which it is being viewed. Blames have also been freely traded.
But the commonly held view is that the APC did not properly handle the crisis arising from disagreements over its mock elections. Not only was the party tepid in its resolution of the rebellion of some of its legislators, it committed a tactical error to have called for a meeting in another venue on the day of the inauguration. With the letter of proclamation, date and time duly signed and delivered by President Buhari, it is curious a meeting with APC senators-elect was hurriedly summoned for another venue around the same time. This says volumes about the handling of the schism arising from the mock elections. The argument that Buhari had just arrived that morning from a foreign assignment may not sway anybody given that the issue was there before he travelled.
Obviously, the PDP put the situation to its advantage and could have taken up the senate presidency but perhaps, for the firm agreement they reached with Saraki. The PDP is now touted to have come into reckoning again such that its capacity to play the role of an effective opposition is being further strengthened. The election of Ike Ekweremadu as deputy senate president again, illustrates this viewpoint. There is also the argument in some quarters that even if all the APC senators-elect were at the chambers that morning, the outcome would not have changed. The numerical strength of the PDP and that of the dissenting senators-elect is cited to buttress this. This angle cannot be discounted. If anything, the election of Dogara with the full complement of legislators from all divide gives fillip to this perspective.
However, there are those who scorn the success of the PDP as pyrrhic victory given that both Saraki and Dogara are all of the APC stock. This standpoint is no less appealing depending on how the game unfolds in the days ahead.
It would appear all the contradictions that shaped those elections are not very obvious now. They are more likely to take clearer shape as the Buhari administration settles for the business of statecraft. All that can be reasonably conjectured, is that the way the coalition of forces at play during those elections manifest, will have wider repercussions for the party especially given that it has before now, been criticized as an amalgam of strange bedfellows with no soul of its own. Possibly, it is the above scenario that is bubbling.
Various possibilities have been visualized. And much of these raise fresh challenges for the ruling party in terms of its cohesiveness, party supremacy, the discipline and commitment of members to party goals and objectives. There are also issues relating to principles and lack of party ideology.
Expectedly, the APC has shown serious discomfort with the development. The party has rejected the emergence of Saraki and Dogara lamenting that it amounts to the highest level of “indiscipline and treachery to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration”. The party is highly piqued that the duo entered into an unholy alliance with the same people they worked hard to replace and promised to wield the big stick against them.
But President Buhari had a different perspective and has gone ahead to recognise the new leadership promising to work with them to deliver his campaign promises to the people. Though he would have preferred the party choices to have prevailed, nonetheless he recognized that a constitutional process had been concluded through the rights of the legislators to elect their leaders.
There are issues of interest for our democracy in the position taken by Buhari. And they strike a chord with that of former President Jonathan in the aftermath of the last presidential election. Buhari would have preferred his party’s choices to prevail. But events did not dictate so. He has accepted the outcome and promised to work with the new leaders for the stability of Nigeria’s constitutional order and in the overall interest of the common man. The president’s decision has all the trappings of patriotism and shares much in common with that of Jonathan when he saw the outcome of the last elections had tilted in favour of Buhari. Both are concerned with order, peace and the deepening of the democratic process irrespective of their own interests and preferences. That is the way to go.
There is little doubt that such compromise positions will go at length not only to stabilize the country but the democratic process especially given the schism that trailed the last elections. If this represents a new frame of mind by our leaders, we will soon be on the path to real progress and sustainable development.
But for the APC, it will go for broke with errant members. It is utterly averse to any alliance with the PDP that would incapacitate the party from delivering on its promise.
The party leadership is within its rights to be livid with errant members. They are also right in their anger especially given the emergence of Ekweremadu of the PDP as the deputy senate president. In their calculations, there is no way they would have factored in either the PDP or the South-east in the sharing equation.
That alone may sustain allegations of betrayal, treachery and an attempt to ridicule the party. It is also at the root of the accusation that the action of the dissenting members would create obstacles for the new administration. Should it necessarily be so? That is the issue to ponder.
The APC is at pains with the reality of sharing power with the PDP, a party they fought very hard to defeat at the elections. The feeling is that the PDP, still nursing the wounds from the last elections, may be out for vengeance. But the APC legislators will somehow, still have to work with their PDP counterpart even if things had gone their way. So instead of court action or the impeachment option, the legislators should cultivate each other and rise to the challenges of law making for the order and good governance of the country.
We would not have arrived at this point if all were well within the party. And the situation may not easily abate as indications are there is more to it than the selfish interests of the dissenting members. Saraki and Dogara may be the arrow heads of the rebellion. But the tunes they are dancing are definitely coming from drum beats hidden elsewhere.
