The party primaries of various parties left a sour taste in the bud of some politicians, including political heavyweights. Most hit are principal officers and outspoken members of the ninth Assembly. KEHINDE AKINTOLA and TIJANI ADEYEMI x-ray the aftermath of the primaries and the consequences for the National Assembly.
The results of the just-concluded party primaries are a mixed bag of joy and sadness for several members of the National Assembly. While some former governors were successful in their quest for senatorial candidature of their various parties, some senators and members of House of Representatives failed to get return tickets. There were also cases of some who decided to seek for higher political offices and others who did not secure return tickets owing to the zoning arrangement of their parties. Some who sought to be governors also lost out on becoming their party’s standard-bearer. Apparently displeased at the zoning arrangement in their parties, some withdrew from contesting in protesting, though there were those who voluntarily decided not to seek re-election. The battle in some states was a fierce one between the lawmakers and governors, deputy governors and party leaders. The political battles in the past few weeks left in its wake several casualties raising questions about whether some were more strategic in the battle to outwit the other.
Among those who lost in the political battle in their parties were the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Senator minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who lost at the just concluded primaries. They, however, among others who resolved to resign from their parties with a view to getting another party platform to push their quest for a return to the Senate.
Four senators jostled for the APC presidential ticket but failed to get it. They are the current President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan; Deputy Whip of the Senate, Senator Ajayi Boroffice; former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and the former governor of Imo state, Senator Rochas Okorocha.
Displacing incumbent senators were some former governors to include former Edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole; former Sokoto governor, Aliyu Wammako; former Zamfara governor, Abdulaziz Yari; former Kano governor, Senator Kabiru Gaya; former Enugu governor, Chimaroke Nnamani; former Nasarawa governor, Tanko Almakura; former Gombe governor, Senator Danjuma Goje; former Benue governor, Senator Gabriel Suswan.
Those who also secured tickets to contest for the senate in the 2023 election include Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State; Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; Governor Sani Bello of Niger State; Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State; and Hon. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.
Those senators that crashed out in the race for governorship in their states were the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia State); George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers East); Gershom Bassey (PDP, Cross River South); Senate Leader Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi North); Yusuf Yusuf (APC, Taraba Central); James Manager (PDP, Delta South); and Senator Ike Ekweremadu (Enugu West).
Senator Abaribe, who pulled out of the race, has dumped the PDP and joined the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to run again for Senate.
Meanwhile, some senators, who aspired to return to the senate but lost their bid for a return ticket were: Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara Central); Tolu Odebiyi (APC, Ogun West); Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger North); Bulus Amos (APC, Gombe South); Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South); Barkiya Abdullahi (APC, Katsina Central); Olubunmi Adetunmbi (APC, Ekiti North) and Senator Frank Ibezim (APC, Imo North).
Some not comfortable with the primaries in their states, protested and lost the bid to return to the upper chamber were Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Francis Alimikhena (APC, Edo North); Senator Godiya Akwashiki (APC, Nasarawa South); Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central), Senator Dauda Jika (APC-Bauchi), among others.
The situation was virtually the same in the House of Representatives as those who failed to get return tickets of their parties were the deputy minority leader, Honourable Toby Okechukwu; Deputy Minority Whip, Honourable Adesegun Adekoya; Honourable Sergius Ogun, Honourable Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, Honourable Henry Nwawuba; Honourable Shina Peller.
However, those senators who secured the governorship candidature of their parties are deputy Senate president, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta); Uba Sani (Kaduna); Teslim Folarin (Oyo) and Sandy Onor (Cross River); Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Adamawa) and Emmanuel Bwacha (Taraba).
Low turnover rate of lawmakers
Apparently worried at the misgivings of lawmakers about their losses at the primaries with threats to leave the party, the national chairman of the APC, Senator Adamu Abdullahi had recently met with the APC caucus in the Senate. Though he noted that defections were not unusual prior to general election, he expressed worry that the current trend pointed to the fact that the tenth House of Assembly may be dominated by first timers and inexperienced lawmakers.
Adamu said: “In every election year, this kind of thing gives cause for stakeholders to sneeze and Nigeria is not an exception, so is the APC not an exception. I don’t care about what is happening in other parties, my focus is on the APC. But we all know that the occurrence is not only happening in the APC; it’s happening across other political parties, too. And, because we are the ruling party, our problems are exaggerated before the public.”
Some lawmakers expressed grave concern at the low turnover rate of lawmakers for the tenth Assembly. While expressing grave concerns over the development, Honourable Sergius Ogun (PDP-Edo) who described the development as unfortunate said: “We do zoning and I chose to respect zoning even though others contested, it is within their rights to contest.”
While frowning at the low turnover rate of lawmakers into the parliament, Honourable Ogun maintained that the turnover rate based on the party primaries “is very bad. We lose the institutional memory. We have a very understanding Speaker, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila and even the deputy speaker, you see the first timers, they struggle to understand the procedures but they kind of guide them, we guide them the same way we were guided but with what is going to happen in the next House – the 10th Assembly, it’s going to be worse.
“From what we see now, we probably have less than 20 percent of members coming back. That’s going to be a lot of work. We have been trained, we have been exposed to a lot of committees, all that, most of us are taking away. Then you’re going to have a lot of new set of people, it’s not good for the country and I hope we can address it and do something about it in the subsequent general elections,” Ogun said.
In a chat with Nigerian Tribune, Chairman, House Committee on Navy, Honourable Yusuf Gadgi said: “turnover is something that is very fundamental to many parliament across the globe because there is wisdom in the crafters of democratic constitution across the globe particularly, Nigeria, United States of America, United Kingdom allowing timeless tenure to Parliament.
“Why because they don’t want the institutional memory to be lost. Institutional memory in the sense that, a law has been made, signed into law by the Executive and put into practice by agencies concerned. Parliament in the course of executing that law that was signed by the Executive into practice will be studying from time to time the attendant defects and only people that have institutional memory of how the law came to be, and what was the law, what was the intention of the law and what did the law seeks to cure?
“Then you make amendments based on the institutional memory that you have. If you don’t return parliament, not because I’m a parliamentarian, not because I want people to be returned, not because I’m seeking for another term of office, No. if you don’t allow
majority of the parliament to be returned, definitely there will a communication gaps between laws that are made and how to adjust those laws to be able to address those intentions of that particular law.
“So you discover that the crafters of the constitution decided to say that the Executive should spend two terms of four years, whereas the parliament has the right to continue to remain there. In advance democracy like United States of America, the Speaker of the congress of the United States of America you know how long she has been there and the majority leader of the Senate in the case of the democracy of United States of America is given to the most senior, the most ranking, simply because they want to retain that institutional memory and they don’t want dichotomy between laws that are made and how you amend the laws and adjust them to address to cure specific needs at a particular point in time. Be that as it may, we are developing in Nigeria but again, parliamentarily we are progressing and retrogressing. It’s important for people to understand why lawmakers need to be returned to either State of Assembly or National Assembly for the purpose of making democracy work.”
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