Winners, losers and the shape of the incoming Senate

Unexpectedly, some political bigwigs dropped by the way side in the just-concluded National Assembly election. Just as we saw some shocking defeats, so also were some strange victories. The atmosphere was full of mixed emotions; as some celebrated, others were soaked in sorrow and disappointment as gnashing of teeth reigned in such camps. Such is the character of an election that refused to turn out the usual way. The February 23 election threw up ‘strange’ winners and unexpected losers.

The contest for the presidential and National Assembly elections was a two-horse race largely between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At the end of the polls, influential personalities dropped by the way side, new power houses emerged and new kids, so to say, emerged on the block.

Senate President Bukola Saraki

No one expected the news that emanated from Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, which also doubled as the senatorial capital of Kwara Central Senatorial District, shortly after the election of last Saturday. The news was to the effect that the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, had lost his return bid to the Upper Chamber. Saraki had been the cat with nine lives, all through the eighth Senate, weathering all storms and evading all the darts thrown at him.

The two-term senator, however, fell to the damaging campaigns by the opposition which ganged up against his structure in Kwara following his defection from the APC to the ruling party in the state, PDP. The defeat was a big threat to the Saraki dynasty in Kwara, which had held the state since 1979, when the patriarch of the dynasty, the late Dr Olusola Saraki, won election into the Senate and emerged Senate Leader in the Second Republic.

Though Bukola Saraki initially contested the presidential ticket of PDP, he switched to the Senate seat and opted for a possible return to his seat as the nation’s number three man, but the defeat of February 23 shattered that dream. The Senate President lost to APC’s Yahaya Oloriegbe, who is set to be sworn in as senator in June.

Saraki had outsmarted the APC hierarchy in June 2015 when he emerged as the Senate President, contrary to the wish of the party. He was thereafter taken through trials at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over alleged faulty asset declaration. The strongman of Kwara politics has, however, started reconstructing his post-Senate career with the conciliatory statement credited to him on Tuesday where he wished the victors in that election good luck.

Senator Abiola Ajimobi

Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, also lost his return bid to the Senate after his two terms as governor. He lost the Oyo South Senatorial District election to Dr Kola Balogun of PDP in Saturday’s election. The two-term governor, who was basking in the euphoria of having beaten the two-term jinx in the state after the 2015 elections, could however not repeat the same feat and secure a return to the Senate. Some local animosity against his tenure in Oyo was said to have fuelled the people’s anger, leading to his loss of six of the nine local government areas that make up his senatorial district.

Alhaji Ibrahim Dakwambo

Another sitting governor who lost out in the race for the Senate is the Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Dakwambo. He, like Saraki, also contested the presidential race on the ticket of PDP. Having lost out at the Port Harcourt convention of the party, he switched over to the Senate ticket and at the end could not swing that as APC made a clean sweep of the state, owing to a crushing battle for the soul of Gombe by his erstwhile godfather, Senator Danjuma Goje. Dakwambo lost his bid to represent the people of Gombe North to the APC candidate, Sa’idu Alkali, by scoring 88,016 to Alkali’s 152,546 votes. His estranged godfather, Goje, has, however, won his return bid to the Senate.

Senator Godswill Akpabio

Former Minority Leader of the Senate and a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, was also one of the big losers at the February 23 election. He lost the bid to return to the Senate on the ticket of APC which he joined in a dramatic fashion last year.

In an uncommon step last year, Akpabio dropped his coveted seat as Minority Leader of PDP in the Senate to join APC. He claimed he was joining the ruling party to enable him develop his area through the support of the Federal Government. It was a bid tagged “uncommon defection” in line with the former governor’s famous quotes as governor when he tagged himself an “uncommon transformer.”

Akpabio upped the ante of his uncommon achievements when he arrived at the Senate for the first time in 2015 and was allowed to emerge the Minority Leader. Though it was against the ranking rule, PDP then believed that his outspoken nature and ebullient personality would enable him handle the opposition’s roles in the Red Chamber effectively. He suffered an uncommon defeat at the February 23 election, following his loss to Christ Ekpenyong of PDP.

PDP also made a clean sweep of Akwa State by defeating Senator Nelson Effiong, who also defected to APC, while Senator Bassey Akpan of PDP was re-elected. Effiong lost to Akon Eyakenyi, while Senator Bassey Akpan beat Bassey Etim.

The Uba brothers bite the dust

In another unexpected twist in Anambra State, oil magnate and chairman of Capital Oil, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, beat the famous Uba brothers, who had paraded Senator Andy Uba and Chief Chris Uba on different political platforms for the election.

Ifeanyi Uba, who picked the ticket of the little known Young Progressives Party (YPP), emerged winner of the Anambra South Senatorial District election as he polled 87,081 votes to beat his closest rival, Chris Uba of PDP who scored 52,462 votes, as well as Chris’ younger brother and incumbent Senator Andy Uba who scored 13,245 votes on the ticket of APC. It was a shock find for the Ubas who had taken Anambra State by storm since the restart of democratic governance in 1999 and had often dictated the pace of politics in the state.

Senator George Akume

Senator George Akume emerged a senator in 2007 after completing his second term as governor of Benue State. He straightaway emerged the power broker in the Senate as he dragged the seat of Senate President of the sixth Senate with his compatriot, Senator David Mark. Though a first timer in the chamber in 2007, forces seeking to undermine Senator Mark who was earlier endorsed for the seat by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, had raised Akume as a possible replacement. He was recommended to Obasanjo’s successor, who reluctantly backed the aspiration. At the end of voting on the floor, however, Akume only garnered 37 votes, with Mark coasting home with the big price. Ever since then, Akume has however emerged a power broker in the Red Chamber as his name always propped up as a possible presiding officer at the start of every Senate.

In 2015, Akume was one of the hopefuls for the Senate Presidency and actually kick-started a campaign. The contest within APC was between him and Senator Ahmed Lawan who later emerged the Senate Leader. Senator Ali Ndume was to later join the race and made the process dicey for APC senators, many of whom had already queued up behind the eventual winner, Senator Bukola Saraki.

Throughout the life of the eighth Senate thus far, Akume’s name has been propping up each time a leadership vacuum is perceived. However, his defeat by Orker Jev of PDP, last Saturday, marked the end of his dream to return to the Senate for the fourth time. Professor Nicodemus Agbulu, the INEC Returning Officer of the election, had declared Jev winner with 157, 726 votes to beat Akume who polled 115,422 votes.

Senator Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani earned his name in the 1990s as a pro-democracy activist who went in and out of jail houses as a result of his anti-military views. He was first elected to the Senate in 2015 but he immediately emerged the philosopher of the chamber, throwing dangerous darts at the government of the day, though he was a member of the ruling party. The senator, while describing President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight, propounded the theory of fighting corruption with insecticides and deodorants. He also revealed the allegation of monkey swallowing the funds of the Northern Senators’ Forum kept with its erstwhile chairman, Senator Adamu Abdullahi, who however denied such development.

Shehu Sani lost the Kaduna Central Senatorial District seat to Uba Sani, a Special Adviser to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai. He, has, however, refused to accept defeat as he declared that the victory against him was procured in an atmosphere of “electoral fraud.” The Senate and, indeed, Nigerians would surely miss his reasoned interventions, philosophical disposition and poetic renditions at sittings when the ninth Senate opens.

Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan

Former governor of Delta State had his ambition to become a senator truncated during the February 23 polls when he lost to incumbent Senator James Manager, one of the record holders in the chamber right now. Manager, who entered the Senate for the first time in the fifth session in 2003, has remained in the chamber ever since.

• Giving victory to Buhari is grand theft ― Atiku

Uduaghan attempted to unseat Manager for the Delta South Senatorial seat in 2015 but was told by the party leaders then to drop out of the race. He defected to the ruling APC so as to fulfill his senatorial ambition but Manager eventually triumphed, leaving Uduaghan to, perhaps, fight another day.

Bala Bantex, deputy governor, Kaduna State

Incumbent deputy governor of Kaduna State, Mr Bala Bantex, lost his senatorial bid during the February23 election as he was defeated by the incumbent senator representing Kaduna South, Senator Danjuma Lar. Though described as an effective community mobiliser, Lar has not emerged as one of the vocal voices in the Senate since his election in 2015. He, however, showed as a defender of his senatorial district when he spoke emotionally about killings in Kaduna South sometimes back. It was largely believed that his reign in the Senate had come to an end, informing the decision of the deputy governor to join the race. But it became apparent that Senator Lar has held on tightly to his constituents to win comfortably.

A Senate of power brokers, governors, deputies

The next Senate is already emerging a nest of power brokers, with no fewer than 17 former governors set to converge on the chamber from June. Six outgoing governors who will be heading to the ninth Senate would be joined by 11 former governors and three former deputy governors.

The six incumbent governors who are incoming senators include Senator Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State who was a member of the sixth Senate; Chief Rochas Okorocha of Imo State; Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State, one of the longest serving chief executives in this dispensation; Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima; Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State and Governor Tanko Al- Makura of Nasarawa State.

Former governors who are heading to the Senate include Senator Sam Egwu, an incumbent senator who was a governor of Ebonyi State; former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who won the Abia North Senatorial seat; his successor in Abia who is also a serving senator, Theodore Orji, another senator of the 6th Senate, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani who was governor of Enugu State; incumbent Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, and former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje; his counterpart from Kebbi State, who is also a serving Senator, Adamu Aliero as well as Third Republic governor of Kano state and a serving senator, Kabiru Gaya; another Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau; former Nasarawa State governor, who is also a member of the outgoing Senate, Abdullahi Adamu ; another former member of the House and former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, a first term senator as well as the former governor of Sokoto State, who currently serves as a senator in the 8th Senate, Aliyu Wamakko.

Also heading to the ninth Senate is a former deputy governor of Abia State, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. Abaribe, currently Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Metarllurgy and Steel Development, would be coming to the Senate for the fourth term. He would be joined by another former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chris Ekpenyong, as well as the deputy governor of Jigawa State, Ibrahim Hadejia.

With the array of power brokers that will be on parade in the ninth Senate, the lawmakers and the political parties would have to adopt strict caution in picking the presiding officers. There are bound to be caucuses other than the formal caucuses that would be recognised on the floor. And any error in picking the chamber’s leaders would easily dovetail into the emergence of the proverbial “axis of evil.”

And with the ruling APC already emerging with a majority of the seats in the 109 Senate, it has to employ wisdom and diplomacy in sorting the leadership issues in the Senate. Strict zoning might create immediate crisis owing to the fact that a number of senators who are returning to the chamber had, earlier in the eighth Senate, shown interest in the Senate Presidency.

There is the incumbent Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, who was endorsed in 2015 in a rancorous primary process by the party and eventually lost it to Senator Saraki. There is also Senator Abdullahi from Nasarawa, a former governor who could leverage on the support of his former colleagues, 17 of whom are now poised to hit the chamber. There is also Senator Danjuma Goje, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, who is also a former governor of Gombe State. Goje and Senator Lawan are from the North-East, while Abdullahi is from the North-Central.

Aside the three, other senators who could lay claim to leadership positions in the Senate that would emerge in June include Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who was first elected into the Senate in 2003, Senators Oluremi Tinubu, Solomon Adeola and a former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, who won his Oyo Central Senate District seat. Senator Fatai Buhari (APC Oyo North) is also a ranking senator, who could vie for positions that would be open to ranking lawmakers from the South-West and leverage on the support of his governor colleagues, whose rank is consistently growing in the Red Chamber.

For APC, which is set to emerge with majority seats in the ninth Senate, caution and strict political calculations, as well as openness by the party leaders to the lawmakers, would guard it against the sort of embarrassment it suffered in 2015. But then, any attempt to over-regulate the process of emergence of the new Senate leadership stands being resisted by the men of power, who are in their numbers in the emerging Red Chamber.