The real fact behind the re-ordering of the 2019 general election is never about the welfare or collective aspirations of ordinary Nigerians, but about the selfish political ambitions of a few elite who have continued to drain the nation. Nigerians must therefore be wise and think of how the country can be snatched and reclaimed electorally from the present crop of politicians that can never take them to Eldorado! Why was the passage of the 2018 budget delayed until recently? Why is the Ibrahim Magu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) having issues with the National Assembly? One can go on and on! Saraki-led Senate is one of the greatest undoing of the Buhari-led government of today; it is now a nagging issue of personal interest, instead of national interest!
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen about fifteen armed thugs escorted Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to forcibly take his seat and went ahead to ultimately overpower the Sergeant-at-arms in the Senate chambers, and proceeded to steal the Mace – a symbol of authority during Senate plenary sitting on Wednesday April 18, 2018, the stunned Nigerian audience was watching a drama that was hatched at one of the highest seats of powers in Nigeria.
It was a drama well planned, painstakingly scripted and successfully executed by some elements within and outside the Senate to register their grievances over the way a chunk of the senators dealt with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege because of his opposing role during plenary discussions that culminated in the re-ordering of the 2019 election timetable in Nigeria.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and nine other senators had staged a walk out of the upper chamber of the National Assembly on April 12th, 2018 when the Senate demonstrated its readiness to look at the executive arm of government eye -ball to- eye-ball over the controversial sequence of the dates for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.
Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central in the Senate who further instituted legal proceeding against the legislative body, was subsequently suspended for 90 days. However, an Abuja High Court nullified the suspension/punishment meted out to him, saying that the body had no power to drop the sledge hammer on the lawmaker.
Today, an adhoc panel has originated within the Senate to investigate the shocking invasion, nay the extent of Senator Omo-Agege’s involvement that has incredibly exposed the security loopholes within the Senate.
Heads have started to roll, as the head of the police security outfit within the National Assembly has been redeployed, while others are being fingered in the conspiracy. What is available glaringly is the peace of the grave yard as polarized parties have further dug in to maintain their selfish, egocentric and parochial positions.
Never has the Senate been so deeply divided since the change of leadership that saw the exit of the legendary Mr. ‘stability’ Senator, David Bonaventure Mark of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June of 2015.
This development is a big minus for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), given the unprecedented goodwill that ushered the party into power in 2015. Then, one is prompted to ask this question: what went wrong?
The Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018 hurriedly passed by the Senate to ridicule the constitutional/statutory powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fix time table for the nation’s various elections was ill-conceived and done in bad blood to hinder the electoral fortunes of President Muhammadu Buhari, according to the arguments of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege on the floor of the Senate Red chamber.
Expectedly, President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign the bill into law before an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court ruled recently that the National Assembly did not have the power to encroach on the managerial/administrative duties of INEC: that INEC has exclusive obligation to draw timetable for elections in Nigeria.
Then, if the National Assembly has provided legal framework for the establishment of INEC, what was Senator Bukola Saraki-led Senate looking for? The answer is simple! The Saraki-led Senate is seeking absolute relevance in the face of the political high wired currents being played out within the polity.
Ever since his controversial emergence as the Senate President as against the grandiose arrangement of the All Progressives Congress, a clear development that made the unforgiving hawks within APC to fling the on-going protracted trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in his direction, to down grade, humiliate and condemn him out of office, Senator Saraki and his political strategists have been fighting the battle of survival and relevance.
Like politically drowning men, Saraki and his crew are presently clutching at every available straw to keep afloat inside the ever running political ocean towards the 2019 general elections.
That was the reason the Senate was brought into the dirty fight to unsettle the electoral chances of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 Presidential race; that was why the Senate was being used to try to poke their nose into what was the statutory responsibilities of INEC regarding which election should come first in the 2019 general elections.
And that was why the Sarakis of today want the Presidential election in 2019 to come last, because they are really concerned that if the Presidential election comes first, it will, as usual have a bandwagon effect on subsequent elections.
Bukola Saraki and his team are desperate to be continually on the scale of political reckoning; they are the ones behind the so named new PDP (nPDP) in town. They boasted recently that the ruling APC cannot win the 2019 general elections without them.
Saraki, as the identified leader of the nPDP recently met with Nigeria’s Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on the need to ease tension and rift between the legislature and the executive arms of government, following an ultimatum issued to the APC-led government to address their grievances or they would take action that would be inimical to the prospects of the party and government.
The real fact behind the re-ordering of the 2019 general election is never about the welfare or collective aspirations of ordinary Nigerians, but about the selfish political ambitions of a few elite who have continued to drain the nation.
Nigerians must therefore be wise and think of how the country can be snatched and reclaimed electorally from the present crop of politicians that can never take them to Eldorado! Why was the passage of the 2018 budget delayed until recently?
Why is the Ibrahim Magu-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) having issues with the National Assembly? One can go on and on! Saraki-led Senate is one of the greatest undoing of the Buhari-led government of today; it is now a nagging issue of personal interest, instead of national interest!
