SENATE Unity Forum was formed as a political pressure group made of Senators elected under the platform of All Progressive Congress, APC, for the sole purpose of bargaining for political power and influence peddling in the 8th Senate.

Since the unprecedented emergence of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as Deputy Senate President of the 8th Senate against the permutations of APC leadership, things have fallen apart for the Senate Unity Forum, which campaigned vigorously for the aborted ambitions of Senators Ahmed Lawan andGeorge Akume of the APC. Both men threw all they had at their disposal in the ring of political contest for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency, respectively.

After the constitutionally certified elections of Senators Saraki and  Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President, respectively, Senate Unity Forum, instead of towing the part of honour, which is in line with spirit of sportsmanship to congratulate the winners of the elections, resorted to mudslinging and blackmailing by alleging that the Senate Standing Rules used in the conduct of election of principal officers of the 8th Senate was forged.

Yet, this group of Senators went ahead to submit themselves to the same Senate leadership, which they accused of emerging via “forged” Senate Rules for swearing-in. Some of them have also accepted and are carrying out adhoc Committee assignments from the same leadership. This is hypocrisy number one.

After licking its wounds of defeat in the election of Senate Presidency and due consultations with its “oracle” in Lagos, Senate Unity Forum embarked on another wild goose chase where the selfish interest of a godfather was packaged and branded as party supremacy, with which they intended to use to foist the remaining principal officers of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip on the entire 8th Senate. For the first time in the history of democracy anywhere in the world, a political party sent a letter of list of accolytes for Senate leadership positions.  But thanks to the wisdom of the indefatigable Senate President Bukola Saraki who saw the hypocrisy in the party supremacy mantra and stood his ground to safeguard the independence of the 8th National Assembly and long-susbsisting tradition of allowing various party caucuses to elect preferred senators for each position alotted to them.

In order to blackmail Senate leadership into accepting the list of senators endorsed by APC leadership for the above mentioned principal officers positions, Senate Unity Forum allegedly hired the services of immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Ethnics, Rules and Business Senator Ita Enang, who incidentally was a PDP Senator of 7th Senate but left for the APC when his bread was no longer being buttered by his former party, the PDP to execute henchman’s job by writing a baseless petition adopted by the Forum to the police alleging forgery of Senate Standing Rules of 2015. It is incontrovertible that Senator Enang was compensated for consulting for Senate Unity Forum. Ironically, Senator Enang is coming to work on behalf of the President with the same Senate leadership he has been antagonising. Senator Enang’s appointment exposed the poor advise President Buhari has been getting    with regard to the legislative arm of government.

After painstaking and water-tight investigations of the allegation of forgery against current Senate leadership by the police, the petition was thrown into waste bin where it belongs, not minding propagandist noise deplored  the media  to arm-twist the Nigerian Police into indicting Senate leadership in its report. As Senate Unity Forum was busy working hard to invalidate the elections that brought Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu in, the master strategist, Senate President Saraki nailed the political coffin of the forum by announcing the names of Principal Officers as presented by each geo-political on the floor of the Senate ,which ran contrary to dashed expectations of the Senate Unity Forum. Seeing that their party supremacy jargon could not hold water, Senate Unity Forum dragged Senate leadership to Court with two major prayers: stopping Saraki-led Senate from constituting Committees and nullification of elections that brought Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, respectively.

On Thursday 27, August 2015, political earthquake shook the already foundation of the APC, which collapsed political tall dreams of some of its stakeholders, who hitherto were expecting to be announced as Kitchen Cabinet of President Mohammadu Buhari-led administration.

The unprecedented lopsided appointments made by President Buhari without consultation with the party hierarchy; made mockery of the so-called party supremacy championed by bewildered Senate Unity Forum; violated Sections of 1999 Constitution as regards to Federal Character and deflated over bloated ego of sponsors of Senate Unity Forum.

If the leader and number one member of a political party—the APC, President Buhari does not give a damn about party supremacy via

his recent appointments that are still generating dust in and outside  the APC, what moral yardstick does the APC use to impose so-called party supremacy on National Assembly or make trouble when such tyranny is not obeyed? If a president produced by a party did not honour the list submitted by his party when appointing his kitchen cabinet members, which moral ground does the same President stand to antagonise Senate President for turning his back on party list and towing stablished democratic conventions in the emergence of the Principal Officers of the Senate? Is this not broad-day hypocrisy?

Recently,the media was awash with news that Senate Unity Forum (an odd name for its roles so far) had withdrawn its lawsuit bothering on alleged forgery of Senate Sanding Rules 2015.  The news was greeted with commendation from Senate Spokesman,

Senator Dino Melaye, describing it as welcome development, which in turn will restore peace in the Red Chamber. Few hours after Dino Melaye’s media briefing, Senate Unity Forum via its Legal Counsel denied withdrawing the alleged forgery case from court, which gave credence to my earlier assertion that Senate Unity Forum is imploring shenanigans propelled by propaganda as a tool to negotiate for juicy Senate Committee Chairmanship positions.

In the foregoing context, the APC which, in less than 100 disassociated itself from its un-implementable campaign promises as contained in the two controversial documents:  100 DAYS IN OFFICE and MY COVENANT WITH NIGERIANS, which were used vigorously by the APC party Headquarters in Abuja to garner votes across the country for President Buhari  has come out to deny the same campaign documents that had the signatures of President Buhari and party logo on it. The mind-boggling and thought-provoking questions racing through discerning minds of Nigerians are: who authorized and signalled those documents without consent of President Buhari? Why didn’t the APC as a party take full page advertorial in a national newspaper to deny these documents during the campaign as a mark of a party seeking power ont the platform of so-called integrity and holier-than-thou claims? Why now they are already in power? Are these not the mother of all deceit and forgeries

orchestrated by the same party in court with Senate leadership on allegation of  phantom forgery? Is it not safe to say now that Nigerians ‘voted’ based on forged documents and forged promises? Your guess is as good as mine.

Lastly, on the phantom allegation of forgery, Nigerians would live to see how fast these clowns would end all their antics and shenanigans once they land juicy committee- for that is the last bargain. But I would advise the Senate leadership, especailly Saraki and Ekweremadu to insist on pursuing this matter in court till the end. These men know they have no case, but just want to smear them and scandalise their political career. After all,  once Hon. Clinched the House Majority Leader position, he turned around to say that the shameful fisticuffs on the floor of the House was all politics. But there should be a limit to rabble-rousing.

Mr. Nwobodo Chidiebere, a  political analyst, wrote from Lagos.