Politics is a game of intrigues, whoever that is fast outsmarts the other. Today, you may succeed in outsmarting your opponent, but tomorrow it may be the turn of your opponent to outsmart you.
Politics is equally a game of win or lose. You may succeed in winning today, but tomorrow you may lose. In politics, nothing is sacrosanct, or cast in stone.
Sometimes in politics, what goes around may equally come around – the measure you give, the same measure will be given to you. Some people call it the law of karma.
Unlike in a parliamentary system of government where the leader of the political party that wins the overall majority automatically becomes the leader of the legislature, in a presidential system, there is no such clear-cut arrangement. While the political party that has an overall majority may have its preference for the leadership of the legislature, some elected members of the legislsture may equally be nursing their own individual ambitions. That’s where intrigues, the game of Scrabble, and horse tradings come in.
And so it was, at the end of 2011 general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had an overall majority in the two chambers of the National Assembly. In the Senate, the PDP had settled for its returnee Senate President, David Mark, but in the House of Representatives, the party started packaging a new person for the position of the Speaker.
The PDP already knew that another person was eyeing that particular seat. But the party did not want the person to be the Speaker. To prevent the person from presenting himself on the floor of the House to contest the seat, the PDP sought the aid of security agencies to keep him away from the legislature on the day of inauguration.
That notwithstanding, that particular person succeeded in maneuvering the security agencies, disguised himself, and was later found seated in the legislative chamber, where his colleagues later elected him Speaker of the House of Representatives. The person in quee is Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal.
The PDP was then dazed, but later swallowed its pride and accepted Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Not long after, Tambuwal decided to rebel once more. He dumped the PDP and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) and still retained his Speakership. He was hailed by the APC.
The PDP made some little noise and piped down. It did not seek to bring down the roof, by insisting that since Tambuwal had jumped ship he must relinquish the Speakership. They knew that it was Tambuwal’s colleagues that elected him and that these were the only people that could remove him if he no longer enjoyed their support.
Likewise, the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not want Abubakar Bukola Saraki to be the Senate President at the inauguration of the National Assembly in 2015. It wanted another person for the position. Saraki however managed his way to clinch the Senate Presidency.
But the APC would not let him be. First, Saraki was dragged to the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on allegation that he did not properly declare his assets when he was Governor of Kwara State. Saraki was physically put in the dock like a common criminal, the Number Three man in the country, to personally clear himself of the allegation. For 1018 days, the case went through the various courts, until the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, discharged and acquitted him.
While the false declaration of assets trial was still going on, Saraki was accused of having links with the Offa armed robbery gang that killed 32 persons during a bank robbery. He was severally invited by the police to answer charges about the crime.
As if that was not enough, the police laid seige on his house and that of his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, stopped Saraki’s convoy to prevent him from carrying out his duty as President of the Senate.
Now that Saraki has left the APC and declared for the PDP, the APC wants him to resign as Senate President, or to surrender “the crown”, apologies Adams Oshiomole, which of course, it was not the APC that gave him or made him Senate President.
Saraki became the Senate President by outsmarting the APC leadership when he went into alliance with the PDP Senators. All through his travails in the hands of the Presidency and the APC leadership, it was the PDP Senators that stood by Saraki and ensured that nothing happened to him. So for the Presidency or the APC to be asking Saraki to quit his position now that he has crossed over to the PDP, is like asking someone to give what he does not have. Neither the Presidency nor the APC has the power to make anybody Senate President. It is the Senators that have that power, which they can give or withdraw.
APC may have forgotten what happened in 2014, when Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal as Speaker of the House of Representatives, left the PDP and declared for the APC and retained his Speakership. That time Tambuwal did not commit any offence, rather, he was hailed. Now that Saraki has done exactly the same thing, he has become a criminal and must be hunted and killed. What goes around, comes around. The law of karma.
