POLITICS: Role Of Underdogs In The Ninth National Assembly Leadership Struggle

As the 9th National Assembly is set for inauguration on Tuesday, LEKE
BAIYEWU examines how the aspirants to leadership positions in the next
Assembly would influence the voting pattern
The Ninth Assembly will be inaugurated on Tuesday June 11, 2019. On that
day, leaders of the two chambers – Senate and House of Representatives –
will be elected by members of the chambers.
The elective positions, also known as presiding offices, are: Senate
President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
In 2015, the APC had chosen the current Senate Majority Leader, Senator
Ahmad Lawan (Yobe, North-East), to be President of the Senate; and the
House Majority Leader, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos, South-West), to be the
Speaker.
However, Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara, North-Central) and Mr Yakubu
Dogara (Bauchi, North-East), though APC members then, formed alliance
with the opposition and minority Peoples Democratic Party to emerge as
Senate President and Speaker, respectively.
While Senator Ike Ekweremadu (Enugu, South-East) of the PDP was elected
Deputy Senate President as part of the deal, Mr Yusuff Lasun (Osun, South-
West) of the APC emerged Deputy Speaker, against the wish of the ruling
party.
However, the Eighth National Assembly ended on June 6 with a closing
ceremony.
Perhaps, to avoid a repeat of that drama, shortly after the 2019 general
elections were concluded, struggle for the leadership of the next Assembly
began. To date, no fewer than six senators-elect had declared their interest
to contest either Senate presidency or deputy Senate presidency.
In the House, the aspirants were over 20. Allocation of the presiding and
principal offices to the various geopolitical zones by the ruling APC has,
however, forced some of the aspirants out of the race while some are now
lobbying for deputy speaker and majority leader positions.
Most significant among those who quit the speakership is Deputy Majority
Leader, Mr Idris Wase (Plateau State), who is now the APC’s candidate for
Deputy Speaker seat.
But some aspirants who are dissatisfied with the zoning plan of the ruling
party have insisted on running for the offices.
Of the six geopolitical zones in the country, the APC has zoned the Senate
presidency to the North-East and zoned the deputy Senate presidency to the
South-South.
In the North-East, there were three major contenders for the Senate
presidency, namely Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe); former
Majority Leader, Senator Ali Ndume (Borno); and Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe).
The APC has endorsed Lawan as its candidate for the Senate President seat.
However, while Ndume has insisted on running for the position against
party’s position, Goje on Thursday backtracked and announced his support
for Lawan.
In a related development, the ruling party was said to have also picked
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of Delta State for Deputy Senate President.
For the House of Representatives, the APC has zoned the seat of Speaker to
the South-West and adopted the Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, as its
candidate, while the Deputy Speaker seat was given to the North-Central.
However, aspirants from the North-Central seem to be posing the biggest
threat to Gbajabiamila’s ambition. From the zone, there are two other
aspirants apart from Wase; Mohammed Bago from Niger State and John
Dyegh from Benue State.
According to these lawmakers, their agitation for the speakership is to fight
the cause of the zone which they claimed has never produced the speaker or
deputy speaker since 1999.
There are also aspirants from the South-East who have alleged
marginalisation in the manner the APC shared the leadership positions. They
are Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and Chike Okafor. While the former once called on
Gbajabiamila to step down for the sake of national interest having been
Minority and Majority Leader before, the latter called on the National
Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, to review the zoning formula.
There are also two aspirants from the South-West who have yet to quit the
speakership race. They are Oladele Olatunbosun and Olugbenga Odebunmi,
both from Oyo State. The lawmakers had separately argued that the slots
zoned to the South-West should not be limited to Lagos State where
Gbajabiamila is from.
In what appears to be a confirmation of the anti-APC/Gbajabiamila plot, a
member of the House and senator-elect, Mr Emmanuel Orker-Jev, said the
APC members in both chambers of the National Assembly had been
disunited over the leadership of the next assembly, hinting that the PDP
might determine the eventual winners of the leadership positions.
Oker-Jev said, “The APC has enough majority in the House of
Representatives and in the Senate to put up the leadership of those houses
without any contribution. Even if the PDP decides not to vote, they can still
produce the Senate President and Speaker. Their problem however is that
they cannot even agree among themselves. And since they cannot agree, we
also have a role; the members of the opposition, the PDP in this case, have a
role to play and we are going to play that role. We will look at the candidates
and determine the best person for the job.”
No fewer than 170 lawmakers, including four co-aspirants and several PDP
and opposition members attended Gbajabiamila’s official declaration
ceremony, where they pledged their support for his bid.
Again, 178 newly-elected members across party lines have announced their
endorsement of the House Majority Leader.
Last week, Gbajabiamila in company with over a hundred members-elect
began a nationwide campaign tour, visiting states in the South-East and
South-South geopolitical zones.
Although several aspirants to the Speaker’s seat have stepped down for
Gbajabiamila, others who spoke to our correspondent on condition of
anonymity between Friday and Saturday, said they would go ahead to
contest the seat.
The Director-General of the Gbajabiamila Speakership Campaign Council, Mr
Abdulmumin Jibrin, had recently announced that Gbajabiamila was
consulting the current Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara; former Speakers, current
and former governors, opposition lawmakers and other speakership
aspirants over his ambition.
The PUNCH had reported that Dogara was in talks with Gbajabiamila to
protect the interest of his loyalists in the coming 9th National Assembly. It
was reliably learnt that the Majority Leader and the Speaker had met on the
matter at least twice.
Speaking with our correspondent, Gbajabiamila’s Senior Legislative Aide, Mr
Olanrewaju Smart, also said his principal had contacted all other speakership
aspirants.
“It is the same way that we are talking to the PDP members and other
opposition members. Also, we are still talking to the Speaker,” he added.
A speakership aspirant, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of
anonymity, however said he remained in the race.
The lawmaker, who dismissed the endorsements received by Gbajabiamila,
stated that only members-elect would determine the next Speaker with their
votes.
The aspirant said, “I don’t know about any consultations. I am running my
race and I am focused on it. I don’t want to entertain any distractions. It is
left for the members of the House of Representatives to determine; they are
the ones that will vote.
“There are so many things going on behind the scene that members of the
public do not know about. We know that some people are the ones trying to
impose their interest on the party.”
A source in the camp of Bago also told our correspondent that the aspirant
from Niger State was not in talks with Gbajabiamila.
“Bago is still very much in the race,” the source said, adding, “Bago is from
the North-Central, a geopolitical zone that has not produced either a
speaker or deputy speaker before. For the sake of justice, fairness and
equity, the zone produced the third highest votes – more than the South-
West – for President Muhammadu Buhari and should be considered.
However, it appears that Gbajabiamila and his loyalists are aware of the
stealth plan by their opponents.
A source in his camp told our correspondent, “Go and watch all those who
are campaigning against Gbajabiamila, they are those who voted for Dogara
in 2015 and they still belong to that camp. And they held a meeting where it
was planned that all of them should crowd the race; that they should run,
spend money, do everything and not step down; so that at the end of the
day, they will split the APC votes and nominate a candidate favourable to the
PDP. Their candidate would now get a block vote from the opposition. That
is what they have been doing.
“All those contesting against Gbajabiamila today are those who did anti-
party in 2015, voted for Dogara and benefitted from the allocation of
committees. They know that if Gbajabiamila comes, he will reform and
restructure the system, and allocate the committees on merit. And there is
no way it will be done on merit that some of them will retain their seats.”
Meanwhile, one determinant factor, which has divided lawmakers and
Nigerians, is the voting method to be adopted in the selection of leaders of
the Ninth Assembly.
While open ballot was adopted for the Seventh NASS leadership election in
2011, secret ballot was used in the Eighth Assembly poll in 2015.
In an interview with our correspondent, a speakership aspirant from Oyo
State, Mr Oladele Olatunbosun, said the Standing Order of the House of
Representatives states that the ballot should be secret.
“In the parliament – in this instance, the House of Representatives, will
operate based on set rules. We have the Standing Order, which is where the
rules for the conduct of our day-to-day business are taken from. Order 2, if
you check, specifically mentions that in electing the presiding officers –
Speaker and Deputy Speaker, voting shall be by electronic or secret. That is
the Standing Order, its rules were approved in 2016 and those rules have not
been changed. So, on the day of inauguration, it is the same rules that the
Clerk to the National Assembly will apply in conducting the elections,” he
said.
However, Omo-Agege has asked for a return to open ballot voting system
used for the election of leaders of the Seventh National Assembly in 2011.
The lawmaker described as illegal the secret ballot used in 2015.
The lawmaker, who is the Secretary of the Parliamentary Support Group, a
body of the APC lawmakers protecting Buhari’s interest in the Assembly, said,
“It has to be open, because the last valid and subsisting Standing Order is
the open ballot method used in 2011.
“In 2015, there was a purported amendment; which was done by the
management led by the Clerk to the National Assembly (Mohammed Sani-
Omolori). It was changed to secret ballot. Recall that in the Seventh Senate,
Senator Ita Enang (now Senior Special Assistant to the President on
National Assembly Matters – Senate) was the chairman of the Committee on
Rules and Business.
“He said there was never a time when the said amendment was carried out
by the Seventh Senate.”
Enang had said, “I can also tell you too that this Eighth Senate has not at
any time adopted that amendment. That amendment was done by the
management of the National Assembly, but Section 60 of the Constitution
gives lawmakers, not NASS management, the power to make rules regarding
the running of the National Assembly. And we, the Senators of the Eighth
Senate, did not make this 2015 Standing Order.
“So, what it means is that the last valid and subsisting Standing Order is that
of 2011. So, there is no way the Clerk to the National Assembly will come in
here (into the chamber) on that day and attempt to use this 2015 Standing
Order.”
Whichever method is adopted, Nigerians are waiting to see the outcome of
the election of leaders of the Ninth Assembly.

https://punchng.com/role-of-underdogs-in-the-ninth-national-assembly- leadership-struggle/