As Defection Drama Cools Down In Senate — March 6, 2014 Last month, there was tension in the Senate over the planned defection of some lawmakers from the PDP to the APC, but the defection drama seems to have died down. JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH writes. Last month, the tension in the Upper House can be cut with a knife as some senators, after months of speculation, decided to defect from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress APC. Nigerians watched with deep anticipation the defection drama that was set to play out in the Senate.Some lawmakers in the House of Representatives had earlier defected from the PDP to the APC with no hassles from the leadership of the House, but it was a different scenario at the Senate. House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal has been accused, in several quarters, of being sympathetic to the opposition parties in the country, a position the Speaker vehemently denied, claiming he is the Speaker for all Nigerians and not for the PDP alone Part one of the drama started when 11 senators, in a joint letter to the Senate president, signalled their intention to defect from the PDP to the APC. The senators are Bukola Saraki, Abdulahi Adamu, Shaba Lafiaji, Ibrahim Gobir, Aisha Al-Hassan, Magnus Abe, Wilson Ake, Mohammed Jibrilla, Danjuma Goje, Ali Ndume and Umar Dahiru. However, the deputy Senate president Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary that day, refused to read the letter, citing the absence of the Senate president David Mark as reason. The second part of the drama unfolded when the Senate, in a bid to avoid washing their dirty linen in public, had through executive closed-door sessions tried to persuade the aggrieved senators but all to no avail. Senate spokesman Enyinnaya Abaribe had earlier told newsmen that senators could not defect jointly as they were all elected individually. After trying unsuccessfully to persuade the senators from defecting in the closed-door sessions the drama played out in plenary . They was mild drama in the Senate as five out of the 11 senators tried to defect individually, coming through the chamber facility of point of order. Senator Bukola Saraki opened the floor when raised a point of order and cited Section 15 of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), and announced announcing that his privilege as a senator was breached. He informed the senate president that he and 10 other senators had written a letter of defection which the Senate leadership had refused to read on the floor.Mark literally and legally foreclosed any further attempt by the 11 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Though five out of the 11 PDP senators at plenary made spirited efforts to invoke their order of privilege, Mark pointedly told them that since the matter was already before a court, they would have to wait until the judicial process was over. Senator David Mark, relying on Order 53(5) of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended) successively deflected their planned defection to the APC Responding, Mark referred him to Order 53(5) which reads: “reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending, in such a way as might in the opinion of the president of the Senate prejudice the interest of the parties thereto.” Mark said: “It cannot be a matter of privilege to you because the matter is in court and no mention should be made of it. Therefore, I rule you out of order.” Efforts by some PDP senators to declare the seats of the intending defectors vacant were also thwarted as Mark rebuffed the attempt, also ruling them out of order Undeterred, some of the aggrieved senators said they were already in the APC and that the Senate president was on his own. Senators Aisha Alhassan, Magnus Abe, Danjuma Goje declared that they were already in the APC regardless of the refusal of the Senate president David Mark to read their defection letters Goje, who is the former governor of Gombe State, also revealed that he participated actively in the APC registration exercise and had been attending APC caucus meetings in the Senate He said: “I don’t want to comment much on the issue of our defection face-off with the Senate leadership, but whether we are officially allowed to do on the floor of the Senate or not – as we have legally and constitutionally attempted several times in the past weeks, we are no longer PDP senators; we are APC Senators on the same page with other APC senators in the Senate regardless of whatever side we sit in the Senate. “It is quite unfortunate that, for an issue that has never been knotty since the beginning of this present democratic dispensation in 1999 with defection of Senators or members of House of Reps from one party to the other without any hindrance, it is now made otherwise, but with senators from APC and APGA also publicly defecting to PDP, we shall see how the Senate leadership will handle that when eventually they make a move for such official defection on the floor of the Senate “. Senator Saraki also revealed that he was already a member of the APC and that he participated actively in the party’s registration exercise But the defection drama in the Senate seems to have lost steam as LEADERSHIP checks reveal that they are efforts by the new leadership of the PDP to bring the aggrieved governors and lawmakers back to the party. One of the demands of the aggrieved members was the removal of former chairman Bamanga Tukur, who was finally removed. Niger State governor Babangida Aliyu boldly declared last month that all the defectors would come back to the PDP. The new party leader Adamu Mu’azu, since his assumption of office, has been trying to mend the broken fences in the party. The defection of the governors and lawmakers will definitely weaken the party’s chances come 2015. However, President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have stirred up the waters in his recent visit to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the stronghold of Bukola Saraki the arrowhead of the defectors in the Senate.In a veiled reference to Saraki whose family controls the state’s political life, President Jonathan said he was in Kwara to champion the freedom of the people from political and socio-economic oppression. “From today, everybody in Kwara State is free because PDP is not owned by anybody but by the people themselves,’’ he said. In also trying to mend fences with some of the aggrieved defectors who cited impunity and imposition of candidates as the reason for defecting, President Jonathan declared that god-fatherism’, imposition of candidates, personalisation of political party and impunity were dead in the PDP. He declared: “We don’t have dictators in PDP.’’ The president again took a swipe at Saraki who is regarded as the father of Illorin politics when he described the PDP as the only party that could liberate the people of Kwara from the shackles of oppression from few individuals. The president also in Owerri, Imo State, last month advised the defectors to return to the PDP or risk losing their place in the party, saying this was the time for the defectors to occupy their rightful positions or they will be forced to queue behind others. It remains to be seen if the president speeches in Ilorin and Owerri have done more harm than good in a bid to bring back the defectors to the party in the run-up to 2015.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 05:20:40 +0000
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