APC Leadership And NASS Elections: Taking Selfishness To Dangerous Extremes

Take it or leave it, Nigerian politicians are generally fickle minded, selfish, and treacherous- treachery is their second nature.
Opportunism and principles cannot coexist. The leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) once called the People Democratic Party (PDP) a party of crooks and evil men. Ironically and hypocritically, when Saraki, Amaechi, Atiku, Wamakko, Kwankwaso, Goje, Abdullahi Adamu and others defected to the progressive camp, the opposition leaders welcomed them eagerly. Evil PDP men suddenly became saints and heroes because they defected and joined the opposition.
Now that President Muhammadu Buhari has officially and openly expressed his willingness to work with the new National Assembly leaders to achieve harmonious relationship between the executive branch and the legislative arm, why is it becoming impossible for a section of the APC leadership to adjust themselves to the new reality?
The yet-to-start ruling party should be reminded or rather be warned that the political development at the National Assembly and even in the wider polity are interplay of forces and interests that are dynamic, but must not be promoted to the point of being a threat to our democracy and the new administration.
We should not forget too soon the historic nature of the mandate of President Mohammadu Buhari and the arduous challenges ahead to deliver on making Nigeria work for all Nigerians. It is important, especially for members of his own party, to rally behind him in the quest to enthrone good governance that will spur security and stability, economic and social development, job creation, infrastructure renewal and above all a better life for Nigerians.
It should be clear to the APC leadership that it is dangerous for any individual or group in the ranks to constitute themselves into an opposition even before the constitution and take -off President Buhari government.
Buhari has wisely averted an imminent crisis by respecting the verdict of the lawmakers. Then what is the benefit of seeking to roil the waters by insisting on party supremacy, and distancing yourself from your own President pledge to work with the National Assembly harmoniously? Sometimes tolerating a particular situation you cannot change is better than taking actions that could make matters worse.
It is President Buhari that will work with the National Assembly to get his budgets and bills passed. He will not work with party leaders to perform this task. He needs the support of both APC and PDP lawmakers to perform his duties successfully and so the APC leaders should not distance themselves from the policy of constructive engagement that Buhari is seeking to achieve in his dealings with the National Assembly, regardless of who they independently and freely elected as their new leaders.
How could anybody parading as an experience politician extricate a president that emerged from a political party from the definition of leaders of that same party?Anger and pride lead to wrong decisions or actions. It was very distasteful for the APC spokesperson in a Channels Television interview to have declared that President Buhari is not the leader of the party that instead, he is a product of the party. It is an outright naivety to expect fixed outcomes in politics. As the President has done, let all come to terms with what has happened in the interest of the system and move on.
Moreso it was very unkind to blame the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar for the emergence of Saraki as Senate President, by portraying him as President Buhari enemy based on wild assumptions of conspiracy against Buhari. Proponents of this theorem, are they unaware that Saraki is an accomplished perfidious schemer in his own right? If he is using the Senate Presidency as a stepping stone to his 2019 presidential ambition, why must Atiku be keen to support that agenda when he nurses the same ambition as also alleged by the same mischief makers?
Trying to make Atiku a whipping boy for the miscalculation of a section of the APC leadership which led to Saraki becoming the Senate President, is senseless and at best a misplaced aggression. The truth is that the APC leaders naively assumed the PDP is dead and buried and now the same PDP helped Saraki to become Senate President. To accuse only one politician of greed and selfishness is dishonest.
Atiku congratulated the new NASS leadership in line with the spirit of greater national political stability. It is the same spirit that made him embrace the outcome of the APC primaries in Lagos. The 2019 election is still a long way away, and it is naive of anybody to put 2019 in view of Atiku decision to congratulate the new leaders of the National Assembly especially when none of the new leaders could be fully said to be Atiku political ally.
Atiku by himself plainly and openly denied that his celebration of the outcome of the NASS elections has anything to do with the 2019 presidential race, but this in the warped mindsets of those who think the APC belongs to them was cosmetic as according to them, the Turaki did not offer any forceful or convincing justification for turning a blind eye to Senator Saraki subversion of party discipline. Indeed, Alhaji Atiku was enthusiastic in welcoming the new NASS leadership. Haba!
Was it wrong for Atiku to have charged the new NASS leadership that: Their election is indeed a call to duty, and it is a call for which they cannot afford to fail the nation. Is it not true that the Nigerian people are looking up to the new National Assembly to work with the executive arm to find solutions to the problems of insecurity, poverty, illiteracy and joblessness in the country?
The earlier the APC leadership put their house in order, the better for them and far better for the entire country because the change the Nigerian people have enthroned, is not for a select few ethnic warlords. A word is enough for the wise!
(SENIOR FYNEFACE: 7D Elelewon Crescent GRA II, Port Harcourt; senior_fyneface@yahoo.com)