Lately, the upper legislative chamber seems to be threading a slippery terrain as it attempts to get at Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC Nasarawa West), the two-time governor of Nasarawa State over alleged plots to destabilise the leadership. TAIYE ODEWALE looks at the scenario.
Love goes sour on Valentine Day
Trouble between the Senator Bukola Saraki-led Senate and Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC Nasarawa West), ironically started on Valentine Day (February 14, 2018) when the latter led nine other senators out of the Senate chamber in protest against the adoption of new sequence of elections for the 2019 polls as contained in the 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment ) Bill passed by it same day.
Adamu had told the press that the reordered sequence of elections, which put that of the President last and the one for the National Assembly first, was in bad taste and in fact targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As senators on the platform of the ruling party, we disassociate ourselves from adoption of new sequence of elections by the Senate, which to us is self serving and unacceptable. Mr. President will definitely not sign the self serving bill into law and since those of us against it are about 59 senators, it will not see the light of the day”, he said.
The submission was also re-echoed by a member of the group, Senator Ovie Omo- Agege (APC Delta Central), which made him to be the first casualty of the protest via a motion raised by Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) to that effect on Tuesday, 20th February 2018 and upon which Omo-Agege apologized the following day but still directed to go and face the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee.
Though in cutting Adamu to size after humbling Omo- Agege, the Senate on the same day through the Northern Senators’ Forum, announced his removal as Chairman on alleged mismanagement of the N70m kept in his kitty through a letter written to that effect and read by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. The letter read in part, “This is to inform the Senate that the majority signatories of this letter are members of the Northern Senators Forum.
“We have removed Senator Abdullahi Adamu as chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum for financial mismanagement and misadministration. We announce his immediate replacement with Senator Aliyu Wamakko (APC Sokoto)”.
Monkey on farm business
Thereafter, Senator , Shehu Sani ( APC Kaduna Central) at a media briefing with some other northern senators mockingly justified Adamu’s removal with these remarks : “ There are some things that some of my colleagues cannot say but I’m not used to holding back what is the truth.
“When we resumed as senators in June 2015, Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC Yobe North) tendered the sum of N70 million to the 8th Senate. “That N70 million was monies gathered by northern senators from the 7th senate. So it was handed over to the 8th senators from northern Nigeria under the 8th Senate.
“The rumours going round whether it is true, but I believe most of the senators know is the fact there were allegations that some monkeys raided the farm house of some of the executives in northern senators forum and carted away some of these monies.
“I think this country is becoming a huge joke, first of all it was the rodent that drove away the President and we now have snakes consuming about N36 million, and now you have monkeys”
APC’s main opposition is APC
Apparently unperturbed by the Senate’s move against Omo-Agege over the protest and the subtle move against him, through the Northern Senators’ Forum, Senator Adamu a week after in Keffi, Nasarawa State lashed out at those he called disloyal members within the ranks of the APC to ship out of the party or stop undermining the party by antagonising the President.
According to him, the opposition voices to the administration of President Buhari by some APC members, especially in the National Assembly, is not good for democracy noting that such level of disloyalty being displayed by some APC members against Buhari is antithetical to democratic growth.
Adamu said it is unacceptable for anyone to secure elective position on the platform of the APC but later form an opposition group to the government of the President, who is the leader of the party.
“I am under oath as a member of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to be loyal and patriotic in the course of promoting the well-being, existence and unity of Nigeria. And the sovereignty of this country is expressed symbolically in the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And today as we talk, the person God has chosen to be the president of this country, the symbol of the sovereignty of this nation is President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Those who don’t accept this are being ungodly. Those who don’t accept this reality are deceiving themselves more than any other person, and they should be careful of the wrath of God Himself.
“Power belongs to God, power comes from God, not anybody. Anybody who is in power is just an accessory. God uses you to do what He wants, and once God does what He wants and you take a position opposing what God has done, be careful, you may carry a curse.
“What I and my likes are doing is a duty we owe this country, it’s a duty we owe ourselves, to support the government of the day. Over and above that, the government of today, the federal government of Nigeria is an APC government. So I hold my head high for identifying with my party, for being loyal to my party, because, but for things going wrongly, we should uphold the principles of party supremacy.
You can’t get elected on the platform of a party and you get to the Assembly and do anti-party activities. If you don’t want the party for any reason, you feel you are not part of it, get out of it. I can understand if a PDP person doesn’t want to be supporting, he should find a means of drawing that line between loyalty to the constitution of the country, and his anti-government mentality.
“Even if you are PDP and a member of the National Assembly, there are situations where you are supposed to be bipartisan, meaning there is a limit to where you can go by being anti government because the person occupying the presidency is not from your party. Only those who know such limits, and are ready to abide by such limits are the ones who can answer their father’s name in the national assembly.
“If you want to oppose come with your manifesto, tell us what you will do differently if you are the one there and let Nigerians decide, but don’t hide under the immunity, parliamentary immunity and misbehave. Some of us cannot live with it, we will fight it. I was not elected in the national assembly, I was elected in my constituency and to my constituency I will return.
“Every member of the National Assembly, the Senate or the House of Reps, the State Assembly, you are elected by a constituency and you don’t go to the National Assembly and behave like the proverbial Masquerade late Nnamdi Azikiwe talked about, that goes to the public square with a rope tied to its waist, and when he cuts the ropes off, the masquerade is on its own. That is how some National Assembly members are now.
“They are now cutting the umbilical cord between them and their party, between them and their constituencies. We do not want to be counted among them”
He therefore urged all states under the control of the APC to monitor the activities of their elected members in the National Assembly in relation to their activities, and pay them back appropriately.
A declaration that apparently made the APC dominated Senate under the leadership of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki to prepare the ground for getting at him more potently through allegation on destabilisation plot levelled against him last week Thursday, by Senator Obinna Ogba (PDP Ebonyi Central).
