Saraki: Are the Senators taking sycophancy too far?

 ON Wednesday, August 1, there was so much tension within the precincts of the National Assembly. Around noon, a video emerged of some ten senators who converged on the new wing of Senate complex for a meeting. The story on the social media was that those lawmakers were seeking avenues to convene the Senate by “hook or crook.”

Though that insinuation was debunked, the lawmakers eventually found their way to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where they had an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari. The emergency rally was understandable; the APC just lost some good number of its members and it’s at the verge of losing its hold on the Senate.  It is important that allies of the President meet with him to reassure him all will be well.

At the Villa meeting, however, national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was quoted as saying that the Senate President should quit his position, having resigned from the ruling party.

It is interesting to see how time flies with attendant changes. Here is the APC that celebrated the emergence of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011, against the wish of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Here is the same APC that encouraged the then Speaker to defy his party all the way and eventually lured him into its fold in 2014.

Interestingly, the PDP was able to stomach the bile and let Tambuwal go with the crown. Today, the chicken has come home to roost and hell is being let loose. Ordinarily, you will say, it serves the APC right, but then are there merits in the Oshiomhole claims?  You will doubt, looking at the story of Senator Bukola Saraki from the start of this administration.  He was not supported to claim the Senate Presidency and he should not be expected to drop the crown for the APC at this stage.

Surely, some roforofo would take the shine off the usually gentle disposition of the Senate and the nation’s politics could in the process gain one or two fresh insights.

Seeing the Senators who packaged themselves to the Villa on Tuesday easily reminds one of the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo as President. The Presidency has always craved opportunities to control the National Assembly since the restart of this Republic. Former President usually had a strong hold on the Senate he didn’t succeed in the House of Representatives. In the Obasanjo days, there were those they referred to in the Presidency as “Villa rats,” those whose lunch was guaranteed at the Villa. A number of them were in the Senate and some in the House of Representatives.

They were usually the ones that briefed the President on the day to day running of the chamber.  They were the ones that coordinated the proverbial “axes of evil” of that era.

We also saw the control of the Villa on the House of Representatives under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua when Dimeji Bankole was the alter-ego of the Villa.  Under former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate became the friend of the Villa as the House was suspect.

The good thing was that all through the era, the Assembly has always ensured it does not completely lose its innocence to the executive. There were investigations, exposures and probes. There was camaraderie. The chambers called the executive to order when it had to bite by extricating itself from a total stranglehold.

On Wednesday, the Senators who visited the Villa were there allegedly to discuss the possibility of reconvening the Senate and the House of Representatives such that the chambers could debate and pass the election budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

With ranking senators in the midst, you will think that the lawmakers should not submit themselves to the whims of political tides by throwing away the rules that make the chambers invincible.

• Ikimi to Saraki, others: You’ve forfeited your seats

Every raking senator should know that recess is an integral part of the legislative business. Everyone of them knew that it does not take clandestine meetings to recall members of the parliament from recess and that only the leadership of the respective chambers can do that.

So why hold secret meetings to discuss the possible reopening of the chamber?

Rather than advise the executive to press the right legislative buttons and take consultations serious, playing the sycophancy card cannot help an administration out of endless executive/legislative battles.

In the instant case of INEC budget, I presume that only the uninformed would agree that there stands an emergency there. Because we are aware Assemblies can be reconvened for emergency sessions. But why would INEC’s budget constitute an emergency when the electoral body knew more than a year ago it would conduct elections in February 2019?  Why won’t INEC compile its budget and make the same available before the scheduled recess of the National Assembly.

But in fairness to the leadership of the legislature, a meeting was said to have been arranged with INEC where it was agreed that the existing provisions in the 2018 budget can sustain it till October. So where lies the hurry to reconvene the NASS? I do know that the Judiciary also has scheduled holidays and no one would hurry the Supreme Court back just because it did not deliver ruling on a robbery case.

The Senators can play politics, which is their game but extending the frontiers of sycophancy can’t edify the chambers they represent.