Feelers we are getting from political circles indicate that Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is scheming to retain his position in spite of the fact that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) from which he has defected to the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) is still assumed to have the majority in the national assembly.
These are Saraki’s words while announcing his defection on Tuesday, “I wish to inform Nigerians that, after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC)”
Recall that Mr Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State, emerged the senate president in June 2015 following the success of the APC at the general elections. He and 10 other senators had joined the party in January 2014 from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The other senators were Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Mohammed Ndume (Borno South), Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Magnus Abe (Rivers South East), Wilson Ake (Rivers West).
Others were Bindo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Abdullahi Gobir (Sokoto East) and Alhassan Aisha Jummai (Taraba North).
Mr Saraki emerged the senate president against the wishes of the leadership of the APC, which favoured Ahmed Lawan, the incumbent senate leader.
As the new political equation is still being worked out, the former senate president’s associates argue that although a clearer picture of which of the parties between the APC and PDP will command majority in the upper chamber when the senate resumes from recess in September, Section 50 of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended) does not bar persons from minority parties from occupying the position of the senate president.
Section 50 (1) (a) of the document states that there shall be “a President and Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”
Mr Saraki associates interviewed say that he would rely on the provision to retain his seat until June 2019 when the Ninth Senate would elect its presiding officer and new principal officers.
They further argued that defecting to another party was not one of the ways a senate president could lose his position.
Further supporting their argument, they cited Section 50 (2) of the Constitution which says “The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office:
- a) If he ceases to be a member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case maybe, otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives; or
- b) When the House of which he was a member first sits after any dissolution of that House; or
- c) If removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of the House.
There was also the argument that in line with the constitution, there were occasions in the past political dispensations in the country where persons from minority parties presided over both chambers of the National Assembly.
They made specific reference to the Second Republic when the late Edwin Ume-Ezeoke of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) was Speaker of the House of Representatives while his deputy, Ibrahim Idris, was of the then governing National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
Both cases were however made possible because of the alliance formed between the two parties after the 1979 elections.
The National Assembly, they posited, have also seen then Speaker Aminu Tambuwal defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC but retained his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Also in the current Eight Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the PDP, is sitting as the deputy senate president despite belonging to the minority PDP.
Saraki’s men said that although they would not foreclose attempts by the APC leadership to seek to remove the senate president, they warned however, that such move might also trigger the removal of other principal officers who are members of the ruling party.
The spokesperson to Mr. Saraki, Yusuph Olaniyonu, confirmed that Mr. Saraki was not considering resigning as Senate President.
