By Prof. Razaq ‘Deremi Abubakre

A lot of thoughts have been advanced by different interest groups on the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Rt Honourable Yakubu Dogara of Kwara and Bauchi respectively. Different power houses should realise that their power ends where the right of another power is affected.

The political leadership with the support of the grassroots in the party has the right to watch the emergence of the President of the nation, governor of a state or a senator, House of Representatives member or House of Assembly member through a fair, free and transparent process as witnessed during the emergence of Buhari in the APC primary.

The leadership of the party needs to accord respect to the President, once elected, because the electorate voted more for the character and make of the candidate than the clout or lack of it enjoyed by the political leadership. By the same token, once members of the National Assembly have been elected, it would be more advisable to allow them to enjoy some level of independence and lack of interference either from the President or the leadership of the party. Luckily in this case, the President distanced himself from interfering in the process of the leadership of the National Assembly which is one of the positive steps taken by him.

The National Assembly, going by the tradition of the seventh Assembly, seems to see itself as a distinct entity from different backgrounds coming together to form a body, a part of which may be head or chest or hand or abdomen or legs or hair or even nails; if any part of these is aching, the rest of the body join it in pain and insomnia.

Antecedents

It has been a harrowing experience for sympathizers of the APC to see the party going all out in rejecting some of its hardworking members from elective positions in the National Assembly and accepting hook, line and sinker the candidacy of others.

There are antecedents that should have been put into consideration. The North-West, where Alhaji Shehu Shagari came from as President, cherishes the political hegemony between the Gwandu emirate and Ilorin emirate. To build on this, the late Senator Olusola Saraki was key to the emergence of  Shagari in the second republic. If not for the blackmail against Saraki, the North-West in 1999, was fully ready, especially the politicians from Sokoto axis, to support for the presidency in the All Peoples Party (APP) inspite of the adoption of the PDP. No wonder Senator Yerima Bakura was leading the campaign for Senator Bukola Saraki, the first son of  Olusola Saraki, in the present exercise.

Justice is the cardinal of any human interaction. The myopic view of life pertaining to injustice, if not nipped in the bud, may lead to the collapse of the whole structure. To illustrate this, there is a latent reason for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election  due to myopic view of life which was tantamount to injustice when the then leading political party, Social Democratic Party was ignored what should not be ignored.

In the structure of the party, the chairmanship was given to the South-South, the President to the South West, the president of the Senate to the Northern minority and the Speaker of the House of Representatives was given to the South East. The only group that was left out in this scheme of things was the northern majority made up of Hausa-Fulani extraction. If during the primary of the SDP in Jos, the founder and leader of the party, whose emergence as the party’s flagbearer for the presidential election was annulled by the military, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, had asked Atiku Abubakar to step down for Abiola, it should have been a good decision for Abiola to make Atiku  his running mate rather than Babagana Kingibe, who was also from the northern minority.

Thus, aside from many other reasons adduced by all, for the annulment of the Abiola’s presumed victory of June 12, 1993, there was  palpable fear in the rank and file of the military that the Hausa-Fulani northern majority had been marginalised in keeping with the spirit of Orkar’s coup may be inadvertently.

The relevance of this to the case in hand is treating with levity and disdain, the roles of the membership of the extinct New PDP of Atiku, of the five governors, of Tambuwal in the House of Representatives, of Saraki in the Senate, in the political fortunes of the other constituent parts of the mega party All Progressives Congress. While the North-West produced the President in this case and coming from the defunct CPC, the South-West produced the Vice-President with the defunct ACN, the remaining strong members of the alliance, is perhaps stronger than any other member of the alliance, is the New PDP.

An exception should be made in favour of the President himself for all that is in him which endeared him to the voters in Nigeria and thanks to the INEC which prevented rigging.   For the APC to have stopped Atiku and Kwankwaso from emerging as President may be justifiable but to say that Bukola Saraki and  Dogara should not emerge in the National Assembly is to frustrate Atiku and his men in the defunct New PDP to leave APC as he was frustrated to leave ACN after helping in the formation of the party and leaving many of his trusted political supporters behind such as Usman Bugaje, Audu Ogbeh, Tom Ikimi. among others.

Sacrifice

In reality, as noted before, membership of the National Assembly have demonstrated that they are one and as if they are putting the performances of each candidate from a state on a scale to measure. It is clear that Bukola Saraki delivered Kwara State better for APC than Yobe State where Senator Lawan came from.  Also, Bauchi which produced Dogara, performed better in favour of APC than Lagos in the last elections, judging by percentage of victory.

This is not to take away the eminent qualification of Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila for all his toil and labour for the party in the 7th National Assembly. But a sacrifice has to be made and it is also a noble person that can be made a sacrifice and will not complain. Such was the gesture of  Gbajabiamila when he hugged Dogara, raised his hand and invited his supporters with his finger beckoning his supporters in the green chamber, that This is your Speaker, give him support,  as if to compensate what is lost to the South-West, the National Assembly picked Osun State, which was the only faithful state to ACN in the 2011 presidential election in that zone.