NASS crisis: Akande stokes the fire

In from Chukwuma Michael…

The claim by former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande that oil barons were behind the emergence of the new leadership of the National Assembly has further widened the crack in the ruling party which has defied all measures to cement it.

The crisis, which emanated over the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives, respectively at the inauguration of the Eight National Assembly on June 9, has cut short the euphoria that ushered in the APC government.

The duo had emerged against the choice of their party through a power deal they struck with their counterparts elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The new Senate President and House Speaker were former members of the PDP until they pitched their tent with the APC in 2013. Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State emerged unopposed through the support of about 60 senators who were present during the inauguration, while Dogara polled 182 votes against Femi Gbajabiamila’s 174.

Ironically, Saraki’s main challenger, Senator Ahmed Lawan and other 50 APC senators were at the International Conference Centre (ICC) where they were billed to hold a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari when the election took place in the Red Chamber.

No doubt, the development humbled the leadership of the ruling party, which had opted for Lawan and Gbajabiamiala as heads of the upper and lower legislative chambers respectively, but it offered the opposition PDP the opportunity to clinch the position of Deputy Senate President through the immediate past occupant of the seat – Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Read also: This APC house may fall if… -Akande

Though the APC initially threatened sanctions against the “rebels” but later made a detour, the issue got to a head when Saraki announced the names of new principal officers of the Senate on June 25. The names were different from those submitted by the leadership the party.

Those who emerged were those who won the mock elections conducted by the zonal caucuses of the party. They include Senators Ali Ndume (Majority Leader), Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Deputy Senate Leader) and Francis Alimikhena (Deputy Chief Whip). The position of Chief Whip has not been decided.

Expectedly, the Senator Ahmed Lawan group, which is backed by the leadership of the party rejected the list. But a similar attempt to adopt the Saraki model in the House of Representatives resulted to exchange of blows between members of the two factions in the chamber.

Since then, it has been an attrition war, with members of both camps firing salvos despite admonishments by Nigerians for them to put their house in order and face governance.

The most shocking of the brickbats is the allegation by Akande. The former Osun State governor, who had before the crisis averred that APC had no zoning arrangement, said those jittery of President Muhammadu Buhari’s constant threat of anti-corruption battle encouraged and financed the rebellions against the ruling party’s position.

His words: “Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against APC with strong support. While other position seekers are waiting in the wings until Buhari’s ministers are announced, a large section of the South-West see the rebellion as a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.”

According to him, “polluted interests, who saw the inordinate contest for principal positions as a loophole for stifling APC governments’ desire to fight corruption, hijacked the process of choosing leaders of the National Assembly,” adding that now the conspiracy had blown open, it was doubtful if the present institutions of party leadership could muster the required capacity to arrest the drift.

But the Senate President in his response, denied being funded by persons associated with dubious claims in the infamous oil subsidy.

In a press statement by his Special Assistant (Print Media), Mr. Chuks Okocha, Saraki averred: “For avoidance of doubt, we want to make it abundantly clear that it is totally false, untrue and calculated mischief to suggest that Senator Saraki’s emergence as Senate President was facilitated by oil barons. This is a case of calling the dog a bad name so as to hang it. Another blatant lies that cannot fly. In any case, Senator Saraki was elected unopposed as the Senate President, therefore the lies that he was sponsored by the oil barons cannot hold.”

The House of Representatives Speaker, on his part, described the allegations leveled against him by Akande as false, baseless and unbecoming of a statesman.

Dogara, who spoke through his Special Adviser (Media), Turaki Hassan, said: “Incase Chief Akande does not know, the first investigative motion adopted by the 8th House of Representatives under the leadership of the Speaker was to investigate the allegation of fraud in the oil-swap contract awarded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), in its reaction berated Akande for accusing the North of conspiring against Yoruba’s in the current face-off in the APC.

National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mallam Muhammad Ibrahim, not only dismissed Akande’s allegations as “disappointing, reckless and unbecoming of an elder statesman,” but cautioned against tribal and regional sentiments, which according to it, Nigerians voted against in the last elections.

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Akande was however backed by the Action Group of the APC, which described his position as that of a sincere leader. Spokesperson of the group, Segun Dipe, said: “Our position is that all sensible party faithful should heed Baba Akande’s call at this point and queue behind him.”

No doubt, the last is yet to be heard of the crisis from the warring camps, but stakeholders advise that what the APC leadership needs to do is close ranks and deploy internal conflict resolving mechanisms, to bring the various interest groups on the same page, as Nigerians cannot afford to wait any longer for governance to take off.

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