By Zacchaeus Adebayo

The event of Saturday, May 23 in which some All Progressives Congress, APC, Senators-elect abandoned the retreat organised for them by their party in Abuja to announce the adoption of two northern Senators as President and Deputy Senate President is a big goof. The action of the Senate Unity Forum, as the group is called, is strange, insensitive, overtly reprehensible, and bereft of a sound sense of history.

While it has always been the norm to give every part of the country a sense of belonging right from the days of the nation’s founding fathers to the present era, this Senate ‘Unity’ Forum believes key offices in the three arms of government could be occupied as follows: President Muhammadu Buhari (North West), Senate President Ahmed Lawan (North East), Deputy Senate President George Akume (North Central), Deputy Speaker (North West), Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Mahmoud Mohammed (North East), President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, ( North East), and Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Auta (North Central).  Simply put, they are proposing a Federal Government of Northern Nigeria. This is thoughtless and obscene.

Moreover, the APC must be reminded that it is gambling away its goodwill so fast and its lack of sense of justice and equity could be the straw that might break its back.

Even with all of its excesses, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, never ever went this far. In 2011 when the party did not do well at all in the National Assembly elections in the South West, the party still zoned the House Speakership to them. Although that plan did not materialize, it at least tried to give the people a sense of belonging.

Concerning the Senate in particular, I am deeply surprised that the APC leaders are playing the ostrich, burying their heads in the sand of greed and power-grab instead of taking a realistic evaluation of the situation. One, APC is inheriting a highly fragmented country flowing from 2015 general election. More than anything, it needs to show some sense of sacrifice to be able to weld the whole country together.

Two, with 59 Senators (that, minus late Senator Zanna) against PDP’s 49, the APC cannot just do what it likes with the Senate because it does not enjoy the kind of majority PDP used to enjoy.

Therefore, I thought a party that genuinely cares for Nigeria beyond merely grabbing the levers of power, a party that wants stability in the National Assembly would have looked the way of the PDP in the South-East or South-South in its search for a Deputy Senate President.

Some would wonder if the PDP itself could have been that magnanimous. One can’t be too sure, but that is the reasonable thing to do in this circumstance. That is also why Nigerians elected APC- to change the way we do things.
Adebayo writes from Ibadan.