Senate President, David Mark, may have incurred the wrath of the leadership of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for not giving in to the wishes of some of its leaders, who want the Senate to declare, the seats of the 11 senators that recently decamped from the ruling party to the All Progressives Congress (APC) vacant.
This is coming on the heels of a revelation that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, is not ready to defect to the APC, for now, because he is preoccupied with how to stabilise the lower chamber.
This is even as Mark carpeted the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for alleging that he (Mark) was employing double standards in his dealings with members of the Senate defecting from one party to the other.
Former Governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki, had last week, led 10 other PDP senators to announce their defection to the APC, on the floor of the Senate – a move seen as confrontational to the PDP leadership.
Sources within the PDP told Sunday Newswatch that certain party leaders were not happy with the situation, and made their feelings known to Mark, while President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have tacitly agreed that Mark should maximise the situation to the advantage of the party, using constitutional provisions and Senate rules to checkmate the defecting senators.
However, Mark, who is said to be in the good books of most senators, including those in the opposition, tread cautiously, not wanting to offend his colleagues.
As such, the Senate President was said to have acted on his own by over-ruling moves to declare the seats of defecting senators vacant, apparently not willing to lose his growing influence within the party and among his senator-colleagues.
PDP leaders believe that, by exercising the powers vested in him, Mark had saved his personal friends to the disadvantage of the party.
One of the party leaders, who spoke with Sunday Newswatch, said: “The rule is very clear, and senators know the right thing to do in maximising the situation to the advantage of the party. In the last two weeks, the impression the APC created in the minds of Nigerians is that they had taken over the National Assembly. They had even concluded plans to effect a change of leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party leaders are not happy that the seats of the defecting senators were not declared vacant. If anybody tells you anything different, he would not be telling you the truth.”
According to the party chieftain, though there was no official directive to the effect that the Senate President should declare the seats vacant, as a leading member of the party involved in taking major decisions, he was expected to know the feelings of the party leaders, which they had actually expressed in private discussions on what was to be done to cut the growing wings of the opposition.
He further stated that, if the leaders of the opposition party found themselves in the same position, they would not hesitate to use it to full advantage. According to him, the situation is made worse by the fact that there are speculations that Mark deliberately stopped the 11 senators from defecting because he wanted to prevent a situation in which he would have no alternative than to declare their seats vacant if the rules were to be followed to the letter.
“In desperation, the 11 senators were blinded to the rules. They wanted to hang themselves by insisting that Mark should read the letter so it would reflect officially in the records of the Senate. We expected the Senate President to help them stew in their own juice by reading the letter, and then declaring their seats vacant, as required and clearly stated in the statute books.
“But make no mistake about it; Senator Mark is doing a good job for the party. He has held the National Assembly together as the chairman and he has on several occasions done wonderful jobs for the party. But this time, it is obvious that he has done his personal friends a favour at the expense of the party,” he said.
Asked if there would be a reprimand for Mark by the party, the source said, as far as he knew, nobody was contemplating bringing up the matter in the open, not to talk of a reprimand for the Senate President, who had been doing well on behalf of the party.
Sources said not even Jonathan or the new national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, wanted to be in the bad books of Mark, but that this did not mean they were happy with the way he handled the issue of defection of the 11 senators.
However, a female party stalwart, who claimed to be present when Mark was being chided, said some members of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT) were threatening a showdown with Mark, and that they had made their point known to him.
“Even if Mark is claiming to be on his last lap in the Senate, and even if he is no longer interested in holding any position after his tenure lapses in 2015, he still cannot wish away what the party wants.
“The party is supreme, and he is lucky that this is not the era of Bamanga Tukur. Whether you are Speaker or Senate President, the party is superior. That is what the party wants, and he has no choice than to obey.
“We will still compel him to do the needful. Those people must be sanctioned for bringing the issue up on the floor of the Senate. They know the rule,” she said.
Other sources pointed out Mark’s influence in the scheme of things. His inputs into government policies was also said to be glaring. According to one of the sources, a simple example of this was reflected in the fact that Jonathan had to convince Mark on the need for a National Conference before the President made it public, and announced the names of members of the Presidential Advisory Committee on October I, 2013.
The defecting 11 lawmakers had, in January, written the Senate President, intimating him of their change of political platforms, with senators of the ruling party indicating a preference to move against their cross-carpeting colleagues, who had declared their intention to defect to the APC, and asking Mark to immediately declare their seats vacant.
Although Mark ruled each of the five senators out of order and declared their actions null and void, insisting the matter could not be discussed, having been taken to court, it was glaring that senators of the PDP took offence, and decided to take a pound of flesh on Wednesday.
Acting through the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, the PDP called for the sack of the defecting senators, and declared them strangers on the floor of the Senate.
According to Enang, the rules of the Senate did not allow it to conduct its business in the presence of strangers, adding that the Senate President was empowered by the rules, the Constitution of Nigeria and the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act, to declare the defectors’ seats vacant.
According to him, Section 68(1g) of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that a lawmaker could only defect from the party that originally elected him if there was a division in the party.
“I, therefore, move that you exercise the powers conferred on you, Mr President, to declare their seats vacant,” he had said.
But Mark ruled against Senator Enang because he said he had ruled on the matter the previous day, and he had no choice than to rule the same way.
“I believe you were in the chamber here yesterday. I am not going to comment on the issue you raised because you were here yesterday and I explained that the matter is before a competent court of law. My ruling is not going to be different because it is a constitutional matter. Hence, I shall make no pronouncement on it. Therefore, I rule you out of order,” Mark had said.
Mark equally reacted to Lai Mohammed’s allegation of employing double standards in his dealings with members of the Senate on the issue of defections. In a telephone interview, Mark, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said APC’s claims were not only strange but unfounded and misplaced.
Lai Mohammed had, in a statement on Friday, said that Mark was employing double standards in his dealings with members of the senate by allegedly allowing defectors into the PDP and preventing defections into other parties.
But Ologbondiyan, in his reaction insisted the APC claims were unfounded and misplaced because no form of defection had taken place in the Senate.
He said: “It is strange for the APC to draw up such a conclusion because no form of defection had taken place on the floor of the Senate. Conditions for defection are clearly stated in the Constitution, and for now, no senator has met those conditions as provided in the Constitution.
“As I speak with you, there is no form of defection in the Senate. I think for anybody, group or political party, to accuse the Senate President of double standards in that regard is most unfortunate.
“He (Mark) has never employed double standards in his dealings with his colleagues in the upper chamber. He has been straight, fair, just, purposeful and conscientious in his approach to matters affecting every senator, not minding his or her political party.”
Also disclosing that Speaker Tambuwal, may not be defecting to the All Progressives Congress, APC, at least for now, the Speaker’s Adviser on Legislative and Legal Matters, Mr. Chile Igbawua, said his boss was not under pressure to defect to the APC.
He said the unstable nature of the House made the Speaker not to concern himself with the issue of defection, and maintained that anytime his boss decides to decamp from the PDP, he, Igbawua, would go with him.
He explained that in the House, some members had defected to the APC while others had defected to the PDP, and stressed that those talking about whether Tambuwal would remain as Speaker when he defects had missed the point, because “PDP did not make him Speaker.”
He said what Tambuwal needs to remain in that position at any point in time is a two-thirds majority, and emphasised that the number would not be based on party affiliations.
Igbawua recalled that Tambuwal became the Speaker by providence, while noting that the issue of whether the PDP had allegedly given money to some members not to defect to the APC was being investigated.
Source: Daily Newswatch
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