Crisis looms in Senate as Saraki finally dumps APC for PDP

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Embattled President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, has dumped the ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC), just as the Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed also defected from the APC and joined the PDP.

Saraki made this known via his Facebook account on Tuesday evening.

But there is apprehension on what will be be the configuration of the leadership of the Senate after the resumption of National Assembly on September 25.

The development had created a constitutional issue of who controls the Senate as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 51 senators (Saraki inclusive) remains a minority party as against 53 senators of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with simple majority.

The Senate rule demands that the Senate president among other principal officers must be elected from the party with majority members in the upper chamber.

Saraki has the burden of convening the Senate for the purpose of ratifying President Buhari’s virement request to fund the 2019 general election among other emergency national spending.

It is no more news that that the Senate is divided alongside those loyal to the Buhari-led APC government and those seeking the status quo.

This is further heightened by the altercation between the Senate president and senators loyal to Buhari represented by Senator Adamu Abdullahi (APC, Nasarawa).

The crisis looming is around the number of senators required to convene the emergency plenary as it will be difficult for the ruling APC to garner mandatory two- thirds senators of 73 in a 109 Senate to ratify the presidential request or remove Saraki.

To convene an emergency sitting of the Senate for the purpose of ratifying the president’s request might be difficult and this may further extend the face-off between the two arms of government.

The Senate President in his twitter handle noted that: “I wish to inform Nigerians that, after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This is not a decision that I have made lightly. If anything at all, I have tarried for so long and did all that was humanly possible, even in the face of great provocation, ridicule and flagrant persecution, to give opportunity for peace, reconciliation and harmonious existence.

“Perhaps, more significantly, I am mindful of the fact that I carry on my shoulder a great responsibility for thousands of my supporters, political associates and friends, who have trusted in my leadership and have attached their political fortunes to mine.

“However, it is after an extensive consultation with all the important stakeholders that we have come to this difficult but inevitable decision to pitch our political tent elsewhere; where we could enjoy greater sense of belonging and where the interests of the greatest number of our Nigerians would be best served.

“While I take full responsibility for this decision, I will like to emphasise that it is a decision that has been inescapably imposed on me by certain elements and forces within the APC who have ensured that the minimum conditions for peace, cooperation, inclusion and a general sense of belonging did not exist.

“They have done everything to ensure that the basic rules of party administration, which should promote harmonious relations among the various elements within the party were blatantly disregarded.

All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined.

And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion.

“The experience of my people and associates in the past three years is that they have suffered alienation and have been treated as outsiders in their own party. Thus, many have become disaffected and disenchanted.

At the same time, opportunities to seek redress and correct these anomalies were deliberately blocked as a government-within-a-government had formed an impregnable wall and left in the cold, everyone else who was not recognised as “one of us”.

This is why my people, like all self-respecting people would do, decided to seek accommodation elsewhere.

“I have had the privilege to lead the Nigerian legislature in the past three years as the President of the Senate and the Chairman of the National Assembly.

The framers of our constitution envisage a degree of benign tension among the three arms of government if the principle of checks and balances must continue to serve as the building block of our democracy.

“In my role as the head of the legislature, and a leader of the party, I have ensured that this necessary tension did not escalate at any time in such a way that it could encumber Executive function or correspondingly, undermine the independence of the legislature.

Over the years, I have made great efforts in the overall interest of the country, and in spite of my personal predicament, to manage situations that would otherwise have resulted in unsavoury consequences for the government and the administration. My colleagues in the Senate will bear testimony to this.

“However, what we have seen is a situation whereby every dissent from the legislature was framed as an affront on the executive or as part of an agenda to undermine the government itself.

The populist notion of anti-corruption became a ready weapon for silencing any form of dissent and for framing even principled objection as “corruption fighting back.

“Persistent onslaught against the legislature and open incitement of the people against their own representatives became a default argument in defence of any short-coming of the government in a manner that betrays all too easily, a certain contempt for the Constitution itself or even the democracy that it is meant to serve.

“Unfortunately, the self-serving gulf that has been created between the leadership of the two critical arms of government based on distrust and mutual suspicion has made any form of constructive engagement impossible.

Therefore, anything short of a slavish surrender in a way that reduces the legislature to a mere rubber stamp would not have been sufficient in procuring the kind of rapprochement that was desired in the interest of all.

But I have no doubt in my mind, that to surrender this way is to be complicit in the subversion of the institution that remains the very bastion of our democracy. I am a democrat.

And I believe that anyone who lays even the most basic claim to being a democrat will not accept peace on those terms; which seeks to compromise the very basis of our existence as the parliament of the people”, declared Saraki.

He said the recent weeks have witnessed a rather unusual attempts to engage with some of these most critical issues at stake, but unfortunately, the discord has been allowed to fester unaddressed for too long,

with dire consequences for the ultimate objective of delivering the common good and achieving peace and unity in our country, adding that any hope of reconciliation at this point was therefore very slim indeed. Most of the horses had bolted from the stable.

He said the emergence of a new national party executives a few weeks ago held out some hopes, however slender.

“The new party chairman has swung into action and did his best alongside some of the Governors of APC and His Excellency, the Vice President.

I thank them for all their great efforts to save the day and achieve reconciliation. Even though I thought these efforts were coming late in the day, but seeing the genuine commitment of these gentlemen, I began to think that perhaps it was still possible to reconsider the situation.

“However, as I have realised all along, there are some others in the party leadership hierarchy, who did not think dialogue was the way forward and therefore chose to play the fifth columnists.

These individuals went to work and ensured that they scuttled the great efforts and the good intentions of these aforementioned leaders of the party.

Perhaps, had these divisive forces not thrown the cogs in the wheel at the last minutes, and in a manner that made it impossible to sustain any trust in the process, the story today would have been different.

“For me, I leave all that behind me. Today, I start as I return to the party where I began my political journey, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“When we left the PDP to join the then nascent coalition of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, we left in a quest for justice, equity and inclusion; the fundamental principles on which the PDP was originally built but which it had deviated from.

We were attracted to the APC by its promise of change. We fought hard along with others and defeated the PDP”, said Saraki.

He said it is now evident that the PDP has learnt more from its defeat than the APC has learnt from its victory.

“The PDP that we return to is now a party that has learnt its lessons the hard way and have realised that no member of the party should be taken for granted;

a party that has realised that inclusion, justice and equity are basic precondition for peace; a party that has realised that never again can the people of Nigeria be taken for granted”.

Saraki’s decision to dump the ruling party has therefore thrown open the leadership of the Senate as APC senators on which platform he and other principal officers were elected have demanded his resignation from from the party to pave way for loyal APC members to assume leadership of the upper chamber.

Meanwhile, some Senior Lawyers on Tuesday commented on the legal implications of Saraki’s defection from the ruling APC.

A Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said that “the Senate President will write to the Senate also, informing the chamber of this defection.

He said that the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, will preside over the session where Saraki’s letter will be read.

He referred to Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 68 (1) states thus: “A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if- (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored political party, he becomes a member of another political party expiration of the period for which that was elected:

Provided that his membership of the latter political party is result of a division in the political party of which he was pre member or of a merger of two or more political parties or faction of which he was previously sponsored.”

But Mr Daniel Bwala, a legal practitioner and public commentator, said Saraki dumping of APC has legal and political far reaching consequences.

He said, “Politically, Saraki has a strong based in Kwara State, therefore his defection will adversely effect the fortune of the ruling party.

“On the other hand, the implication is that Saraki has given up the fight within the APC. The Senate President also appeared to have taken steps legally to ensure that he would not be found wanting because a division already exist in the APC.@

Hameed Jimoh, an Abuja based lawyer, said that “after a careful consideration of the provisions of Sections: 40, 45, 65, 66 & 221 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010, he holds the view that “there is no provision in our law,

especially the constitution of Nigeria, prohibiting defection of elected officers, in this case, Senator Bukola Saraki from APC to any other political party of his choice, for the protection of his interests.

“That the issue of being a member of a political party or association is a provision of the constitution and so can only be restricted by the constitution itself and there is no such provision in our constitution restricting such right, which is a fundamental right contained in chapter IV of the constitution.

“There is no justification to to rely on section 45(1) of the constitution to derogate from such political right of the Senator unless and until the constitution is amended to that effect.

Any contravention of the Senator’s fundamental right to belong to any political party of his choice shall entitle the Senator to seeking redress in court as provided for in section 46(1) of the constitution”.

He agreed there is the need to amend the constitution to restrict defection from one political party to another, in the national interest, after having enjoyed the benefits of winning an election into government office and after the sacrifices gone through by the political party.

However, he said the defection of the Senator from APC to PDP or any other political party is legal and constitutional as he has only decided to utilise his fundamental right to peaceful assembly and association in accordance with the articles 10 & 11 of the African Charter on Human & People’s Rights and article 20 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Resolution 219A (III) of 10 December, 1948.

Saraki’s defection: Tambuwal scenario may repeat in Senate
The announcement of Saraki’s defection is repeating a similar scenerio where Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who was elected as the then Speaker of the House of Representatives against the wish of his former party, PDP, defected in 2014 to the APC carrying along the speakership of the PDP to the APC.

It is believed that the same scenario may play out at the Senate following Saraki’s defection who will be taking with him the Senate presidency to the PDP.

However, the implication may be more for the APC, as it is expected that Saraki may also defect alongside his loyalists in the Senate who are members of the APC. With this development, the APC is likely to lose its slim majority and at the same time handover the Senate presidency to the PDP, which also has the deputy Senate president.

The Daily Times recalls that Tambuwal was able to have a smooth ride after his defection because he had a one-on-one working relationship with members.

Aside riding on the back of senators elected on the platform of the PDP to become the Senate president, his travails at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, over alleged falsification of assets declaration and lately his criminal prosecution before an Abuja Federal High Court for forgery in connection with the 2015 Senate Rules, have fuelled talks about his return to PDP.

Many, including Saraki himself, believe he is being persecuted by his party, the APC, because of his emergence as the president of the Senate, a development the party is still not happy with till date.

Saraki was accused of going against the decision of the party over the leadership of the Senate, just as Yakubu Dogara did same at the House of Representatives.

News Analysis: Big fish finally defects from ruling party
It was the fulfillment of prophesy on Tuesday as the Senate President true to many predictions dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the party on which platform he rode to the Senate to eventually attain the highest seat in the chamber to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party he dumped to join the APC.

Saraki’s defection from the APC made history, as no Senate President in the history of Nigeria’s political life has ever abandoned the party that he rode to power for another one.

This action has effectively divided the government of President Muhammadu Buhari between the APC and the PDP, as the PDP may now call the shot at the Senate.

The defection of Saraki to the PDP, an action long awaited by many political watchers, considering that most of his foot soldiers had earlier abandoned the ship of the ruling party for the leading opposition,

an action which many see as the main cause of the political tension that has engulfed the polity in the last few days, may eventually be the icing on the cake of the impending full blown political war that has already left many with bated breath.

Now that Saraki has made his move, many political watchers are waiting for the next move of the APC, that is if what transpired in Benue State on Monday, where seven of the 30 lawmakers in the state were helped by security agents to convene a sitting and serve the governor of the state, Governor Samuel Ortom, who had only recently also defected to the PDP, an impeachment notice, while the rest of the lawmakers were prevented from gaining access into the Assembly complex.

From all indications, the next line of action, according to political watchers, is the plan to impeach Saraki, a move that was allegedly made recently when his official residence and that of his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, was condoned off by the Police, allegedly to prevent either of them from presiding over the sitting and give room to loyalists of the President to preside and impeach both Saraki and Ekweremadu, but as usual, Saraki outsmarted them and appeared at the sitting even with the blockade on his home.

Despite Saraki’s political smartness, another move will obviously be made to impeach him and install a Senate President that will be loyal to the President and from the APC, but the question now is can it be done?

To remove the Senate President, the lawmakers require 73 of the 109 lawmakers to endorse it and it is not a question of simple majority of those present and the law does not give room for some members to be suspended to achieve the aim, and from the calculations of the Senate Leader the last time some Senators defected to the PDP, the highest number of Senators in the APC now is 53 and even if all those belonging to the small parties decide to team with the APC Senators, achieving 73 will be a herculean task.

It is also expected that Senators loyal to the President led by the Senate Leader will attempt to reconvene the Senate before the September 17 date that it adjoined sitting to, to try and speed up things and help give a sense the President is in control, but that also will be another mission near impossible, as the law does not permit just anybody, outside the Senate President or his deputy to call for the reconvening of the House.

With the direction things are going presently, it will be safe to assume that the political drama that the nation witnessed in the last few days will be a child’s play when compared to what is coming; it will only be a matter of time.