Saraki and the audacity of courage!

The emergence last Tuesday of Most Distinguished Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki (APC, Kwara Central) as the Senate President and Chairman of the 8th National Assembly is a veritable sign that Nigeria's democracy is fast advancing. For, contrary to the predictions of some bookmakers and in defiance of political anointments by the powers-that-be in the governing All Progressive Congress (APC), the suave Kwara political maestro made history by becoming the 7th Senate President of Nigeria's Fourth Republic.

Since last Saturday when the APC Senators-elect met at the National Conference Centre, Abuja to elect a candidate it would present for the position of Senate Presidency, in an intra-party primaries, the media have been awash with projections that tend to suggest that Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe East) would coast home to victory with effortless ease. This is because of the perceived weight of the governing party behind him. But it was clear to most perceptive political watchers that even if Senator Lawan would emerge the Senate President on account of his anointment by his party, the touted victory might not be so easy after all. This is as a result of the calculated political wizardry of Lawan's main rival, Senator Saraki as well as his exceptional courage and tenacity of purpose.

In the build-up to that APC primary election for Senate President, both Lawan and Saraki had variously laid claims to garnering the support of more members of the party towards emerging the party's preferred candidate. And political analysts were of the belief that if the primaries were conducted by secret ballot as demanded by the Saraki group, the Kwara Central senator would have easily won.

But the outcome of the primaries, which were boycotted by members of the Saraki group and the bad blood it generated, is too well known to start recounting here. Suffice it however to say that it greatly polarized the APC that it was clear to political watchers that the centre might no longer hold for the party.

It was in the aftermath of the primaries and the anointing of a candidate by a party over the other that a lot of political moves were initiated. This included the overtures to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is still nursing the wounds of its thrashing in the last general elections by the APC and which was figuratively waiting in the wings to cash in on any rumpus in the governing party. Naturally, the PDP apparently bought into the project of the pro-Saraki APC group, who are mostly former PDP partisans.

And on the morning of the inauguration of the 8th Senate, despite the sealing off of the entrance to the National Assembly, and in spite of a supposed meeting of the APC senators-elect and members House of Representatives-elect with President Muhammadu Buhari, who had just returned from the G7 meeting, 57 of the 108 senators converged in the Red Chamber and elected their President!

With that election, Senator Saraki scored another bull's eye, as he successfully rallied his distinguished colleagues to stand up for people's power. In an apparent show of legislative independence, the Distinguished Senators shunned the move to impose a leader on them from outside the Chamber and voted massively and voluntarily for a leader of their choice. A twist was however added to the entire drama, as for the first time since the return of democracy in 1999, a member of the opposition party was elected to assist a member of the ruling party at the Upper Chamber. Senator Ike Ekweremadu was elected Deputy Senate President in a move that shows clearly the across-party support base of Senator Saraki.

A similar scenario played out at the House of Representatives, as the APC anointed candidate, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, was also defeated by Hon. Dogara.

To perceptive watchers of the unfolding scenario at the nation's legislative chamber, this development is a veritable signal of a new dawn of legislative independence. Although this development could pose an imminent danger to the stability of the Second Arm of Government, it is seen as a welcome development in some quarters.

With the election of the presiding officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the APC should quickly get down to basics and set in motion sustainable machinery to heal the wounds created by the intrigues and animosity engendered by the pre-inauguration intra-party antics. The party should not do anything that could jeopardize its overall interest as a governing party, and by extension the overall interest of the Nigerian people that have long yearned for positive change. All aggrieved parties should be appeased and their grouses assuaged.

A blogger had warned last weekend that “the intra-party intrigues currently playing out over who becomes the next Senate President is, to me, a fecund recipe for the exhumation of the ghost of the "Banana Peel", which the emergence of David Mark in 2007 effectively laid to rest”.

The blogger had added, “Anything short of democratic emergence of the new Senate President will sadly bring back this pre - Mark era incubus, by which the position of Senate Presidency became so unstable that the nascent democracy nearly got aborted. Due to needless executive interference in the internal affairs of the Senate, the Red Chamber had the notoriety of throwing up three Senate Presidents in a spate of four years! But we all saw what happened when the senators voluntarily elected David Mark their President in 2007: The former military tactician presided over the Upper Chamber for eight unbroken years! And with what we all saw and heard on Thursday (June 4th) during the valedictory session of the Senate, Mark would appear to be the best Senate President so far in the country's chequered political history!

“APC should, therefore, spare Nigerians the spectre of an unstable legislature, which will not be in anybody's interest except those who don't wish the country well. The majority party should give the senators, and even the members of the House of Representatives, a free hand to voluntarily choose who leads them. For me, that is the way to go at this point in time. That is the inscrutable recipe for a stable polity and, by extension, a sure harbinger of the much-yearned- for socio-economic development. God bless Nigeria”.

I totally align myself with the submission of this blogger. Therefore, with the emergence of the choice of the majority of Senators and members House of Representatives, as Senate President and Speaker of the House respectively, even if this falls short of the expectation of the party's power wielders, the National Assembly should be allowed to settle down quickly to onerous business of making laws for the good governance of the county.

Meanwhile, I congratulate our new Senate President, Most Distinguished Bukola Saraki, who has started on a good note by pledging to be fair and just. To me, his emergence was another mark of his suave mien, administrative acumen, sagacious disposition to the management of men and resources and above all an attestation to his very solid political trajectory! May Almighty Allah direct all your actions by guiding you aright in the onerous task of complementing the efforts of President Buhari to deliver good dividends of democracy to the citizens and take the country to greater heights.

*Akogun, a former National Assembly Editor of Thisday Newspaper, writes from Ilorin

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