“There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics; only permanent interests”.
There are a million and one examples in the Nigerian political system to buttress the above maxim. While some Nigerians have lost their hard-earned jobs or died fighting for politicians before, during and elections, believing they have some ‘sworn enemies’, these supposedly rival politicians turn around, 360 Degrees, and suddenly become friends, crack jokes, wine and dine on the same table.
In 2011, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State contested the presidential election on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) against ex-President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In 2014, Jonathan appointed Shekarau as a minister.
Former governors Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State used to be political enemies and now they belong to the same party.
By the same token, ex-Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola never saw eye-to-eye with his successor, Rauf Aregbesola. Now, they belong to the same political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the expense of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Kunle Kalejaye, who was disbarred from practising as a lawyer by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for professional misconduct by engaging in “confidential, private and confidential telephone conversation” with the Chairman of the Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Justice Thomas Naron, without the knowledge of the other party.
Political commentators say the fence-mending between the Executive and the Legislature also depicts the fact that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics but permanent interests. They buttress their argument with the recent visits of Senate President Bukola Saraki to President Muhammadu Buhari. Specifically, both leaders met in the Presidential Villa three times within a week.
It would be recalled that Buhari had subtly expressed displeasure over the June 9, 2015 emergence of Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, insisting that the wishes of the ruling APC that Ahmad Lawan was the preferred candidate for the position of Senate President be obeyed.
Perhaps, with 2019 around the corner and with political associates like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, suddenly becoming ‘political enemies’, the Presidency and the ruling APC may have realised that there is the urgent need to soft-pedal and convert political enemies like Saraki into political friends.
Moves to reconcile with the Senate President commenced last month with the visit of the Chairman, APC Governors’ Forum and Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha to the Senate President where he admitted that the party had not managed its electoral victory well.
Okorocha had expressed worries over the cold war among the executive arm of government, the National Assembly and the ruling party.
The Imo State governor who said his visit to the Senate was belated, added that, “Nonetheless, it is never late to make amend where possible… Nigerians expect so much from us but we seem to be in crisis with ourselves; not crisis made by the opposition parties but crisis created by ourselves for ourselves and which has kept us in total difficult position that we are not making the headway we need to make as a party.
“One wonders then what went wrong. Where did we get it wrong? And after these troubles and after the much hope we have given to Nigerians, we still cannot work together as a party, as a family. And I notice particularly that there is so much bitterness in the system – from the party, from the legislature, from the executive, from the governors – and it seems to me like there is no more platform for us to chant those old songs, which we used to sing in the days of struggle for change. One wonders, was this what we were asking for or was this the change we were asking for? I think Nigerians expect so much from us and at the end of it all.
“Nigerians will not ask us, how many of each other we have been able to destroy or how many we have been able to bring down. But they will ask us how many plates of food have we put on the table of the common man who elected us”.
John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman of the ruling party also admitted that the first step taken by the party in the field of governance was a wrong one, saying that such has continued to haunt it.
Apparently referring to the opposition the party mounted against the emergence of Saraki as the Senate President, Odigie-Oyegun stated that inability to correct the mistake the party made has made governance very difficult for it.
He admitted also that the crisis within the party was responsible for the myriads of problems the nation is going through.
The APC national chairman ate the humble pie while playing host to the Senate President, who paid a courtesy call on him for the first time since he assumed leadership of the Senate over a year ago.
The peace moves explain why in recent times the upper legislative chamber has given expeditious screening and confirmation of the nominees of President Buhari, which include Supreme Court Justices; Commissioners of the National Population Commission; Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC); Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governing Board members of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC); Chairmen and members of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); Commissioner of National Population Commission (NPC), amongst others.
Morever, the 2016 budgets of the following federal agencies have been considered. They include: the budgets of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), earlier rejected by the upper chamber; Nigerian Shippers Council, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), National Maritime Authority; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, National Business and Technical Education Board and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure.
Others are: Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Raw Material Research and Development Council, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), National Insurance Commission, Federal Housing Authority and Federal Mortgage Bank.
Some observers say the approval of the budgets by the Senate, having being delayed in the legislative body for over five months, is an indication that the Parliament may have become a rubber stamp to the present administration.
However, Saraki debunked this assertion, insisting that the upper legislative chamber would not play the role of rubber-stamping the decisions of the executive arm of government. He stated this last week when he hosted a civil society organisation, Centre for Social Justice, in Abuja.
But a highly placed source in the National Assembly informed BDSUNDAY that Senate’s rejection of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), should send a warning signal to the Buhari administration and the APC leadership that it is not yet uhuru.
“It will be foolhardy for the Presidency to believe it will get 100 percent loyalty from the lawmakers. The legislature is not the state houses of assembly where the governors intimidate the lawmakers to do their bidding. Here, you need serious horse-trading and lobbying to get what you want.
“As we all observe, even the trial of Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for corruption has lost its steam. The truth of the matter is that the Senate President has gained lost grounds and the hunger and hardship in the land has made Nigerians lose faith in the present administration.
“In the long run, Nigerians are interested in how food will get to their table and not how many politicians are jailed on grounds of corruption,” the source who has been in the National Assembly since 1999 told BDSUNDAY.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE
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