Lessons from National Assembly elections

BY PAUL JOHN

As the results of the elections of leaders for our 8th National Assembly were be­ing announced, what flick­ered through my mind was that “democracy has finally come to stay in Nigeria.” Imagine a Nigeria where mi­nority members were elect­ed Deputy Senate president and the Senate leader? There is no gainsaying the fact that democracy is fast taking its rightful place in our politics. The same 2015 that dooms­day prophets predicted that Nigeria was going to disinte­grate is the year we showed the world that an incumbent president could be defeated. We still went ahead to tell the world that it is possible in Ni­geria to have a smooth tran­sition of power at the federal level from one political party to another. In view of this, Ni­geria is not only the largest economy in Africa but also one of the most stable de­mocracies in the region.

The immediate past adminis­tration allowed INEC to be inde­pendent hence INEC conducted an election that reflected the col­lective wishes of the masses in which the former administra­tion was peacefully removed. We want this current administration to consolidate on that by ensuring that political power belongs to the people. This can only be possible when institutions that are created to be independent are allowed to be independent .Nigerians need electronic voting system so that the political thugs who specialise in ballot box snatching during elec­tions will be shown the way out of the illicit business. This will go a long way in reducing the number of petitions before our electoral tribunals after each election. Elec­tronic voting will compel our poli­ticians to know that power belongs to the people and not those around the corridors of power.

Coming back to the emergence of the new leaders for our 8th National Assembly, this pattern of change started in 2011 when Hon. Waziri Tambuwal emerged Speaker against the PDP consen­sus candidate, Mulikat Adeola Akande. The opposition parties hailed those that thwarted PDP’s arrangement and insisted that the national legislators should be in­dependent. Hence, they should be allowed to choose their leaders. Exactly four years after, the same ‘treachery’ that once befell the PDP has befallen the ruling APC. But now, the latter has refused to accept the outcome in good faith. The APC leaders believe that their party decision or rule must take preeminence over any individual political ambitions.

Section 1(3) of our constitution says that ‘if any other law is incon­sistent with the provisions of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void ‘.

Now, what does our constitu­tion say about the election of the leaders of the National Assembly? Section 50 (1) of our constitu­tion states that there shall be (a) a president and deputy president of the Senate, who shall be elect­ed by the members of that House from among themselves; (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among them­selves. Sequel to this, the consti­tution never empowered any po­litical party to interfere with the process of selecting the leaders of both Houses of our National As­sembly. Emphasis should be laid on the phrase ‘among themselves’. Our constitution does not recog­nise any selection/election or de­cision by any political party with respect to the election of the lead­ers of the National Assembly but that the leaders must be elected by the members of the National As­sembly themselves. At this point that APC’s decision is inconsis­tent with that of our constitution, which one shall prevail?

When Honorable Waziri Tam­buwal emerged the Speaker in 2011, PDP was expectedly angry but it decided to allow the princi­ples of Rule of Law and Separation of Power to rein supreme. On the contrary, APC has described the emergence of the Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as totally unacceptable and the highest level of indiscipline and treachery. I seem to be confused here. Who are the treacherous people? Is it those that obeyed sections 1(3) and 50(1) of our con­stitution or those who believe that their party constitution/decision should lord it over the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nige­ria? Have they forgotten in a hurry how the emergence of Tambuwal as the Speaker in the immediate past National Assembly rejigged PDP ‘s plan of strongly holding the Southwest geo-political zone ?

It was Dele Giwa that said, ‘no evil committed by man can go un­punished, if not now then later, if not by God, certainly by men, for the victory of evil over good is only but temporary.’ When Hon. Tambuwal was PDP in form but APC in function, the opposition party then did not see it as an act of indiscipline or treachery? Hon. Tambuwal continued in that status until few months to the general elections when he did the needful by officially defecting to APC and nobody raised an eyebrow. The simple majority of both Houses has spoken and anybody contest­ing that is just telling us that sec­tion 50 of our constitution cannot be obeyed in this administration. Those that are against the emer­gence of the new leaders should remember what happened when Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh was imposed on the members of the House of Representatives as their Speaker by the PDP leaders in 2007.

The principle of Rule of Law should not be recited on the pages of our newspapers. Those in gov­ernment should be seen applying the principles. Now that the sim­ply majority of the members of the National Assembly has spoken, their collective wishes should be respected and the independence of the National Assembly should not be compromised. If APC goes on to either suspend or expel any of the new leaders, it should remem­ber that he who kicks a frog has just given it a lift, as the seminar all the PDP National Assembly members-elect held in Port Har­court, Rivers state was not in vain.

I want to specially thank those that ensured that no candidate was imposed on the members of both Houses of our National Assembly by any political party.

.Dr. John writes from Port Har­court via mazipauljohn@gmail. com

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