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| Femi Gbajabiamila |
Ahead of today’s
inauguration of the National Assembly, the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC) has picked Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as its consensus candidates
for the Senate presidency and House of Representatives speakership. But, other
aspirants to the two offices are kicking. They have vowed to contest the
positions in defiance of the party’s directive to stick with its position. Will
party supremacy count today on the floor of the National Assembly? Asks Deputy
Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI.
The rancour generated
within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by the race to elect the
National Assembly leadership will perhaps be the first test for the party that
has just been voted into power to give the country a new direction. As a party
that rode to power on the ‘change’ mantra, the APC, according to observers,
must do things differently if it must deliver on its pre-election promises. It
must get all the issues pertaining to leadership, responsibility and discipline
right from the starting point.
The Nation report continues:
Officially, the party has
ruled out the application of a zoning formula in the election of leaders
in the Eighth National Assembly. It has stated that merit will be used in
determining the outcome of today’s contest.
The Northeast and the
Northcentral are locked in the battle to produce the Senate President and the
fight for the House of Representatives speakership is between the Southwest and
the Northeast. The battle, which is reminiscent of the party’s presidential
primaries, has seen the powerful caucuses within its fold scheming to determine
the principal officers in the Red and Green Chambers.
There are divergent views
between President Muhammadu Buhari and the party leadership. The President has
not left anyone in doubt that he does not want to repeat the mistakes made by
previous governments, by insisting on particular candidates.
But, the party leadership
feels that such an important matter cannot be left to the whims and caprices of
influential caucuses within the legislature.
At the weekend, it moved
to ensure that its members go into the chambers undivided. It selected its
consensus candidates at a mock contest, where Senators Ahmed Lawan (Yobe State)
and George Akume (Benue State) emerged as the APC’s candidates for the
positions of Senate President and Deputy Senate President. Former House
Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos State) and Mohammed Mongonu (Borno)
were also picked for the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. But, the
contests were boycotted by supporters of Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara State)
and Yakubu Dogara (Bauchi State). They alleged marginalisation in the process.
Following the fallout,
the APC has asked its members to abide by the party’s consensus decision and
stick with Lawan and Gbajabiamila. It reminded all party faithful that the two
legislative chambers are part of the vehicles for the delivery of the
much-desired change to Nigerians.
According to political
scientists, party supremacy presupposes that party members must be
subordinated to it. The party, they say, makes the rules or policies and
that any member elected on its platform is duty-bound to implement same within his/her
own sphere of authority.
This, they argue is
because a political party is body organized for the purpose of influencing or
controlling the policies and conduct of government through nomination and
election of candidates into offices.
In fact, under the 1999
Constitution, nobody can be elected into any public office without being
sponsored by a political party.
Ideally, for the
relationship between the party leadership and members to be cordial, the party
leadership is obliged to be above board in its decision-making.
Undiluted loyalty from political
office holders
As National Chairman of
the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande said for the
party to fulfill its campaign promises and also provide quality governance to
the people, all its members must strictly abide by the tenet and ideals of the
party.
Chief Akande, who spoke
in Lagos at an induction training, organised by the party for elected members
of the Houses of Assembly on May 24, 2011, reminded the lawmakers of the
supremacy of the party. He told them that an undiluted loyalty was expected of
them.
In his keynote address,
Akande maintained that without any attempt to gag or deprive the members of
their right, it would be of immense advantage for the party’s position if they
build their legislative policies on principles since the party was progressive
and development-oriented.
He told his audience:
“ACN as a party of ideas which is built on principle, must be seen as a channel
of control. No one, according to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the foremost
Nigerian political thinkers, however highly placed, is above the party, or the
discipline and sanctions which the party might care to impose.
“Once the party takes a
decision, it is expected that all loyal party members must abide by it because
nobody is elected independently. So, once you are elected on the platform of
this party, you are expected to be loyal and live by its principles.
“In your own right as a
member of the House of Assembly, you have now become a leader-very important
part of the party structure.”
Party greater than
individual
Ex-Director-General of
the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Tonie Iredia, had in an article,
argued that no individual should be greater than the party.
His words: “The case of Citizen
Ifeanyi Araruame is germane. In 2007, Araruame, then a serving senator of the
Federal Republic, aspired to govern his state (Imo) and applied to his party –
the PDP – to sponsor him for the election. He was enlisted among party members
for a governorship primary election to enable the party choose the best
candidate.
“At the end of the
exercise, the party declared him as the winner of the contest after certifying
that he scored the highest number of votes. On the basis of what no one
understands till date, his victory was later swapped by the party. He went to
court and his plea was upheld but his party, in order to show party supremacy,
worked against him and he lost the election, suggesting that the party believes
in the rule of law minus some court judgments!
“A unique convention of
the PDP is its expectation that its members would operate by consensus. Anyone
who breaches it can be in jeopardy. On this score, political analysts who
follow the party’s activities must have been taken aback the week before when
it was revealed that some PDP governors failed to vote for Governor Jonah Jang
of Plateau State – the party’s anointed candidate for the post of Chairman of
the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).
“It is in earnest strange
that the signatories to the consensus agreement turned out to be more than
those that obeyed the party decision. If the party punishes some and not all
the transgressors, the envisaged strong walls of party supremacy would
inevitably become weakened by the lack of uniformity in handling members. Thus,
for party supremacy to be credible, it cannot be used as a tool for
discrimination.
Iredia said party
supremacy can only thrive when no one is bigger than the party. He said the PDP
was in order when it compelled its former chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to
drop his Chief of Staff because the party constitution did not provide for such
a post.
Iredia said: “Yet again,
a purely advisory body, led by a distinguished Second Republic Vice President,
Dr. Alex Ekwueme, to help the chairman generate ideas and strategies on how to
move the party forward was similarly opposed by the members because such a
committee was unknown to their party’s constitution.
“One way of upholding
party supremacy is to ensure that members elected into public office like
governors are subordinated to the party.”
Former Works Minister
Prince Adeseye Ogunlewe was of the view that a political party was virtually
unquestionable and as such, any of its members who could not abide by a
decision of his party should be shown the way out.
Party leaders and elected
officers are equal partners who should work together for the success of their
party at the polls. The main duties of party leaders, according to political
scientists, are to broaden the party’s support base and lead the party to
victory at the polls. Also, the rights of party members and the dictates of
democracy must be paramount in all their dealings and as a result party leaders
must create conditions for the party’s success and viability by observing
democratic values, steering the party away from trouble and making members to
feel vested in the party.
They are of the view that
the tensions and conflicts inherent in the relationship between party leaders
and elected officials cannot be minimized without attitudinal adjustments by
both sides.
As a result, the APC has
been warned not to fall into the trap that eventually led to the fall of the
PDP. Under its 16-year rule, elected officials of the PDP sometimes acted
against the party’s interest in the name of politics. Take governors, for
instance, they are regarded as leaders of the party in their respective states.
This may not be a bad in itself if such governors themselves abide by the
party’s rules and prevail on others to do so. But, in most cases, the governors
are the laws in themselves; they dictated to the party leadership, by
determining who became a minister and who got the ticket to contest one
position or the other.
One of such observers,
who pleaded for anonymity, blamed the APC leadership for the present crisis
over who emerges in today’s National Assembly leadership election. His words:
“From day one, the party leadership told everyone that it would not abide by
zoning and that members from all zones are free to contest and that the matter
would be decided by merit. It is on this premise that Bukola Saraki and Yakubu
Dogara started canvassing for support for top positions in the chambers.
“It was clearly foreseen
that this might lead to unnecessary division and rancor within the rank and
file of our party, but the party leadership allowed the situation to fester.
But, at the eleventh hour it started the move to come up with consensus
candidates. If the party had made it clear from the beginning that the matter
would be decided in-house, as it is now doing, there would have been no
problem.”
The first and second
republics
According to scholars,
party supremacy was the order of the day during the First and Second Republics,
because individual members of political parties were subject to the decisions
of their party leaders. This was why Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto,
preferred to remain the leader of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and
Premier of Northern Region, instead of becoming the Prime Minister. Under the
parliamentary system, then practised in the First Republic, the Sardauna
automatically ought to have become the Prime Minister, as his party won the
majority seats in the parliament. Rather than occupying the position, Bello
conceded it to Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, deputy leader of the party.
Similarly, during the
Second Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was both the leader of the Unity Party
of Nigeria (UPN) and the party’s presidential candidate in the 1979 general
elections. Awolowo justified such arrangement, saying that while he was the
party chairman, he was “just an applicant’’ for the presidency. The two
frontline politicians stuck to party positions because at that time, no one
dared challenge party directives, while the parties dictated the momentum of
political processes.
There was no struggle for
supremacy between elected political office holders and party leaders because
the lines of duty were clearly defined and religiously followed.
However, the situation
has changed dramatically in recent times, such that elected political office
holders now call the shots.
The rancourous
relationships in the political parties have been blamed on the pattern of party
formation.
The argument is that
there was party discipline in the first and second republics because parties
were not “owned’’ by the moneybags, who did not only see themselves as bigger
than the parties, but took the funding of parties as investments.
It was perhaps the need
to eschew “personalisation’’ of political parties compelled the regime of
military President Ibrahim Babangida to decree National Republic Convention
(NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) into existence. Babangida dissolved all
the political associations jostling for registration and created the NRC and
the SDP to foster a situation where everybody will be equal members of the
parties.
Analysts, however, opine
that the dynamics of change will restore party supremacy in the country, as
democracy cannot thrive without party supremacy. Nevertheless, they argue that
party supremacy would be difficult to attain if over 50 per cent of the
politicians are into politics just because they have no other job to do.
A simple majority of 55
votes of the 109 members is required for a Senate President to emerge. As
at last night, the Lawan/Akume ticket was sure of 35 APC Senators-elect
support, leaving Saraki with 24.
For Lawan to win, he will
need 20 votes from the PDP and for Saraki to win, he will need 31. Both camps
were busy at the weekend wooing their colleagues from the PDP. But the PDP
Senators-elect want to vote as a bloc and they met severally to agree on who to
back between Lawan and Saraki. The meetings were deadlocked. They could not
agree.
Some PDP members broached
the idea of one of their ranking members running. Top among those being tipped
to run is former Senate President David Mark.
Should the APC leadership
fails to prevail on Saraki to step down, party supremacy would have been
disrespected.
“Once
the party takes a decision, it is expected that all loyal party members must
abide by it because nobody is elected independently. So, once you are elected
on the platform of this party, you are expected to be loyal and live by its
principles”
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