As the battle for the control of the National Assembly rages between the federal lawmakers of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts, officers of the caucuses of the parties have disagreed on the possibility of the removal of the presiding officers of the chambers.
While the APC members contended that they did not require two-thirds majority to remove Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the elated PDP legislators argued that their APC counterparts would find it difficult to effect a leadership change in the National Assembly if the presiding officers dump APC for the PDP as anticipated.
The Peoples Democratic Party Caucus in the House of Representatives said any attempt by All Progressives Congress members to intimidate or remove the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, would be stoutly resisted.
The PDP members, in separate interviews said without a comfortable control of the House, the APC would remain powerless, despite having the majority.
The opposition party caucus stated this just as the Deputy Senate President, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, on Saturday, said more defectors would soon join the PDP.
However, a member of the Parliamentary Support Group, a group of APC senators loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Ali Ndume, insisted that Saraki must quit as Senate President should he defect from the APC to the PDP.
The Deputy Minority Whip in the House, Binta Bello, on her part, said there was no basis for anybody outside the speaker’s Tawafa-Balewa/Dass/Bogoro Federal Constituency to ask him to step down.
She also observed that the speaker was a product of all political parties, not only the APC.
“The people of his constituency voted for him. All politics is local. It’s the same people that can ask him to leave not just any member of APC.
“Again, is he just a speaker for the APC? If he has to go, all of us must come together again to say ‘go.’ This is not about APC alone,” she added.
Another senior member from Kogi State, Mr. Sunday Karimi, wondered if the APC had the number to remove Dogara.
Karimi stated, “Do they have the number? To impeach the speaker or shake him in any way, you will need to have two-thirds majority in the House. Do they have it? In ordinary times, to get 240 out 360 is tough, much less in abnormal times like now when everyone’s eyes are wide open.
“They are powerless and wasting their time without two-thirds. In any case, things will fall into their proper places when we resume in September.”
Speaking to one of our correspondents, the Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, said the majority party would be known when the National Assembly returned from recess.
“When we resume, you can confirm that,” he said when asked the requirement to remove the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
According to Ndume, the two-thirds majority stipulated by the Constitution to remove the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives is based on which party the presiding officer belongs to.
Ndume said, “The removal that the Constitution is talking about is in the party. For example, if he is a member of the APC, it will require two-thirds to remove him. But if he is not a member of the APC, he cannot be the Senate President.
“The two-thirds that the Constitution is referring to is that since we have elected him by simple majority as we did, we cannot remove him until we have two-thirds. But if he moves to another party, then he should not be the Senate President at all.”
Ekweremadu, on Saturday, described the PDP as the biggest and fastest growing political party in Africa.
He said what Nigerians witnessed in the last few days with the defections of scores of National Assembly members and the return of the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, to the PDP was “a tip of the iceberg.”
The lawmaker, according to a statement on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, said this in Awgu, Enugu State, on Saturday during the inauguration of the Agwu Local Government Area chapter of the Gburugburu Movement, which champions the re-election bid of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
Ekweremadu said, “We are happy for this. But I have good news for you. Nigerians have only witnessed a tip of the iceberg. More are on their way because it is no longer about anybody’s individual political ambition. It is now a movement to rescue Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Publicity Secretary of the APC loyal to the Senate President in Kwara State, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, has said Saraki is still consulting on his next political move.
He stated that the Buhari-led administration and the national leadership of APC were still in talks with Saraki to stop his defection to another party.
In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Saturday, Buhari said, “If two senators and all the members of the House of Representatives from Kwara State have defected from the APC to the PDP, remember there are still 24 members of the state House of Assembly and the governor of the state who are still APC members at the moment.
“The Senate President has never declared for any other political party rather than the APC. So, Nigerians should wait for him pending the time he will declare his intention.
“As you can see from what is going on at the national level, politics is all about consultation. You can see, the government in power is trying to talk to him.” – Punch.
