Senate Presidency Battle: Is APC About To Relive Another Saraki-esque Drama?

By Philip Ibitoye

On June 9, 2015, Bukola Saraki, a former Governor of Kwara State, emerged as the President of the Eighth Senate. His emergence was a culmination of a treacherous journey that shattered all norms in the books. Typically, the executive influences the emergence of the leaders of the legislature to ensure that they are like-minded people.

However, in this case, President Muhammadu Buhari did not interfere, saying he would work with whoever emerged as the senate president. The president was wrong. He could not work with Saraki.

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After the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the majority seats in the Nigerian Senate in April 2015, two opposing groups of senators in the party emerged; Likeminded Senators, led by Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi), and Senate Unity Forum, led by Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue). The Melaye group was loyal to Saraki’s bid, while the Gemade group backed Senator Ahmed Lawan’s bid.

Bukola Saraki emerges president of the eighth Senate after a dramatic Senate presidency battle

There was a crack in the new ruling party. No group wanted to back down. Enter APC leadership. The party’s leadership, in an effort to rein in the opposing factions, endorsed Lawan as its preferred candidate for senate president and directed all members to back him. Little did the APC leadership know that Saraki was not going to back down. He did the unexpected by crossing to the other side of the aisle and courting PDP senators.

By the morning of June 9, 2015, Saraki’s plot had been perfected and set in motion. In a bid to avoid an embarrassment, the APC leadership called members of the party to a meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC). The Saraki group boycotted the meeting and instead headed to the Senate floor to execute their plan. With the help of Saraki-aligned APC and PDP senators, he was elected senate president unopposed. The move also resulted in the unprecedented emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the minority PDP, as deputy senate president.

It was in the closing moment of the first sitting after Saraki had been sworn in as the senate president of the eighth senate that Lawan’s supporters thronged into the chamber in utmost bewilderment and confusion.

They had been played. Saraki had just staged a bloodless ‘coup’ against his party. Unhealable bad blood seeped in. What followed after were years of deadlock in the senate as the executive failed to foster a healthy working relationship with the Saraki-led senate. The affairs of the state suffered, and Nigerians bore the brunt of a divided government.

It is May 2023. The APC has won the majority in the tenth Senate, and history is about to repeat itself. Lawan and Godswill Akpabio are “at war” over the Senate presidency. Akpabio has lobbied for President-elect Bola Tinubu’s endorsement multiple times, but the latter has yet to state his position, despite reports claiming he had endorsed the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently received Governor Biodun Oyenbaji of Ekiti State, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Senator-elect Godswill Akpabio (Middle) and Senator Barau Jubrin at his Abuja residence amid the senate presidency battle

There are also reports that the president-elect is irritated by Akpabio’s constant lobbying for the position. “It was gathered that since the president-elect returned from abroad, after his 34-day vacation, Akpabio visits his home almost every day, an action that is upsetting Tinubu’s associates,” Sunday Sun reported last Sunday.

Outgoing Senate President Lawan is reportedly leading the efforts to scuttle Akpabio’s ambition. He is said to have told President-elect Tinubu that endorsing the Akwa Ibom senator would not be enough for him to win the support of the APC conference. APC senators are allegedly angry that Akpabio frustrated the inauguration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which was duly screened and confirmed by the ninth senate.

The Leadership Newspaper recently quoted a source privy to a meeting between Lawan-led senators and President-elect Tinubu as saying that the lawmakers threatened to sponsor another senator to defeat Akpabio if the president-elect endorsed him. Lawan also reportedly invoked the Saraki drama, warning that a repeat might be in the offing.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan is reportedly lobbying President-elect Tinubu not to support Senator-elect Godswill Akpabio for the senate presidency — Senate President Ahmad Lawan is reportedly lobbying President-elect Tinubu not to support Senator-elect Godswill Akpabio for the Senate presidency

Akpabio is not the only incoming senator in the race for senate president. Others are Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (APC-Abia North); Senator-elect Abdul-Aziz Yari (APC-Zamfara West); Senator-elect Dave Umahi (APC-Ebonyi South), and Senator-elect Adams Oshiomhole (APC-Edo North).

In the 109-seat Senate, the APC has 59 senators, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 36; Labour Party (LP) eight, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) two, Social Democratic Party (SDP) two, Young Progressives Party (YPP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) one seat each. Contenders require a simple majority of votes to emerge as the Senate president. The 10th Senate is expected to be inaugurated on June 13.

Meanwhile, Daily Trust reported on Wednesday that Akpabio and Yari are separately scrambling to woo their colleagues in the PDP and other opposition parties ahead of the inauguration of the tenth senate in June. These moves signal fire on the mountain for the majority party, APC, because such deals with the opposition might water down the influence of the ruling party as they did between 2015 and 2019.

Frankly, Nigeria is currently at a precipice, with the inflation rate rising every month and poverty worsening. Nigerians do not deserve another senate/legislature that gets nothing done because it is at war with the executive. Nothing gets done in such atmosphere (See the current debt limit tussle in the United States as President Joe Biden is refusing to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the country moves dangerously towards defaulting on its debt).

On Wednesday, reports emerged that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, which has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, has commenced consultations to have consensus candidates for principal offices. While this is a welcome development, memories of 2015 suggest such a move might not mark the end of the power tussle.

Therefore, President-elect Tinubu cannot afford to make the same mistake President Buhari made in 2015. He should consult widely with the lawmakers-elect and endorse a popular candidate that he can work with and can command consensus support from the conference.