In Africa, if any country qualifies as the workshop of democracy, it is Nigeria. The nation democracy has always been unpredictable, robust and, in some cases, defies logic to always put bookmakers to shame and that is what the return of Ike Ekweremadu and the election Bukola Saraki as Deputy Senate President and Senate President respectively, just proved again. This development connotes critical lesson for democracy in Nigeria as it shows that democratic rule is deepening in the land and giving way to more national and rational politics. Nigerian politics will certainly do with less impunity, less imposition.
To begin with, the buildup to the final election at the Senate on the 9th of June never featured Dr. Ike Ekweremadu as a candidate for any position even though the absence of any senator elected on the platform of the APC from the South East made that somewhat plausible. Yet, Ekweremadu never really featured except perhaps in the behind-the-scene maneuvers. So, when George Thompson Sekibo, Senator who represents the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State nominated him, it took many by surprise.
Pitted against Senator Ali Ndume, Ike Ekweremadu no doubt towered a lot higher going by the fact that he had held the position twice and left large footprints. But in Nigeria politics, primordial sentiments always have a way of sipping into decisions and making nonsense of everything. Beyond parochial interests, Ike Ekweremadu belongs to the PDP, a Political Party which only days ago was a ruling Party and the largest in Africa, and therefore was not conventionally expected to run and win. But it is obvious that the PDP exploited the cracks in the APC, where the members of the PDP who decamped to the APC, had not received a reciprocal attention or considered for any sensitive position. Obviously, the Party, which initially did not show much interest in who becomes the Senate President, Deputy or Speaker and Deputy, moved into the fray in fury and attempted to shut out Senator Bukola Saraki in favour of Ahmed Lawan and George Akume as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.
The move by the APC to take charge of the process and possibly make the final election mere fate accompli fell flat on its face for so many gross errors of judgment. First, both Saraki and Dogara rejected the mock election organized by the National Working Committee of the Party, where members were hoodwinked to vote between Saraki and Lawan in open ballot. The lack of secrecy robbed the Party the opportunity to really gauge the popularity of the two aspirants and they went away with the false hope that Lawan/Akume ticket was a done deal.
While APC was banking on party loyalty, which is yet to crystallize in the fragile union, they indiscreetly wished away 45 PDP Senators and 4 others from Labour Party and APGA who have traditional ties with the PDP, making it only 10 senators separating the two Parties. Since the APC does not enjoy absolute majority in both Houses, it was naive to carry on as if the other Parties do not count. It is this poor calculation that created the lacuna that was exploited to the fullest.
Many may not know, but the President, before his trip to the G7 Summit at Munich, Germany, transmitted a letter to the Clerk of National Assembly to convoke the new National Assembly at 10 am of 9th of June. Despite this presidential directive, the APC wrote the Clerk directing him to shelve the proclamation of the 8th National Assembly ostensibly to enable them put their house in order. The Party has no such right. It was the President they should have prevailed on to send another letter rescinding his earlier one.
Rather than admitting their mistakes and accepting their fate and making do, the APC through its National Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said on Channels Television on the 10th of June :”We will challenge NASS election results in court, as both Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara are not our candidates for the positions. Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to reestablish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary punishment to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new President Buhari’s administration.
Furthermore, the 1999 Constitution, without any ambiguity, states that “the Senators shall elect from among themselves…†What this presupposes is that the Constitution envisages the possibility and even desirability of a minority Party producing the leadership of any of the two Chambers of the National Assembly. This has happened in and outside Nigeria. In the US, for example, the President of their Senate is even the Vice President.
In Nigeria, in 1999, the Cross River State House of Assembly elected an APP (as the Party then was) legislator as its Speaker whereas the PDP had majority and also produced the State Governor. Rt. Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal defected to the APC, then a minority Party in the House of Representatives and yet kept his seat. PDP challenged it and lost because the Constitution allows bipartisanship in the Legislature and does not bar minority Parties from holding any office in the Houses, including those of presiding officers.
Only days ago, the Speaker of the Benue House of Assembly , elected a member who belongs to the PDP (minority} whereas majority of the members of the Benue House are of the APC. Historically too, it does appear the Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the first President of the Nigerian Senate from the outside.
So, the election of Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President is backed by both precedence and the Constitution. Despite all that, the role of the dramatis personae is no less remarkable. Ike Ekweremadu is one politician whose rise and rise is as enigmatic as it is metronomic. Right from the time he was the Ani Nri Local Government Chairman and his exploits while there to his days in Enugu State Government as both SSG and Chief of Staff, observers could easily see a most methodical politician, critical thinker and political strategist. These factors and many more saw to his emergence as Senator in 2003 and then as Deputy Senate President in 2007, 2011 and yet again, in 2015.
Within the period, Ekweremadu, partnering with David Mark ( a very dependable ally) and the leadership of the House of Representatives, midwifed 4 constitutional amendments as well as becoming the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament. The last constitutional amendment included legislative and judiciary autonomies in the States, but the former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, curiously failed to assent to, despite a deal to remove the sections the erstwhile President considered offensive or inconsistent.
The return of Ike Ekweremadu is therefore a great omen. The botched 4th constitutional amendment is bound to witness a spontaneous recovery under his guidance once again rather under a new man. Also, in a Senate where up to 70% are first time senators, his encyclopedic experience will without a doubt benefit the new senate leadership and save valuable time. The new Senate is bound to hit the ground running and gain traction in no time with his return and zest.
Law Mefor is an Abuja-based Forensic Psychologist and Journalist; email:lawmefor@gmail.com; Tel.: +234-803-787-2893