A coalition of civil society organisations has declared the nomination of candidates for the leadership of the coming 10th National Assembly by the All Progressives Congress as unconstitutional, urging the ruling party to reverse itself.
Director-General, Centre for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness, Nwambu Gabriel, at a press conference in Abuja on Friday evening, noted that the group had been observing with keen interest, the grouping and regrouping, horse-trading, lobbying, and power play associated with the election of the President of the Senate, Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Speaker of the House.
The National Working Committee of the APC had on Monday officially announced a former Minority Leader of the Senate and immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godwin Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), from the South-south, as its consensus candidate for the position of President of the Senate.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano), from the North-west, would be the new Deputy President of the Senate.
In the House, the seat of Speaker was zoned to the North-west, and Abbas Tajudeen (Kaduna) is the consensus candidate, while the South-east clinched the slot of Deputy Speaker and Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia) emerged as the party’s candidate.
In an address titled ‘A Wise Counsel for the President-elect, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu’, Gabriel also noted that the major function of civil society is to essentially act as the watchdog of the society. “In other words, remaining docile at this critical time of our democratic trajectory would amount to allowing old mistakes of the past which have retarded our democracy till date to keep repeating itself,” he added.
Gabriel recalled on Monday, the National Working Committee of the APC allotted some principal positions in the Senate and House to some individuals, an announcement that “has been hit by swift resistance from most members-elect of the 10th National Assembly as they believe that such announcement amounts to an imposition of candidates, thereby usurping the powers of the parliament, undermining its sovereignty and independence of the legislature.”
According to him, for those who crafted the word ‘democracy’ and indeed ‘separation of powers,’ the idea is to have an independent arm of the government called the legislature to provide checks and balances in such a manner to avoid the concentration of powers in one body, as this would lead to the usurpation of powers and consequently degenerate to dictatorship, tyranny, and oppression.
Gabriel, while noting that the 1999 Constitution is superior to every other law, including the Standing Orders of the Senate and House, respectively, stated that Section 50(1)(a) and (b) is “simple, unambiguous and clear” on the matter.
The section partly reads, ‘There shall be (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.’
Gabriel stated, “This simply implies that any other person or persons or group of persons nominating the principal officers of both houses other than the members themselves is null, void and unconstitutional, and amounts to an aberration, which is tantamount to usurping the powers of the legislators, thereby exposing the fragile democracy of Nigeria to jeopardy.
“We cannot be talking about a ‘New Nigeria’ where things are done the right way and we are still seeing the imposition of candidates in our legislators’ principal offices. If the President-elect wants to win the support and interest of Nigerians, then he should be seen to be doing things differently from the old ways to a new Nigeria.
“As a civil society coalition, therefore, we appeal to the President-elect to tow this same line of honour that produced him as the candidate of the party (APC) and consequently the President-elect, Federal Republic of Nigeria. By this medium also, we wish to urge the President-elect to be wary of some anti-democratic forces around him who are only trying to cajole him to interfere in a function exclusively provided for the legislators by the Nigerian Constitution. These merchants of anti-democratic forces are hiding under the guise of Mr. President-elect to do their own personal and selfish biddings, which is inimical to our nation’s democracy.
“Finally, we hereby advise the President-elect, Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu, to toe the line of honour and provide a level playing ground for the legislature to exercise their function, as provided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
