The hard way out of NASS crisis

THE National Assembly’s one-month recess ends this week. Its leadership thought they could mend the broken glass by simply taking time off.

Things don’t work that way. People voted for change and the real change APC clamoured for is the change in attitude, change in the way we do things in the country, putting Nigeria first in all that we do.

Question: Did we put Nigeria first in this instance? Did the Clerk of the National Assembly put Nigeria first in hurriedly conducting an election into the most sensitive posts after the president of the Federal Republic? Was the Clerk impartial in carrying out his duties when he knew that the APC controlled majority membership in both houses of the National Assembly, yet conducted election into the position of the Senate presidency with only seven members of the ruling party in attendance? To protect the interest of the Nation and the dignity of the National Assembly, he would have waited for a fuller house to conduct the election and no one would have faulted him.

Democracy is a representative government. When nearly half of the members of the Senate were schemed out of the voting process to elect the number three citizen of the country, it meant that half of the country were not represented in that process.

It made the election a nullity because it did not represent the view of the totality of the people of this Nation. The Clerk has plunged the Nation into a political and economic darkness affecting the lives of everyone.

While the National Assembly is on recess trying to find a way round the problem, the Nation as a whole is on recess. The economy is on recess because as we speak, everyone is on a waiting game.

Foreign investors are watching and waiting, the stock exchange is feeling the pinch, the free fall of the naira tells the story better and the impact on the national economy.

The Senate president should know that the burden of occupying that exalted office in a dubious manner is too heavy. He might have won the seat through the most crooked means I have ever seen in global politics, but he cannot succeed in it because he is leading the elite and most senior citizens of Nigeria. He cannot compel anyone to respect him.

To successfully navigate the stormy waters of the Senate, you must earn the respect of the senators. David Mark succeeded as Senate President because he was respected by most members of the Senate during his tenure. He was a good party man who came in through the maximum support of his party, PDP and did its biddings to the letter.  

It is difficult to build successfully on a faulty foundation. I tried to imagine how the Senate President would be viewed outside the shores of the country. I imagine the Senate President trying to speak to Nigerians on morality.

The moral burden is too heavy for him to bear for four years in that office. The implications is that bills will remain stunted simply because senators are trying to get back at the Senate President; getting majority votes on things that affect Nigerians will be difficult, doing the oversight function of the National  Assembly particularly against corrupt practices will be difficult because whoever must correct must be seen to be upright himself.

By implication, the era of impunity, of rub my back and I will rub yours, of nepotism is still not far from us.

This is a man who was trying to impress it on his party to give him the nod to represent their interest as the Senate President but failed to turn up at the meeting where the interest of the party was to be discussed but sneaked to the Senate chambers to liaise with the opposition to install himself as the Senate President.

By that act, he has exhibited the highest degree of moral and political bankruptcy and such person is not fit for the exalted position of the number three citizen of this great country in an era of change. I have, to a large extent ignored the House of Representatives Speaker not because he got into office through the right door, but there was some semblance of an election even though by default.

What happened at the Senate was equally designed for the House of Representatives but for the fact that information of what happened at the Senate came to APC members at the venue of the meeting and they dashed down for the election, even then, the damage was already done.

As one script writer once wrote, “the only way is the hard way.” There is hardly any other way I see in sight in this whole sordid affair than either resignation of the Senate President which is not an easy decision or the Senate taking steps to remove him. Saraki should do the hounourable thing by resigning and allowing a proper election to take place. If he wins, then the Nation will accept and respect him. As a two-time governor, and now a two-time senator, he deserves respect. But when one’s antecedent continues to put a large question mark on his head, he should take steps to show himself above board.

On the other hand, the senators should begin the process that would eventually right the wrong. The interest of the Nation must supersede the interest of one manipulative individual. It is unfortunate that Senate President is not only trying to divide the APC, he has by his action put a strain on the unity of the country. The Eastern part of the country is beginning to see any move to correct the political aberration as an affront on their interest because Ike Ekweremadu represents their interest. This should not have been so if the Senate president had not been blinded by personal ambition.

Sadly, majority of the leaders of the party are not speaking out. The elder statesmen have kept mute in the face of impunity. Evil thrives where people of good conscience refuse to speak. This is not about party, it is not about sectional interest, it is about doing the right thing and presenting the country in good light in the committee of Nations.

• Dr. Jaiyeola Ajatta, a former member, House of Representatives representing Oshodi-Isolo II, wrote from Lagos.