The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demonstrated its political maneuvering with the victories of Ahmed Lawan and Ovie Omo-Agege as
President and Deputy President of the Senate and Femi Gbajabiamila as the speaker of the House of Representatives.
APC had 63 Senators, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP had 44 Senators while the Young Progressives Party (YPP) had 1 at the time of the inauguration of the Red Chambers.
The composition of the 9th House comprised 190 APC Members, 151 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 19 Members from other political parties.
However, on the June 11 when both Chambers of the National Assembly elected their presiding officers, the number was not reflected in the voting
pattern, showing how the ruling party infiltrated the ranks of the main opposition PDP and other parties.
At the polls on the floor of the Senate where Adams Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman was visibly enforcing the party’s plan of conquest in the National
Assembly, its anointed candidate, Lawan won with 79 votes against his only rival, Ali Ndume, who pulled 28 votes despite been adopted by the PDP with 44 senators.
For the Deputy President of Senate, APC Omo-Agege garnered 68 votes to defeat PDP Ike Ekweremadu with 37 votes even as his party has 44 votes. In the House of Representatives, Gbajabiamila, the APC preferred candidate got an overwhelming victory with 281 votes against his challenger, Umar Bago from Niger State who polled 76 even though he was adopted by PDP which has 151.
In the 9th Assembly, APC did not take chances as the party immediately after the general elections microzoned the leadership positions to its
loyalists – Lawan and Gbajabiamila and unlike in 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari distanced himself from who gets what in the National
Assembly, he showed interest and ensure that candidates anointed by his party emerged victorious.
The political maneuverings or mildly, the calculations of APC is a radical departure or call it payback time for the PDP when the opposition party in 2015 infiltrated its ranks and changed the ruling party’s choice of National Assembly leadership.
Recall that APC had in 2015 endorsed the same Lawan and George Akume for President and Deputy President of the Senate, and Gbajabiamila for the
Speaker of House of Representatives.
But PDP in collaboration with some dissent voices in APC scattered the arrangement and elected Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu as President and
Deputy President of Senate and Yakubu Dogara as the House Speaker.
Saraki and his cohorts unlike Dogara also pay back APC in its own coin and first worked against the party’s decision to appoint Lawan and Akume as
Majority Leader and Deputy Majority Leader and bring on board Ndume and Ibn Na’ Allah for those positions.
The outcome of the Senate and House of Representatives presiding officers is an eloquent testimony of the fulfilment of the declaration by Oshiomhole that, “APC will not share power with the PDP” in the National Assembly this time.
Oshiomhole while giving marching orders to the National Assembly Members-elect said, “we have the numbers to produce Speaker, we have the
number and we will use the number to produce the Deputy Speaker who must be a member of APC. We have the number and we will use the number to elect the House Leader who will be member of the APC.
“We have the number and we will use the number to elect a Chief Whip and the Deputy Whip who must be members of APC. I think the only position that
we are not interested in is the Minority Leader.
“We will not share power in the House of Representatives and the leadership must ensure that critical Committees that drive government are shared only among APC members. So, all the Chairmen of Committees except one that I know it is statutorily reserved for opposition which is public account, we will have that.
“So he will not do the kind of thing that happened the last time in which some APC members as members of the leading party became spectators in the management of the Committees when PDP has majority of strategic Committees.
That we will not happen in the next Assembly
“We will carry out consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari and all the leaders of the party and reflect the reality of appointees as reflected in
our constitution which recognised the geo political region of our country so that we will work out a sensible zoning formula that seems to carry
everybody along and give people chances to demonstrate their capacity and capability”.
In apparent show of excitement about the realisation of its plan to take full control of the nation’s legislature described victory of its anointed
candidates at the National Assembly leadership elections as the defeat of the impunity of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Lanre Issa-Onilu, APC National Publicity Secretary had said, “This landslide victory by APC candidates is a triumph of democracy and party politics over the brazen lawlessness of anti-democratic forces who are nestled in the opposition party.
“Our party has consistently maintained that the leadership of the National Assembly belongs to the party in the majority. The outcome of these
elections have clearly validated our party’s efforts to institutionalise party discipline and loyalty.
“It is triumph of internal democracy, anchored on consensus building, to which we lay claim, over anti-democratic methods that the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) had foisted on our democracy over 16 years.
“This is a clear departure from the shenanigans of the last National Assembly leadership, let us therefore make a new start, and move forward to meet the great challenges we face and deliver on our Change Agenda and Next Level manifesto.
“The 9th National Assembly must now immediately address itself to delivering critical legislative intervention to enable the President Muhammadu Buhari administration succeed for the benefit of the Nigerian people and ensure the smooth running of government”.
James Kwen, Abuja
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