NASS Crisis: Tension Mounts

The constitution gave the National Assembly the power to regulate its own proceedings and based on this, the first one was produced and handed over to the 4th Assembly.

• As Factions Fail To Shift Ground Ahead Tuesday’s Resumption

AHEAD of next week Tuesday’s National Assembly resumption date, The Guardian investigation has revealed that the crisis that has bedeviled the two chambers – the Senate and House of Representatives – over the election of principal officers, remains unresolved.

This is despite the intervention by the Presidency, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and the national leadership of the party after its last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.

A source within the party revealed yesterday that the moves by the reconciliatory committee set up by the APC governors and headed by the duo of Adams Oshiomhole (Edo) and his Sokoto counterpart, Aminu Tambuwal, has not achieved the desired result.

According to the source, the two factions in both chambers have refused to shift ground. “This development has put the Presidency, party leadership and key party leaders in a dilemma. They are waiting to see the outcome of the Police report on the forgery allegation concerning the Senate standing rules.

The crisis may linger than expected and the two chambers may not enjoy relative peace soonest,” the source said. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the resumption, Kabir Marafa, APC Senator representing Zamfara Central and one of the opponents of Bukola Saraki’s emergence as senate president, against the party’s preferred choice, Ahmed Lawan, insisted that the rules of the Senate were forged.

He said: “I do not know who forged what, all I am saying is that the laws of the Senate were forged and as a Nigerian and a senator, I want that criminality investigated and appropriate sanctions applied. “The assertion that each assembly automatically comes with its own fresh Standing Order is not correct.

The first Standing Order came into effect in 1999 when the 4th Assembly was inaugurated, just like the 1999 Constitution, because it is an offshoot of the constitution.

The subsequent ones were only amended through the amendment process prescribed by the book itself. Remember that it is the Standing Order that differentiates the chamber from a jungle.”

When asked of the way forward, Marafa said: “What we mean by going back to the rules is: the Senate President erroneously read a letter from some unknown persons from unknown entities called caucuses and announced the leadership of our own party, that is the Senate Leader and Deputy Senate Leader and the rest. “He did that in manifest error because it was in contravention of our Order 3 (2).

Those senators are not qualified to hold the positions they are holding, judging from where they come from. For instance, Bala Na’Allah is junior to six senators from Northwest. So, he cannot become Senate Deputy Majority Leader; he cannot. “Unless it is arbitrary.

If it is so, then it becomes a jungle and the strongest senator from Northwest will take over his seat on resumption and maybe another one will claim to be the senate president.” However, countering Marafa’s assertion, a pro-Saraki and PDP senator representing Delta North, Peter Nwaoboshi, said as far as they in the PDP are concerned, there was no importation in the Standing Order. “They keep talking about forgery or importation.

The rules are not importation or forgeries. As a lawyer, you forge a document when there is an original document in existence.

There must be original document that is in existence before you can say that there is a forgery. There cannot be a forgery when there is non-existence of an original document.

So, the Standing Order for the 8th Senate is a document on its own. It is only when somebody forges that 8th Assembly document that you call it a forgery.

Where is the original 2015 Rule that was forged?” Nwaoboshi asked. He said it is the National Assembly bureaucrats that amend and prepare the rules. “They bring such documents to the senate or any legislative house. I have served as a political adviser to a governor and I have handled the first legislative session of the Delta State House of Assembly. We, the bureaucrats, produced the rule. “There was no existing rule.

We produced the rules based on what we have seen in different books. We assembled different books of various states and outside the country and from there, we formulated the rules for the state House of Assembly.” Speaking on the issue, a member of House of Representatives from Kano State loyal to the Consolidation Group, Alhassan Doguwa, said there has been ongoing consultation between members of the two factions ahead of resumption.

According to him, the Speaker Yakubu Dogara group has conceded to the Femi Gbajabiamila group the position of the Majority Leader and that of the Chief Whip just to secure peace and stability of the House. He said: “Our people, our constituents, are becoming so much disenchanted with the scheme of things now in the House.

They are not happy that we quarreling, not over the welfare of Nigerians, but our selfish interests. “In my personal opinion, our group should accept this offer in the interest of peace and stability of the House and I want to believe that whoever become the benefactors of this new arrangement still remain proud members of the group. “I believe in most of the philosophies and conviction that we have as a group.

We are now in a situation whereby we have to eschew bitterness and work with what is on the ground. “We have to work with the realities on ground, which is that the Dogara group are willing to make concession by conceding two major positions to our group.”

Meanwhile, there have been reports of plans by the leadership of the senate to suspend members that dragged the chamber to court over the alleged amendment or forgery of the Standing Order. It was also rumoured that some senators may be planning to impeach Saraki on resumption on Tuesday.

Most senators are however avoiding discussing the suspension plan, while Marafa debunked moves to impeach Saraki when the senate resumes. It is doubtful if anti-Saraki lawmakers would muster the mandatory two-third majority to remove the senate president, who still has the backing of about 49 PDP colleagues.

Credit: Guardian