Opinion: Saraki, APC and the vague victory

by Adesina Tosin Nathaniel

Fellow Nigerians, a few days ago makes it two years since we trooped out in our Thousands to Demand for a change of government at the centre by voting out the PDP led government and the Buhari led FG was elected, President Buhari and his party the APC campaigned on the change slogan as they felt what we felt under the Jonathan government that we deserved a better deal as Nigerians.

The victory of the APC as a Party was a short-lived one as the early signs exposed the party for what it is – a conglomeration of power seekers and not a political party succinctly put “a collection of strange bedfellows” The elections into the legislative arm of government were the first litmus test the Party and President Buhari failed.

In the build up to the election, the Party had nominated Femi Gbajabiamila as its candidate for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives while Senator Ahmed Lawan was nominated respectively for the Senate Presidency. In a twist of events, Senator Bukola Saraki emerged as the Senate President while Yakubu Dogara emerged as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in connivance with the PDP members of both chambers.

The case of Saraki was more shocking as senator Ike Ekweremadu a PDP man was elected as his deputy. That was the first sign that all was not well with the Party. Immediately the election was over the newly elected Senate president paid a visit to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (former Vice president and his co-decampee from PDP) to thank him for his ‘support’ towards his emergence. Since then the Party has been in one crisis or another and it has reached a level where it’s evident the Party is only existing on Paper.

The rough edge relationship between the APC led legislative arm and the APC led executive gives the appearance of a house divided against itself. Till date, APC is not a fully organised party, with the frequent wrangling between its various factions — the Tinubu Faction, the Saraki/ Atiku Faction, the Buhari / Daura Faction among others. However as raw as it may sound the Buhari Faction is the loser in this game.

The Tinubu Faction has recoiled back to the South West as seen in the present reconciliation moves of the party which have been yielding fruit as the crisis over the Ondo election has been put to rest and the massive support Tinubu received recently at his 65th Birthday shows their bloc is as strong as ever.

The Saraki Faction was not taken seriously initially as it wasn’t seen as a threat. To distract him he was fired with missiles of court cases from the Code of Conduct Tribunal to the election Tribunal and the Senate forgery case but this failed as the group has moved from just an ordinary group of angry APC members to a formidable group that needs to be checkmated thoroughly to prevent any impeding disaster the Party may experience anytime from now.

Many people may not know “Oloye”, as Saraki is fondly called by his Ilorin admirers, as a master of his game with results to show for it.

In 2003 Saraki as a young cadet in the political field contested and won the Kwara state Governorship election, defeating the late Muhammed Lawal by a landslide with the support of his father. To show that Saraki is a fast learner he started building his political group apart from his father’s own.

Even his father the Late Olusola Saraki didn’t see his son as the straw that would break the back of his Political camel. Saraki was recruiting his foot soldiers underneath while still showing his father the necessary loyalty until the 2011 elections arrived. Senator Olusola Saraki wanted Bukola’s younger sister, Gbemi, who was a member of the upper chamber of the National Assembly at that time to contest for the Governorship seat but he went against his father’s wish to support his long time friend and then commissioner for finance Alhaji Abdul fatah Hammed. Hammed won the election while Gbemi lost.

Senator Olusola Saraki went into political hibernation and nothing was heard of him after the 2011 elections until he died on the 14th of November 2012. In this scenario Saraki won, his father lost.

Bukola’s defiance to APC was another sign that his political group was growing rapidly. His group’s stranglehold on the Senate has been a formidable one. Senator Ali Ndume who was elected initially as the leader of the Senate was removed in absentia on the Senate floor and he was replaced by Senator Ahmed Lawan from the Tinubu Faction of the Party. Also, some senate committees were reshuffled to accommodate the interest of the Pro Tinubu group members like Senator Kabir Marafa, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, Senator Robert Ajayi Borrofice and Senator Oluremi Tinubu among others and the peace that once evaded the Senate is back as the interest of everyone was catered for by Saraki. However, the Buhari Faction is still finding it difficult to get things done in the Senate.

This is evident in the embarrassment the federal government has experienced in recent times at the Senate. The sign that all was not well started when some career ambassadors were nominated and the Senate rejected the list before it was represented by the presidency. Similar treatment was meted out on the non-career ambassadors until it was re-presented. It was the same as the poor handling of the 2016 budget by the Senate.

The rejection of the acting EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu’s nomination by the Senate is another sign that the relationship between the executive and the Senate is faulty.

When Magu was nominated, a news medium in October 2016 predicted his failure at the screening as some groups within the Buhari Presidency working against the president interest saw him as a threat to their interest.

This group is reportedly led by The Chief Of Staff to the President Mallam Abba Kyari, one of those mentioned by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in his leaked September 2016 memo to Buhari as those that have become more powerful than the government. As predicted, Magu was rejected by the Senate on the 15th of December 2016 due to the unfavourable report by the Department of State Services (DSS) (an agency under the Buhari Presidency) against him.

The presidency presented his name for the second time for confirmation and the Senate on the 15th of March once again rejected him for the second time and he was declared unfit to hold the position of the EFCC chairman for failing the integrity test. In this case, Buhari lost, Saraki won as both the APC and the PDP senators supported the rejection except Senator Ali Ndume.

As if that was not enough, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service had his dose of the senatorial melodrama as he was compelled to appear before the Senate in customs uniform. Despite the APC outnumbering the PDP the man was humiliated by the Senate and they had to approach the court as a face-saving strategy. Another pointer to the fact that the Saraki led Senate has taken care of the interest of all senators. In this situation also Buhari lost, and Saraki won.

The silence of the National Working Committee of the APC on the frosty relationship between Senate and the Executive is a sign that the party lacks the necessary internal structure that makes up a party and that APC is not ready for governance. As terrible as Goodluck Jonathan’s government was the PDP NWC and BoT was the highest decision making of the Party and their opinion was always respected on issues.

That fact that the Saraki-led Senate is strong and hitting the executive hard is a pointer to Buhari’s political weakness and the sad state of APC as a party.

This could not have happened if Buhari had properly built his political muscle as a president. In the buildup to the Senate election, the President was advised to make his interest known but he declared that he can work with anybody that emerged as the leader of the chamber. A day to the Senate election when Saraki and others were planning, Buhari was sleeping and he rather preferred to fix a meeting for election morning than the pre -election night. When they were expecting him at the venue of the meeting, Saraki and Ekweremadu had emerged as the Senate President and Deputy respectively. And today, nobody is working with Buhari in the Senate, not even the three Senators from Katsina State, from where he hails.

Since their emergence, the president has had it rough with this arm of government and they’ve stagnated the administration literally. Letters of approval are piling up on Saraki’s table awaiting approval and some are being rejected.

To crown it all, the Saraki led Senate has placed Senator Ali Ndume, the only man that speaks Buhari’s mind in the Senate, on a six-month suspension. A 6-month suspension is as good as killing the man politically.

As of now, Saraki is getting stronger while Buhari is getting weaker, APC exists only on paper. Something urgent needs to happen!


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Adesina Tosin Nathaniel is a Forward Looking Nigerian Youth. He blogs at www.donteewrites.blogspot.com. His social media handle is @Donteewrites

 

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