Do we pity Ndume?

Former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume got bashed by his own men last Wednesday as the Senate slammed a six-month suspension on him. The Ndume saga started really in December 2016, but you can trace the history back to June 9, 2015, when he and members of the Like Minds Senators (LMS) who held their loyalty to Senator Bukola Saraki defied the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) and elected Saraki the Senate President.

He got his reward as Saraki kept to the terms of the bargain and made him Senate Leader against the advice of his party. When the going was good for Ndume in the LMS camp, a mock election for the position of the Leadership of the Senate was conducted among Senators of the North East, the Borno Senator defeated Senator Ahmad Lawan, a lawmaker who had spent the whole of this democratic dispensation in the National Assembly. Besides former Senate President David Mark, who has been a Senator since 1999, Lawan, would come next having been elected member of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2007 and then a Senator since 2007. This is his third term as a Senator.

Having risen to the high post of Senate Leader on the crest of the popularity and number of the LMS, Ndume became large than life. And it was not difficult for his members to identify this. He started making independent visits to the Presidential Villa, even at the time his principal, the Senate President, was yet to gain access. He flaunted his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he claimed to have worked with as a member of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP) and as well as Senator Bola Tinubu, the party’s national leader.

Gradually, Ndume started alienating himself from the realities of the chamber he was leading and not a few of his members took note.

In December 2016, he did the unthinkable when he addressed the press inside the Villa and declared that the Senate was yet to come to conclusion on the case of the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu. Some days before he granted the interview, the Senate had announced its rejection of Magu for substantive appointment based on adverse security report against him.

But Ndume, who at the time as Senate Leader, was one of the four recognised officers who could speak for the institution of the Senate told the world that the Senate was yet to consider Magu and that once the lawmakers resumed plenary in January, the matter would be re-opened. Besides the Senate President, his Deputy and the Chairman of Senate Committee on Media, only the Senate Leader could also speak for the senate as an institution.

Thus, for the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, the Senate had to dissociate itself from its Leader. Senate spokesman, Senator Sabi Abdullahi told the media that Ndume spoke out of point and that the chamber had already concluded Magu’s case.

But the infraction did not end there, Ndume continued to hammer on his point and insisted that Magu has not been screened. That was despite the fact that he was a key member of the Senate at closed session, where the decision on the EFCC boss was reached.

Those who have watched the Senate and the House of Representatives in recent years would easily notice that they jealously guide their words and image. Once a resolution is passed that parliament want to see it to logical conclusion. But for a key player to voice against the entire chamber is something the colleagues won’t take lightly. Ndume should know this, having also served in the House of Representatives before his elevation to the Senate.

In January, he got the boot as the Senate Leader and the Senate had the opportunity to revert to the original script of the APC as per the configuration of the leadership of that chamber.

No doubt, it would hurt if you lose such a position as Senate Leader.

As Majority Leader, he was the leader of government business and the originator of all executive bills. He moves major motions and he practically sits atop the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, even though he is designated as the Vice Chairman.  The Senate Leader runs the chamber, while the Senate President presides. It was such an awesome power backed by a big office.

Perhaps, deeply hurt by the loss of that power, Ndume could not wait to take his pound of flesh from the same system.  He started speaking against the grains of the LMS to which he originally belonged. But he apparently did not reckon he could just be alone. The election of Senator Ahmad Lawan as Senate Leader meant that the key pillar of opposition to Saraki on the floor had practically melted. Before then, Saraki had positioned the main players of the Senate Unity Forum(SUF), the group of Senators that opposed his emergence in strategic Committees.

Thus, when Ndume challenged Saraki to throw open the Senate budget and also raised the motion seeking to probe the Senate President’s links to the alleged purchase of a bullet proof Range Rover SUV, said to have been bought with fake customs papers, he had no visible supporter. His suspension is a lesson in power and legislative conduct. Never challenge a man with the Gavel without your hard, cold facts.