For President Muhammadu Buhari, the emergence of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member as deputy Senate President in the current dispensation is nothing short of a setback for his administration. He is irked that some members of his own party, All Progressives Congress (APC), conceded the position to Ike Ekweremadu when the PDP never gave that much all through its 16 years in power between 1999 and last May. But he is optimistic that the APC will overcome the setback.
Balarabe Musa: APC must insist on party supremacy
Posted by: Abdulgafar Alabelewe in News 2 hours ago
Abdulgafar Alabelewe in Kaduna spoke with Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the former governor of old Kaduna State.
Second Republic Governor of the old Kaduna State and prominent Northern voice, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) to insist on party supremacy in the current crisis rocking the party in the National Assembly.
Balarabe Musa however said, President Muhammadu Buhari must wade into the National Assembly crisis, should his party fail in doing so, arguing that, if the President fails to do so, the National Assembly will lead him into a worst situation than they led President Shehu Shagari in 1979.
According to the septuagenarian politician, APC cannot afford to let go of the developments in the National Assembly because its existence as a party depends on the loyalty of its members.
In his words, "No political party worth its name will sponsor a candidate and leave the candidate to do what he feels like, because at the end of the day, the party will be responsible for his conduct.
"Even as we talk of democracy and internal democracy, we cannot exclude the power of a political party over the power of a candidate it has sponsored in an election to represent it because there, they are representing the party.
"Under this circumstance, the APC should insist on the supremacy of the party without undermining democracy. It must insist on the loyalty of its members otherwise there will be no party and there will be no party government.
"First, the party through its National Chairman should try to convince the members of the party in the National Assembly of the need to listen to the party and take guidance from the party," he said.
The first Executive Governor of Kaduna however advised that if the National Assembly members refuse to listen to the party chairman, the President must intervene between the party and members of the National Assembly.
"But this will be very difficult under the current circumstance because those he would be persuading are not members of his party, this is because it was PDP members who elected the Senate President and the Speaker, so there is a limit to how the party and President can prevail over these members. He will be trying to prevail over Senators and members of the House of Representatives who are not members of APC but PDP, the party he defeated just yesterday. So, it is not an easy task, it is a very difficult matter.
"But all the same, President Muhammadu Buhari has been elected as the President of all Nigerians, like the Yoruba say, 'Oga patapata or Kabiyesi' and the north would say 'Sarkin yanka'. So, the President has enormous power irrespective of the party. If he is skillful, he can still prevail over the members of the Senate and House of Representatives to behave in the interest of the country," he opined.
While he likened the current development to the 1979 regime of President Shehu Shagari, Musa advised Buhari to turn to Nigerians for assistance if the National Assembly insist on dragging him into Shagari's predicament.
According to him, "at the end of the day, Nigerians will choose whether to support the president or the legislature and from the look of things, Nigerians will prefer to go with their president, rather than pitching their tent with the legislature.
"One example the President should be reminded, because he knows about it is that during the Second Republic, when Shagari was the President of Nigeria and we were governors, a serious problem arose within three months of our swearing-in. Members of the National Assembly attempted to fix their own remuneration. When Shagari realised that the economy of the country at that time could not support that, he called meeting of the National Economic Council and informed us that he called members of NPN in the Senate for a dinner and they refused to attend because he did not support the idea of National Assembly fixing its enumeration.
"So, he sought for our help irrespective of our party differences. Initially, we told him to handle it alone since it was an NPN internal matter, but after making us to understand that it will become a national issue, we agreed to form a 5-man committee, made up of a governor from each of the five parties. After the committee sat down and recommended remuneration for all public officers throughout the country, from local government to the Presidency.
"After submitting our recommendations to the President, he went to the press to publish the recommendations of the National Economic Council and the National Assembly was up at arms, the Senate in particular, under the leadership of Senator Joseph Wayas. They even threatened to remove governors from members of the National Economic Council.
"Again, the President on our advice decided to involve party leaders to prevail on their members in the National Assembly because they were all sponsored by parties. So, Awolowo, Zik, Aminu Kano, Waziri Ibrahim and Akinloye were all invited to a meeting of party leaders with governors. In spite of the animosity between Shagari and Awolowo, Awolowo did not prevent his party governors from attending the meeting to help Shagari because he saw it as a national matter, but to our surprise, Senate President came to the meeting laughing. We later discovered that the President had approved the money they wanted.
"Now, that failure of the President to restrain the National Assembly members from fixing their own remuneration opened the gate of corruption, stealing and criminal waste of resources in this country, which we are still battling with. If Shagari had been able to stop them, we wouldn't have been where we are today. Immediately they got that, they began to give themselves all sort of allowances and harass ministers, asking for contracts and all that.
"Now, APC's President Muhammadu Buhari is now facing the same problem that Shagari faced and could not deal with it. Now, if the President fails to prevail on the members of the National Assembly and fails to call on Nigerians for support, they will lead him to the same situation as they led Shagari and his own will even be worse because the state of the nation as it is today is more negative, 100 times more negative than it was in 1979," said Balarabe Musa.S
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THE NATION
Buhari: Ekweremadu as Saraki's deputy unacceptable
Posted by: Yusuf Alli in Featured, News 1 hour ago
•APC governors, state chairmen want Saraki, Dogara to accept party's list on principal officers
•Ogbeh may head disciplinary committee
For President Muhammadu Buhari, the emergence of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member as deputy Senate President in the current dispensation is nothing short of a setback for his administration.
He is irked that some members of his own party, All Progressives Congress (APC), conceded the position to Ike Ekweremadu when the PDP never gave that much all through its 16 years in power between 1999 and last May.
But he is optimistic that the APC will overcome the setback.
President Buhari made his feelings known at a meeting with a delegation of the Unity Forum at the Aso Rock Villa on Friday night.
The forum is the group of senators backing Dr. Ahmed Lawan, the APC anointed candidate for the Senate Presidency.
Buhari, at the meeting, reportedly pleaded for the understanding of APC Senators as the party explores reconciliation options.
However, the majority of the APC governors and state chairmen of the party are insisting that Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Reps Speaker Yakubu Dogara comply with the party's directive on the choice of principal officers of the National Assembly.
The APC governors and state chairmen are encouraging the leadership of the party to enforce discipline to prevent it from collapsing.
Some party leaders, it was gathered, have proposed a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, as chairman of the APC Disciplinary Committee to look into allegations of anti-party activities against some members.
President Buhari at the Friday meeting was said to have said there was no reason for the party to be divided over who heads the National Assembly.
"The President gave us audience and admitted that the development in the Senate was a setback but he expressed confidence that APC will overcome it," a source at the meeting said.
"He said there was no basis for the split among APC Senators which led to the concession of the Office of Deputy President of the Senate to the PDP. He said PDP did not give the opposition such an opportunity in its 16 years in power.
"Buhari told Lawan and others not to take the law into their hands as the leaders of the party explore reconciliation options. He said peace and the survival of the nation's democracy should be paramount more than any other thing."
Asked to assess the President's mood at the session, the source added: "He was not happy about the development in the Senate but he was hopeful that the situation is redeemable if some leaders can sacrifice their ambitions for the survival of APC and his administration."
Another source said: "The session was cordial and reassuring. The President interacted with us individually and even had time to crack jokes with us before we receded into the business of the day.
"As for the Lawan group, it was Senator Barnabas Gemade who spoke on behalf of the 51 aggrieved Senators.
"Gemade said the Unity Forum is after justice since its members have demonstrated their faith in APC leadership and having been loyal to the party to a fault.
"Gemade restated the six demands of the group and the need to prevail on Saraki and Dogara to abide by the directive of the party on the nominees for principal offices in the Senate and House of Representatives."
The source quoted Gemade as saying: "When the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo called a meeting to address the looming challenge, it was only our group that responded; we were the only group which participated in the party's straw poll and even on June 9, we deferred to the party's invitation to a meeting at the International Conference Centre.
"Before anybody knew it, the Like Minds went for the inauguration of the Senate and elected Saraki.
"We have proved our unflinching loyalty to the party. This is the time for the party to assert itself and enforce discipline or else members will continue to take the leadership of the party for granted."
Ahead of the meeting of the National Executive Committee of the APC on Tuesday, there were indications last night that the governors elected on the platform of the party and state chairmen are pushing for Dr. Saraki and Hon. Dogara to comply with the party's directive on the choice of principal officers of the National Assembly.
They said they will no longer tolerate the defiance of the party by the two leaders.
A member of the NWC said: "We are expecting a stormy session on Tuesday. Saraki and Dogara will have to choose between loyalty to the party or self-serving agenda.
"The only condition for moving forward is for these leaders to accept the list sent to them by the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
Those recommended by the APC for Senate positions are Sen. Ahmed Lawan(Majority Leader)—North-East; Prof. Sola Adeyeye( Chief Whip)—South-West; Sen. George Akume( Deputy Majority Leader)—North-Central; and Sen. Abu Ibrahim(Deputy Chief Whip)—North-West.
The party's list for the 8th House of Representatives is as follows: Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila( House Leader)——South-West; Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa( Deputy House Leader)—North-West; Hon. M. T. Monguno( Chief Whip)—North-East; and Hon. Pally Iriase( Deputy Chief Whip)—South-South.
It was gathered that if Saraki and Dogara refused to respect the party's list, APC may resort to sanctions.
It was learnt that some forces in the party are pushing for the appointment of a former National Chairman of PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh as the head of the party's Disciplinary Committee.
A top member of the party said: "There is no doubt that Ogbeh is well grounded in party politics and he is a disciplinarian. We are thinking of him to assist in unraveling the anti-party activities in the Senate and the House."
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