July 24, 2018, began like any
other day at the national assembly, but something remarkable happened not long
after the senate resumed sitting. 14 senators in the All Progressives Congress
(APC) announced they were leaving the party for the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). At that time, the APC was experiencing challenges within its fold in the
legislature.
Today, five months after that
incident, and after a new national assembly election, only one of those
senators — who were later joined the PDP by Bukola Saraki, then senate
president — made it to the current senate.
Speaking not long ago, Adams
Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, described the senators as rebels, and said
the broom — the APC logo — “swept” them out of the national assembly because their
defection was not endorsed by their constituents. On another occasion,
Oshiomhole said: “As it stands today, the broom has swept away the entire 16
senators … who tried to destabilise our democracy for their personal interest,
jettisoning the interest of the electorate.”
Although some of the federal
lawmakers did not seek a return ticket, a good number of them did but ran out
of luck in the election.
A look at the list of the
senators that defected from the APC to the PDP will show the obvious — the lawmakers
were known critics of President Muhammadu Buhari. In fact, two of the senators
— Dino Melaye and Saraki — were in a tug-of-war with the presidency as of the
time they dumped the party.
Here are some of the senators who
opposed the president that did not make it into the ninth senate.
BUKOLA SARAKI
Saraki’s many battles started at
the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) where he was charged with false declaration
of assets. Though he was cleared of the charges, the long trial did put some
dent on his image.
He was later named as a prime
suspect in the Offa bank robbery attack of April 5, 2018, in Kwara state, where
33 people were killed, including pregnant women and 12 police officers.
Attempts were made to arrest him.
He eventually submitted himself to the police for interrogation, but the
robbery suspects later claimed they were forced to implicate Saraki.
Under Saraki, the legislature was
at different times on a warring path with the executive. On some occasions, the
two arms of government disagreed on policies and actions, and at other times,
they sparred over cases of alleged constitutional breach.
Saraki’s time at the national
assembly came to an end when he lost to Ibrahim Oloriegbe of the APC in the
Kwara central senatorial election.
DINO MELAYE
Melaye was probably one of the
president’s most vocal critics in the upper legislative chamber. Until November
30, he was representing Kogi west at the senate.
Although he was reelected for a
second tenure in February, the court ordered a rerun election between him and
Smart Adeyemi of the APC in Kogi west. Adeyemi was eventually declared winner
of the election.
Like Saraki, Melaye had a brush
with the police. At first, the police accused
him of supplying weapons to some suspected thugs arrested in March, 2018. But
while the case was still on, the ex-senator was embroiled in another matter
with the police. This time, he was charged for attempted suicide — after he
jumped out of a moving police vehicle following his arrest.
At the senate, the former
lawmaker never hesitated to voice his reservations against any policy he was
not comfortable with even while in the ruling party.
Some of such occasions were when
he described Buhari’s expenditure framework as a fraud, and when he asked the
senate to override the president on the controversial peace corps bill; when he
said the president was not mentally fit to govern Nigeria and even predicted he
was not going to be reelected for a second term in 2019.
But the senator ended up being
the one who did not get a second term in office.
SHEHU SANI
Another critic of the president
who failed to secure a return ticket to the ninth assembly is Shehu Sani who
represented Kaduna central while in the upper legislative chamber.
Although the senator was in the
APC until a few months to the election, like Melaye, he never hesitated to
speak his mind on policies and actions of the president, no matter how
unfavourable they may seem.
He was also less partisan while
at the senate and expressed himself more on social media giving witty takes on
national issues.
On one occasion, he taunted
Buhari over the insecurity in parts of the country particularly in Zamfara,
asking him to visit the state before going to Akwa Ibom to campaign for
re-election. At another time, he said the current administration was turning a
blind eye to corrupt politicians who joined the APC, and even accused his
colleagues of being afraid to confront the president so as not to risk losing a
return ticket.
Unfortunately, he was unable to
get a return ticket after a plot engineered by Nasir el-Rufai, governor of
Kaduna state and his main rival, saw him slump to defeat to Uba Sani of the
APC.
BEN BRUCE
Although Ben Bruce did not seek a
return ticket to the national assembly, he was among the outspoken senators who
kept the president on his toes during his time in the upper legislative
chamber. As senator who represented Bayelsa east, he was among the key
lawmakers in the PDP that were looked upon whenever the need arose.
Speaking on why he chose not to
run for another term in office, Bruce popularly known by his sobriquet
‘Commonsense Senator’ said his decision to drop his ambition was due to a
rotational arrangement existing among the three local governments in Bayelsa
east.
He took quite a number of shots
at Buhari but some would remain evergreen, particularly, his claim that the
helipad in Daura is the only project Buhari’s government completed; that the
president is one of the most famous health tourists, and that Nigeria made no
progress in the first two years of the Buhari administration.
The list does not end here.
There are other senators that at
different times opposed the president’s actions who did not make it into the
ninth assembly; senators like Isah Misau from Bauchi state, Ademola Adeleke
from Ekiti state, Rabiu Kwankwaso from Kano state and Mao Ohabunwa from Abia
state.
culled: TheCable
culled: TheCable
