The 9th assembly and abuse of party supremacy

BY IGWEBUIKE NWOKOROIGWE

Immediately after the 2007 general election won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the exiting President Olusegun Obasanjo and his political party organised an induction programme for all the newly-elected members of their party. Present at the induction course at the International Conference Centre in the heart of the city of Abuja included the Late Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua who had just been elected President of the Federal Republic, elected state governors, elected legislators and party leaders. President Obasanjo did not miss the opportunity of using the delivering of keynote address to launch his new life-after-power pet project, which he called “party supremacy”. Thus, Obasanjo with a rather straight face did not mince words in warning the newly-elected members of the PDP that going forward, the decisions of the party – good or bad – must be binding on all of them.

The intriguing aspect of this story is the fact that President Obasanjo had recently caused his party to promulgate an ad hominem law for his sole benefit. He got his men running the party as NWC members and NEC members to illegally amend the party constitution just to reserve the position of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) for only ‘former presidents who are members of his party’ knowing full well that he was the only former president at the time! Again, the amended PDP constitution moved the BOT from an advisory body to the highest decision-making body in the party. As the Chairman of the all-powerful BOT, Obasanjo who as President had the entire PDP in his pocket now wants party supremacy!

The story above is just a sobering reminder that there is nothing really new under our political firmament. We are in another post-election season in our country and it is quite clear that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did pick quite a few habits from its senior brother, the PDP. Just as PDP were training its newly-elected members, APC is doing same; and in the same manner that Obasanjo was preaching party supremacy, Adams Oshiomhole is attempting to force that scam down the throat of his party members.

What really is party supremacy? In spite of the bad examples of Obasanjo and Oshiomhole, party supremacy simply means that government at any level must submit and aligned its policies and decisions with the Manifesto and programmes of the political party that provided the vehicle it boarded to arrive in power. In any event, party supremacy, if it means party members falling into line with decision of their party, be it on national policy issues, party nomination processes, relationship with the government in power or the opposition, sharing of political offices and whatever, is nobble and acceptable, provided it does not infringe on the Constitution and the individual rights of members.

So what Oshiomhole ought to be telling his newly-elected members, including President Muhammadu Buhari, at the International Conference Centre venue of their Induction Workshop, is the need for the APC government to implement key policies in the APC Manifesto. One of such policies is restructuring Nigeria for effective security, good governance and economic prosperity! Oshiomhole should also be drumming it into the ears of his elected party members that Security of lives and property remains a cardinal policy in APC’s manifesto. Sadly, the APC government appears to be helpless in the face of enveloping insecurity across the country. How the APC government has allowed kidnappers a free reign on the Kaduna-Abuja Road is perhaps the biggest shame of this era. Today, commuters have abandoned the Kaduna-Abuja road for the safer rail transportation. And the government whose duty it is to chase out these criminal elements is watching helplessly together with the political party under whose umbrella it most recently asked Nigerians for their votes. It is just a matter of time for these criminals to turn their attention to the rail lines if they run out of victims on the road. So it is indeed fit and proper in the spirit of party supremacy for Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of APC to give a marching order to the government he asked Nigerians to vote for to end the incessant killings and kidnappings of citizens all over the country by criminal bandits.

Instead, what Oshiomhole and his principal in Lagos are communicating is the perverted version of party supremacy in attempting to dictate to the parliament. And as Edmund Burke tells us, a parliament is a special institution. “Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one Interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a Member of Parliament”, Burke, had written.

What this means is that parliamentarians do not see themselves from the myopic partisan mirror, held out by Oshiomhole. They see themselves first as nationalists – not partisans. Yes, they were elected as members of political parties but that partisan identity becomes secondary once they are elected. So when Oshiomhole threatens APC members on who to elect as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, he is displaying a deep ignorance of the global best practices and the workings of the parliament. And that is not good for a party leader’s reputation.

Even then, it is the realisation of the fact that legislators ideally are people who cannot be pushed around that developed democracies evolved lobbying as the legal instrument to influence the decisions of lawmakers. Today, lobbying is a big business in the United States used by the executive, political parties, big businesses, civil society groups and individuals to sway the decisions of the legislature.

So, the authoritarian declaration of only two individuals as the party’s choices for the leadership of the ninth National Assembly without due process and diligent consultations will not help the cause of Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila . Instead, that could infuriate the legislators, whose powers and rights such a reckless and undemocratic declaration will certainly abridge. The the talk of endorsing these particular candidates as APC’s choice for Senate President and Speaker is patently faulty and illegal. Oshiomhole and Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot constitute themselves as APC’s National Caucus and National Executive Committee that ratifies the decisions of the party in line with the party constitution. If they like, let them drop President Buhari’s name a hundred times over and still that would not legitimize the anointing and foisting of unpopular candidates on legislators as their leaders. As usual, President Buhari is watching and is not uttering any word and you can be sure that he will never lend his imprimatur to anything unpopular and illegal.

As the countdown to the inauguration of the Ninth Assembly begins, elected senators and their colleagues in the green chamber have been meeting and exchanging notes, especially the insults and threats heaped on them by Oshiomhole and Tinubu. They are getting ready to speak in no uncertain language that Parliament is first and foremost, a gathering of nationalists!

*Nwokoroigwe, a public affairs analyst, writes from Owerri, Imo state. You can reach him via: [email protected]