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By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The dramatic change in the balance of power equations experienced in the last presidential and National Assembly elections is so consequential that many of the so-called ‘big losers’ are still counting their losses weeks after the release of the results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
As expected, the scheming for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly is already far ahead of the official inauguration. All things being equal, the tenure of the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will officially end on May 29, while the current legislators will take a bow out of the 9th Assembly on June 11 to give room for the subsequent inauguration of the new parliament on June 13 after the proclamation of the new president.
This time around, the stake is particularly high given the diversity of the composition of the incoming legislature. Unlike before when two leading political parties dominated the scene, Nigerians can now look forward to a more robust debate of issues from the rainbow coalition that resulted from the last election held on February 25.
From the outlook of the results released by the electoral umpire, eight political parties will be fairly represented in the new Assembly. In recent times, the hallowed chamber had been heavily criticized for being a rubber stamp legislature always at the beck and call of the executive. With the new rainbow coalition now forming the 10th National Assembly, however, optimism is high that things would take a different turn.
While elections into the 109 Senate seats have been concluded except in Enugu East, two out of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives are still left undecided due to the supplementary elections expected to be conducted to fill the vacancies in the remaining constituencies of the lower legislative chamber.
A cursory look at the figures in the Senate shows that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won 57 seats, the leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – 29 seats, Labour Party (LP) – six seats; Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – two seats each. The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) also secured one seat each.
Overall, APC still maintains its lead in the lower legislative chamber winning 162 seats, the PDP, 102, seats; LP, 34; NNPP, 18; APGA, four; African Democratic Congress (ADC) and SDP, two seats each respectively and the YPP, one seat.
Though APC still has majority control in both chambers of the National Assembly, and by convention will produce the principal officers for the 10th session, it will no longer be business as usual.
For the record, the Senate which is often referred to as the Red Chamber is made up of 109 Senators representing three Senatorial Districts of each of the 36 states of the Federation. In other words, membership of the Chamber is based on equal representation. For administrative purposes, it is led by the Senate President and Deputy President of the Senate, as well as eight Principal Officers namely Senate Leader and his Deputy, Minority Leader and his Deputy, Chief Whip and his Deputy, as well as Minority Whip and his Deputy.
Similarly, the House of Representatives which is also known as the Green Chamber is made up of 360 Federal Representatives. Each Member represents one Federal Constituency of Nigeria. The number of Constituencies per state varies according to the numerical strength of each State’s Federal Constituencies. The Green Chamber is led by the Speaker and assisted by the Deputy Speaker along with eight Principal Officers which include Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Whip, and Deputy Minority Whip.
The National Assembly is constitutionally vested with several functions notably lawmaking, representation, oversight, as well as occasional intervention in the conduct of public institutions and officials.
In doing all of these, responsibilities are assigned to the Committees consisting mainly of distinguished Senators and Honourable Members of both Chambers based on their professional callings and vast experiences in life. These experiences prepare them to be able to scrutinize Bills, Motions, and other Legislative proposals.
A former Majority Leader in the 7th National Assembly, Senator Ndoma Egba, while speaking with Sunday Sun on people’s expectations from the new members-elect, expressed optimism that the next parliament would be more vibrant than the previous ones, adding that the coalition would deepen the nation’s democracy.
“It will deepen democracy because parliament is all about networking. We now have a situation where no single party has a simple 2/3 majority to say that its wish must prevail.
“So, the coalition will encourage conversation; it will encourage discussion and negotiation. In parliament, when you have a majority of one party, you see what usually happens. It is usually like carry go. And it shouldn’t be. Parliament should be able to sit down and negotiate positions. If you have a programme, you should be able to form a coalition that will enable it to see the light of day so that it will be more democratic. To that extent, the next parliament is less likely to be a rubber stand National Assembly,” he said.
His other counterpart, Senator Gbenga Kaka, also corroborating the same view, said though there might not be much difference since APC still maintains the majority, “it is not going to be business as usual.
“If you look at the new composition, you will discover that the various parties that constitute the newly elected National Assembly members have their origin in both the APC and PDP. So, there may not be much difference in the sense that the majority still resides with APC. The only consolation is that we have new faces and old faces, especially former governors, mixed together. We are hoping that it is not going to be business as usual. I hope they will give us a break from what is usual.
“In giving us a break, we just have to do a review of our constitution in such a way that the citizenry will be put in focus. We know that a lot of things are wrong and some of the amendments made have not been passed into law due to the fact that they couldn’t achieve the required 2/3 from all the states.
“Notwithstanding the fact that APC is still in majority, I think the opposition should be strong enough to give them challenges. We don’t want a rubber stamp National Assembly. They should be able to stamp their authority and put the executive on its toes so that we can have the best in terms of executive and legislature relationship.
“The principle of power separation presupposes the independence of the legislature and the judiciary from the executive. But what we have been having all along is a new rubber stamp legislature which is crippling the democracy we are trying to grow. For democracy to grow there must be a virile opposition which may not necessarily be a destructive one. In other words, the opposition must be a constructive one.
“If the new coalition can form a strong alliance, it will be good for our democracy; otherwise, APC will just attract either the LP or PDP legislators to form the required majority to achieve whatever they want. And that will not be good enough for the growth of the democracy we are trying to nurture. I will like to see a situation where the executive is in control of a party and another party controls the legislature. It will be an interesting scenario.
“In the absence of that, I hope they will be able to form a good working relationship. Having a good relationship with the executive doesn’t mean anything in as much as they are doing what is right. It is only when they are not doing what is right that we will begin to call for checks and balances. Where there are no adequate checks and balances, it is the citizenry that will suffer.”
The National Coordinator of the Ijaw Monitoring Group, Comrade Joseph Evah, also added his voice, urging the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to maintain his position not to intervene in the selection process of the leadership of the National Assembly.
He said: “If Tinubu will maintain his public statement that he will not intervene in the choice of leadership of the National Assembly, I tell you the new parliament will be like the leadership that stopped Obasanjo’s third term agenda.
“Those who are coming in from Obidients and even those coming in from the progressives will not joke with anything that concerns governance. The last presidential and National Assembly election has shown that it can no longer be business as usual. With the wind of change blowing across the country, we will see a vibrant National Assembly where lawmakers will look at the antecedents before they elect people who will lead them. With the way politicians are now shaking because of the wind of change blowing across, if Tinubu can maintain his stand not to intervene in the election of the leadership of the National Assembly if he can learn lessons from what has happened, I believe the 10th Assembly will be more vibrant than the one Ghali Na’Abba and Okadigbo headed.
“If Tinubu can discharge his duties as expected of the progressives, I believe there will be no threat to his presidency. If he can stabilise our naira and change the image of the country from the current disgrace we are receiving from different parts of the world, the incoming National Assembly will work with his government.
“I have hope in the next National Assembly because of the kind of politics we are seeing in Nigeria now. Even all APC members are now repentant politicians because of what they have seen. Those who won the last elections are also being traumatized by the wind of change brought about by the outcome of the last elections. Everybody now knows that Nigeria cannot be the same again; everybody now knows that the day of reckoning is coming. If you continue in the old way of doing things, you can be embarrassed even within your household.
“Beyond that, Aso Rock needs deliverance from the demons that reside there. Unless they carry out demonic cleansing of the Aso Rock Villa, nobody can go in there and do the normal thing. There is a spiritual problem in that Aso Rock.”
In the same vein, the former President of Kano Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdul Kareem Daiyabu, predicated his own view on the kind of leadership that the President-elect is going to offer Nigerians.
According to him, the President-elect must collaborate with the DSS for a thorough profiling of the new lawmakers to give the country the right leadership it deserves.
“The nature of the next National Assembly will depend on the kind of leadership the President-elect will give. Now that the DSS has singled out itself to be different from other security operatives, he needs to seek their help to profile all the newly elected Senators in the Senate and the lawmakers in the House of Representatives to know who is clean from crimes and who is not so that he can know the kind of people he will be dealing with.
“If the President is seriously determined to take us out of the present situation that we are now, he has to seek the full cooperation of the DSS for detailed information about each and every one of the lawmakers, otherwise, the country will continue to live with the challenges of insecurity, kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry and other forms of criminalities,” he said.
