NASS: The siege, the defections and matters arising

"For my friends everything, for my enemies the law"

-          Ex-Peruvian President, Óscar Raymundo Benavides Larrea (March 15, 1876 – July 2, 1945)

The Siege

Tuesday, July 24, 2018 was a sad day for democracy in Nigeria. On that day, a detachment of Police and operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission laid siege on the official residences of both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. While the Senate President was able to outsmart the police by allegedly sneaking out of his residence by personally driving himself through another route, the DSP was not that lucky. He was not allowed to leave his residence. It beggars believe that Saraki whom police had invited to appear before  the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force in Guzappe, Abuja that same morning will be prevented from leaving his residence.

I cannot also fathom the rationale behind the siege on the official residence of the Deputy Senate President who should ordinarily preside over the sitting of the red chamber in the event of absence of the Senate President. According to his Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu there was no prior invitation to the senator by any of the security agencies or the EFCC. If there was none; then why the siege on his official residence? Grapevine sources said the plot was actually to prevent the two principal officers of the senate to attend plenary that fateful Tuesday in order to pave way for their impeachment by some senators. There was also another that says that the siege was to thwart efforts of some senators to defect from the ruling All Progressives Congress to opposition political parties. Whatever was the motive of the arrowheads and masterminds of the siege on the homes of the SP and the DSP; it is tantamount to a civilian coup and is condemnable.

Saraki’s and Ekweremadu’s political ‘sins’

It will be recalled that since the emergence of the duo of Saraki and Ekweremadu on June 9, 2015, there have been several attempts to demonise them and get them removed from their exalted positions.  This is because; they allegedly went against the wish of the All Progressives Congress who had penciled down the exalted seat of Senate President for Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State. Saraki was dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false asset declaration almost ten years after leaving office as executive governor of Kwara State. He has been discharged and acquitted on this by the Supreme Court on Friday, July 6, 2018. When his traducers saw that they will not be able to secure his conviction on that count, he was in April 2018 fingered as the sponsor of a gang of dare-devil armed robbers who killed over 30 people in a bank raid in Offa.  It was this allegation on which he is being investigated that made the police to extend invitation to him to appear in person at 8am on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Allegation of economic crimes has also been leveled against Ekweremadu. APC leadership has been very bitter with his emergence as the Deputy Senate President because he is from the opposing, Peoples Democratic Party.

Police denial

With the failed attempt to prevent the Senate President from sitting on June 24, the police was quick to distance itself from the siege on the Senate President and Deputy Senate President residences. DCP Jimoh Moshood, spokesman of the Nigeria police force, says the siege at the residence of Senate President Bukola Saraki was “stage-managed for public sentiments”. According to Moshood, “We have the responsibility to protect him so we can’t block him. If we were expecting him at 8am, why should we block him?” he said. He further volunteered that over 140 security personnel of the police are attached to the national assembly “and about 40 are attached to the senate president, including other units”. Well, he said the IGP has directed an investigation into the incident.

If the police knew nothing about the incident at the Senate President’s house, what about the one that happened at the residence of the Deputy Senate President? Were the two mere coincidences or orchestrated? Why Saraki was invited at about 8pm on Monday, July 23, 2018 and was asked to report the following morning at 8 more so as he had previously obliged the police with a written statement on what he knew about the Offa robbery? How could the detachment of police attached to the President collude with him to create a scene of blockade against the person they were meant to protect? Why did the police not send the investigators to meet with Saraki on Tuesday as they eventually did on Thursday, July 26?

It will be recalled that there has been no love lost between the Nigerian senate and the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris who on three occasions this year had rebuffed senate’s invitation to come and explain what he is doing with the worsening security situation in the country as well as the harassment and molestation of Senator Dino Melaye.

April 18 invasion of NASS and theft of Senate Mace

Force PRO, Jimoh Moshood is telling Nigerians that there were 140 policemen on guard duty at the National Assembly Complex, where were they when hoodlums led by a serving senator invaded the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 and carted away the mace? What has happened to the senator? Indeed, as quoted in the opening paragraph of this essay, the law if for your enemies, the exemptions are for your friends.

APC hemorrhages, July 24, 2018 mass defections

In spite of the siege on the homes of the two principal officers of the Senate, the defections that the powers-that-be didn’t want to take place did happen. On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 51 lawmakers comprising 14 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives did cross-carpet from the governing APC to opposition political parties PDP, African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)  and United Peoples Party  (UPP). It would be recalled that on Monday, July 9, 2018, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) and 36 other political parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in a grand alliance to form a government of national unity in 2019.

Though some of the senators who were alleged to have defected such as Senators Adesoji Akanbi from Oyo State and Lanre Tejuosho from Ogun State later recanted, it is noteworthy that the APC chances of remaining in power in 2019 is seriously being threatened. Many political watchers know that all has not been well within the APC fold. This was as different interest groups within the party have been alleging marginalisation. This was even before the new-PDP group wrote officially to immediate past APC chairman John Odigie-Oyegun on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.  The group which later rebranded as Reformed-APC had listed several grievances and demanded an emergency meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. They complained that despite the role they played in bringing APC to power in 2015, they have been neglected in the scheme of things by the administration. It will be recalled that on February 9, 2018 President Buhari appointed former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a leader of a reconciliation team for the party. This was part of the reason the APC did not want to conduct congresses and convention before the president on March 27, 2018 asked the party to follow its own constitution and that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by conducting its congresses as at when due. This was eventually held in May before the convention was held on June 23, 2018.

Crack in APC before and after congresses

The fallout of the congresses and the convention led to holding of several parallel congresses as well as litany of litigations. During the congresses the governors were largely pitted against their senators in many states. Last Tuesday’s defections of some lawmakers and the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom who decamped to PDP from APC is reminiscent of what happened in 2014/2015 when there was exodus of governors and lawmaker from the then ruling PDP to APC. It shows the nomadic nature of Nigerian politicians just as it bears being stated that defection of politicians is not peculiar to Nigeria or Africa. It is a global phenomenon. A member of House of Representatives who was among the recent defectors said on a TV programme that both former President Ronald Reagan and the incumbent US President, Donald Trump were both former members of the Democratic Party before deciding to pitch their tent with the Republican Party under which they were both elected president.

It is noteworthy that our incumbent president started off his quest to become Nigeria’s civilian president in 2003 under the auspice of All Nigerian Peoples Party. He later left the party to co-found Congress for Progressive Change which then teamed up with Action Congress of Nigeria, ANPP and a faction of APGA to form the governing APC in February 2013. Right from the Nigeria’s First Republic, there has been defections as politicians are perpetually in search of where their interests will be best served. After all, it is said that in politics, there is no permanent friend or enmity but permanent interest. When Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila who is the House of Representatives Majority Leader kicked against defection last Tuesday and asked his party APC to go to court to seek interpretation of section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the issue, I wonder why his voice was mute when APC was the beneficiary in 2014/15. Though he has a point to say those who defected are ticket hunters, is that a crime in politics? It’s all about interest. Quite unfortunately, Nigeria’s interest is being sacrificed on the altar of this gale of defections and shutting down of the National Assembly till September 25, 2018 when many vital national issues have not been attended to. The one that worries me most is the non-approval of the request of president for virement of N164.10bn to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission begin preparations for the 2019 general election which is less than 200 days away.