Legitimacy Of Senate Leadership And Nigeria’s Stability

The popular support which the current Senate leadership enjoys from Senators, Nigerians and the international community is evidentially paving way for peace, good governance, democracy dividends, growth and development to triumph in the country. When the people believe that the leadership has moral and legal authority to rule, surely the policies and programmes of the government will receive maximum support from the people; conversely, when the leadership is perceived to be illegitimate, the society will become ungovernable, the polity over heated and the government distracted.

In modern political context, legitimacy of government is acquired through credible election and good governance where the government adequately provides the needs and yearnings of the people.

The current President of the Senator, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki was returned unopposed on 9th June 2015 on the day of the inauguration of the upper legislative chamber. The Deputy President of the Senator, Senator Ike Ekweremadu defeated Senator Ali Ndume where members of the rival political party were believed to have voted for Ekweremadu. The Principal Officers in the Senate were likewise chosen by the majority of each zonal caucus of the governing APC.

However, the emergence of the current Senate leadership initially generated heavy commotion, hullabaloo and cacophony. Nevertheless, the initial dust the composition of the Senate leadership was cleared when the Senate returned from a short recess on 28th July 2015 where 81 out of 108 Senators endorsed and passed vote of confidence on Senator Saraki’s leadership. What further evidence do we need to underscore the legitimacy of Senator Saraki’s leadership when the absolute majority in the Senate has endorsed his leadership. The Senators are wise and elderly people who can not be coerced and intimidated to accept any position. The 81 Senators endorsed the leadership of Saraki’s leadership because of the confidence in the credibility, capacity and capabilities of the various occupants of the senate leadership.

Senator Saraki is a good crisis manager who networked effectively to douse the early tension generated by the emergence of the current Senate leadership. He carried various Senators along and respectfully too and today he is enjoying their popular support. Beyond the frontiers of the Senate and National Assembly, Senator Saraki is enjoying overwhelming and tremendous support from Nigerians in all walks of life.

This is evident in the deluge of courtesy visits by strategic groups and high profile individuals who troop to his office on regular basis to endorse his leadership with countless others queuing behind to visit him for such endorsement.

The endorsement galore has been boosted with various courtesy visits by the members of the Diplomatic Corp and various strategic interest groups from the international community. Hardly does any week pass without Senator Saraki hosting high profile courtesy visits. My humble advice is that Senator Saraki should not limit the visits to only the elite but should include non elite with popular support base who are itching for such solidarity visits.

Now that the leadership crisis is over, the Senate should focus on delivering democracy dividends and promoting good governance so that Nigerians will have positive impact of the government. People oriented laws should be made while decisions on issues of public interest should always be taken. The hope-building visit by the Senators to the insurgency ravaged areas in the North-east is a positive development not minding the unnecessary political interpretation to it. Plato, a Greek philosopher said that the good exist no matter what the people think about it. The Senate should ensure that the principle and practice of federal character is recognized in federal appointments.

The Senate should invoke its powers to ensure that the Executive hits the ground running with the composition of executive cabinet, positive policies and programmes. Now that the leadership crisis appears to be over in the Senate, its leadership should strengthen and consolidate its legitimacy through good governance so that peace and progress can be maintained in the country.

– Okadigbo a public affairs analyst wrote in from Abuja