Since Senator Ahmad Lawan lost out in the race for the presidency of the 8th Senate, some members of the Senate Unity Forum (SUF) who backed his candidature then have continued to live in denial. Living in denial of the reality is one of the worst things that can happen to anybody. These self-styled pro-Lawn senators may need to wake up in their own interest and the interest of those who elected them. That the life line of the Eight Senate is fast kicking may be to say the obvious. That the few senators still clinging in the wing of a better-forgotten SUF has continued tactlessly to waste the slot of the Senatorial district they represent in the Senate is also not in doubt.
At their own volition and in a devious bid to suppress, intimidate, muzzle and abridge the democratic rights of Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, at the inauguration of the Eight Senate on 9th of June, some of senators elected on the platform of the ruling party – the All progressives Congress (APC), had congregated at the International Conference Centre purportedly to attend a meeting called by President. Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari never attended the so-called meeting. Yet Nigerians were made to believe that President Buhari initiated the meeting. Till dated Nigerians have not been told who actually fixed the ill-advised meeting. While the APC Senators were marooned indie the Jenner recess of the ICC, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa read Mr. President’s proclamation order and proceeded to the next business of the day, the election of Presiding Officers. Saraki was duly nominated and seconded by his colleagues; because there was no other nomination, the Clerk declared him duly elected as the Senate President in accordance with the Rules and Standing Orders of the Senate.
Then came time to elect the Deputy Senate President; Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was nominated and seconded. Also nominated for the same position was Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume of the majority All Progressives Congress (APC). Ekweremadu the candidate of the PDP defeated Ndume when the votes were taken. The APC cried blue murder following the outcome of the elections. However, Nigerians who observed the elections concluded, and rightly too, that APC sabotaged and robbed itself of a God given opportunity through a rash meeting it convened at the ICC on the inauguration day. What is more, since the events of June 9, few members of the SUF have continued to live in what has been described by Senate watchers as a dream land.
To make matters worse, the have persevered in their slumber while appearing to elongate their sleep so they can continue to enjoy the victory they consciously willed to the PDP through the election of Ekweremadu. Appearing to be stoic, the boisterous and highly pompous erstwhile candidate of the SUF on his part, has continued to keep tight lips on the floor of the Senate, while his lieutenants and foot soldiers, have continued to nauseate their colleagues and by extension the Nigerian populace with their infantile post-defeat tantrums. Notorious among these bad losers are Senators Kabiru Marafa and Suleiman Hunkuyi – self-styled spokesperson and secretary of the SUF respectively. Marafa, after woefully failing in his vow to make the Senate ungovernable, has of late embarked on another ignoble task of the Fault-Finders-In-Chief of the Senate. This too will fail. Having hibernated for a while, the recent naming of committee chairmen and deputies by Saraki has again given the pro-Lawan senators something to drool on. While they have painted the picture of Armageddon of the increase of the Senate Standing Committees from 57 to 65, they are back to where they started by angling that Ekweremadu, a duly elected Deputy President of the Senate, should never preside over deliberations of the Senate.
Those who know better say the position of the SUF on Ekweremadu fly in the face of accepted practices in a multi-Party democracy. For instance, late Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke of the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) was the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1983, in a chamber with the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) as majority. Lawmakers of the NPN stock did not abandon the chamber because Speaker, Chief Ume-Ezeoke, was from the fold of a minority party. Of note today is the fact that the U.S. Congress is being presided over by a Republican member of parliament despite the fact that the Democrats control the government at the centre. In fact, Vice President Joe Biden is regarded as the head of the U.S. Congress. Biden is a Democrat like President Barack Obama. Yet they both work with a Republican member of parliament who presides over U.S. congress.
Again, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in Section 50 (1b) clearly stipulates how a Senate president, deputy Senate president, House speaker and deputy House speaker could emerge irrespective of the party that has the majority. Need I say that there is no evidence that Saraki made Ekweremadu his deputy. Ekweremadu was duly nominated and elected by his colleagues. For all intents and purposes, Ekewremadu has the constitutional right to preside over the affairs of the Senate anytime the Senate President is not around as stipulated by the Constitution and the rules of the Senate. The stance of a few SUF members on Ekweremadu has been dubbed the height of irresponsible parliamentary behaviour which has exposed their ignorance about the procedures and processes of a parliament in a multi-party democracy.
The few SUF members and their backers may have failed to realise that in a democracy, power belongs to the people. The people at regular intervals confer this power on a chosen few or withdraw their mandates from those they have entrusted with it through free, fair, credible and transparent elections. Senator Marafa and his co-travelers have not come to terms with the events of June 9, neither are they willing to allow other more focussed Senators to the discharge the duties and responsibilities for which they were elected.
For crying out loud, could any unprejudiced observer of the events of June 9th say that a mere text message, if indeed there was such text message, is superior to a presidential proclamation duly signed by the C-in-C and communicated to the Clerk to the National Assembly for the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly? Such phantom text message could only be superior to a presidential proclamation in a wonderland like Nigeria!
The fact that the National Assembly needs to move on and fast too, must be given currency while the persistent moves by few SUF members, as chiefly represented by Marafa, Hunkuyi and their co-conspirators should be decisively nipped in the bud by the 8th Senate and fast too. In fact, analysts had rightly posited and I agree with them that the failed threat by the SUF through the Zamfara Central Senator, Kabiru Marafa, to bring down the roof of the National Assembly because Ahmad Lawan lost election on June 9 was a joke taken too far. Time has come to tell Marafa, Hunkuyi and their backers in clear term that they should not continue to mistake the peaceful nature of the leadership of the Senate for cowardice.
Who are these pro-Lawan Senators anyway? Marafa is one of their hatchet men. Those who know Marafa are not surprised going by his less than civilized antecedents. A former commissioner in Zamfara State, Marafa cannot lay claim to any laudable achievement as an official of state in that capacity. Although Marafa has been in the Senate long enough to imbue him with legislative etiquette and international best practice, his un-parliamentary behaviour is legendary. Marafa is a man easily moved to anger and ever ready to pull-off his, more often than not, coat of many colours babanriga for a fight even in the hallowed chamber of the Senate.
Twice in the 7th Senate he attempted to beat up two senators from the South-South geo-political zone on the floor of the upper chamber over disagreement that could have been otherwise overlooked in the spirit of legislative camaraderie. Just a few months ago, ‘macho man’ was caught up in another show of crass irresponsibility when he squared up to beat up another senator at the APC Senate caucus meeting. Analysts have rightly concluded that what Marafa lacks in deep legislative acumen he makes up by always positioning himself as the attack dog of the SUF. It has become necessary for Marafa to be educated on acceptable parliamentary behaviour or be recalled by his constituents and equally replaced by a more worthy character from his constituency should he fail to turn a new leaf.
However, ignoring the divisive tendencies of the few SUF members, Saraki as a great leader, has continued to indulge them to an extent most analysts have termed unacceptable. For instance, the Senate President acting in character with his urbane upbringing and political savviness, has continued to pilot the affairs of the Senate in the most efficient and effective manner. Disregarding malevolently orchestrated efforts being made by these opportunistic pro-Lawan lawmakers to hurt his person and rubbish the work and progress being recorded by the 8th Senate under his leadership, Saraki recently showed large heartedness when he sufficiently integrated all members of the SUF by making them heads or deputy heads of some of the 65 Senate Standing Committees he constituted. It is widely believed that Saraki, being a progressive thinker conceded some of the best committees, – some call them ‘juicy’ – to members of the SUF including Lawan and George Akume in the interest of peace and harmony in the Senate which is necessary to deliver cutting edge legislation to support of the Change Agenda of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari. For the avoidance of doubt, Lawan was made chair of the Defence Committee – he has not rejected it while Akume another undercover agent of the SUF was allocated the Committee on Army. Akume did not reject it.
Others include Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Agriculture), Chairman of SUF, Chief Barnabas Gemade (Housing), Senator Abu Ibrahim (Police Affairs) Senator Babajide Omoworare (Committee on Rules and Business), Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Committee on Land Transport), Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Women Affairs) and Marafa who was named chair of the Committee on National Identity and National Population and also vice chairman of the Sports Committee, among others. Saraki by this very act has demonstrated that there is no place for political animosity and vendetta in his makeup. It can be said that no Presiding Officer has tolerated anarchists in any chamber of the National Assembly since 1999.
Contrary to popular expectation, all the SUF members have held tight to the committee’s allotted to them instead of rejecting them in continuation of their fruitless pull-him-down advocacy. Rather, flushed with the sagacity of Saraki, Marafa praised the Senate President for the gesture saying the committees he was assigned were ‘very juicy.’ So much for the loquacious the spokesman of the SUF who continually seeks to destroy the institution that accords him voice and recognition.
The point must be made that the pro-Lawan lawmakers who barely number about 20 are by no means superior to over 80 others that comprise the 8th Senate. Perhaps, until the 8th Senate invokes necessary laws to checkmate the ill-motivated and selfish excesses of these bad losers, they would continue to trample on the integrity and malign the character and excellent work of the red chamber. What these few but headline grabbing lawmakers are doing if not checked and urgently too, may seriously harm and hamper the legislative agenda of the 8th Senate as well as rubbish the character, authority and image of the Upper chamber. The Senate on its part cannot continue to look the other way while these fellows continue to disparage and garbage its efforts and cause avoidable disaffection among its fold. It is time for Marafa, Hunkuyi and their acolytes to be made to face the Senate’s Ethics Committee for their gross misconduct and ruinous activities, which for far too long has subjected the Senate to public disdain, ridicule and odium.
Indeed, Enough is Enough!
Abdulrazaq, a public affairs analyst wrote in from Anyigba, Kogi State.
