One plenary, two coups

Call it plenary of palace coups and you won’t be wrong.

Last Tuesday’s resumption of Senate from its three-week Christmas and New Year break witnessed what could best be described as political alignment and realignment.
Two scenarios played out at the session: a lawmaker was outsted in his presence, the other was removed from his juicy position as principal officer when he rushed out to observe his afternoon prayers.
How does it feel like to witness one’s own burial in one’s presence? This was the ordeal of Isaac Alfa, who witnessed his replacement as lawmaker representing Kogi East Senatorial District. This followed a court judgement, which ordered the swearing-in of Atai Aidoko.
Alfa had refused to leave the chambers, insisting that he had appealed the Court of Appeal judgment which ousted him as senator representing Kogi East in the National Assembly.
But without securing a stay of execution, Senate President Bukola Saraki immediately proceeded to administer the oath of office on Aidoko, while a dissapointed Alfa shamefully walked out of the hallowed chambers.
With this development, Kogi East has now been represented by three senators in the last 19 months, the first being Abdulrahman Abubakar (All Progressives Congress), followed by Alfa and Aidoko both of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively.
On the other hand, the removal of Ali Ndume as Senate Majority Leader buttressed the cliche that ‘There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics but permanent interest’.
His removal was a re-enactment of what transpired in the Fourth Senate when Victor Oyofo was removed as Senate Chief Whip in 2003 when he went to the rest room, only to return and discovered that he had been removed by his colleagues and replaced with Udoma Udo Udoma, current Minister of Budget and National Planning.
In the case of Ndume, he was removed when he went to the National Assembly mosque to pray, about 100metres away.
Sources in the Senate pointed out that the Borno-born senator was to be given an option to announce his resignation but his sudden disappearance from the floor close to the end of the plenary gave the Senators and the Senate President no other option than to announce his removal.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki was so much in a hurry to read the letter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senate Caucus that he forgot to name the members of the ad-hoc committee on Southern Kaduna killings.
Even Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi who was amongst the 39 senators that signed the letter of Change of Leadership which led to Ndume’s exit, feigned knowledge of the letter when he spoke to journalists immediately after plenary. He resorted to Pidgin English saying: ‘As you take see am, no so me I see am o’.
One thing you can’t take away from the former Senate Leader was the fact that he was media-friendly. This was why he clinched the Parliamentary Media Award for Leadership at the 2016 Senate Press Corps Awards held two months ago.
However, the moment he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa and told State House Correspondents that the legislative body neither rejected the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), nor asked the embattled Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal to resign, I knew that it wasn’t a question of if he would be removed but when.
The New Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan is a complete contrast of his predecessor. The lawmaker who has been in the National Assembly since 1999 is not only media-shy but rigid and obstinate.
Little or nothing was heard about him after the June 9, 2015 Senate leadership election where he lost out to Saraki.
But in his defence, the federal legislator said he was only trying to avoid controversy, as his views may be misconstrued by critics. His message to journalists was simple: ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’.
He promised not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor by usurping the functions of the Senate spokesperson.
This is instructive considering the fact that Ndume had clashed with the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi in recent times where he would insist that ‘I remain the official spokesperson of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’.
One thing is clear from the actions of senators: if it becomes political expedient to sacrifice Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, senators will not hesitate to do so. Like the African adage goes, ‘The cane that was used to flog the first wife will be used subsequently to flog the other wives’. And that was the subtle message of Ndume in his farewell speech when he said: ‘If it is me today, it could be anybody tomorrow’.
The over three-hour briefing by the Minister of State (Aviation) Hadi Sirika stalled the consideration and passage of the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) as well as the report of the Committee on Marine Transport on the Nigerian Ports and Harbours Bill, one of the 11 economic recovery bills.
In his welcome speech, Saraki had assured that the fiscal document would be passed on Thursday last week, while report on the Nigerian Ports and Harbours Bill, earlier slated in the Order Paper for Thursday, was deferred to another legislative day.
The Senate mandated Sirika to consult with the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and reappear on Tuesday alongside the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, the construction company – Julius Berger – Chief of Air Staff, Managing Directors of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).