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| Sen. Pres. Saraki |
In 2011, Mr Bola Tinubu and his Action Congress political party; connived with some opposition parties to deny Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the opportunity to ‘elect’ its preferred candidate for the Speaker of House of Representatives.
All Progressives Congress (APC), as the opposition parties were later known as, after their merger, achieved that feat with the collaboration of some renegade members of PDP, headed by Aminu Tambuwal who later became the Speaker.
Actually, the aim of APC in that plot was to destroy PDP. In reality, the failure of PDP to install its preferred candidate as the Speaker dented its cohesion, which led to its inability to win the 2015 Presidential election.
In celebrating winning the Presidential election and the crushing of PDP, as they thought, APC forgot, according to Robert Greene; “a Viper crushed beneath your foot, but left alive, will rear up and bite you with a double dose of venom…”
Putting it differently, Mr Greene noted; “an enemy that is left around is like a half-dead viper that you nurse back to health. Time makes the venom grow stronger.”
And that was exactly what happened today at the floor of the Senate when the Senators were electing the Senate President.
That PDP everybody thought was dead was in fact half-dead. Today, it rose to bite APC ‘with a double dose of venom’. Not only did PDP dictate who became Senate President, one of theirs was equally elected as the deputy Senate President.
In addition, the story wasn’t any different at the House of Representatives; the preferred candidate of APC was equally defeated by the PDP machinery. PDP’s involvement in the National Assembly elections was carried out in a gangster style – the PDP style.
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| Speaker Dogara |
However, it is equally important to note that both Sen. Saraki (new Senate President) and Hon. Dogara (new House Speaker) were former members of PDP who left the PDP for APC in search of power.
And as that power was within their reach, Mr Tinubu thought he could deny them by his usual manner of imposition in Lagos State.
But Tinubu has been reminded that Lagos is in Nigeria and not the other way round. Bola Tinubu; welcome to Nigeria!!!
Besides, what made the result of the election very humiliating was; APC with its majority of Senators in the Senate didn’t know how the leaderships of the Senate emerged.
While Tinubu and the hierarchy of his Party were waiting for Pres. Buhari to intervene and direct their Senators to vote for the Party’s candidate, they saw on the TV like every other Nigerian that the Senators have elected a new Senate President.
And to make matter worse, Pres. Buhari didn’t come to meet them. He was reported to have retorted that since Lai Mohammed said he’s not the leader of APC, the leader should go and sort out the problem.
It is obvious that Buhari is not interested in APC. He has since congratulated the elected officers and restated his earlier statement that he preferred to remain neutral.
The northern Nigerian people simply used APC to gain power as all powers now belong to them; such as President, Senate President, House Speaker and Chief justice of Nigeria.
And for the Yoruba, they have vice President, which the President can make redundant as he wishes as empowered by the Nigerian constitution.
As for Ndigbo, they carried out a civilian coup at the National Assembly to capture the office of the deputy Senate President, which they got through the back door.
Overall, I thought Bola Tinubu was smart but I was wrong. Anyway, he still has Lagos. I know by now Tinubu has realised that the measure you give = the measure you receive.
I wonder who is laughing now.