APC can’t impose leadership on 9th National Assembly –Farouk

The All Progressives Congress (APC), which won majority seats at the National Assembly in the general elections, is planning to lord it over the opposition in the 9th National Assembly by grabbing every leadership position. But, a former Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji Idi Farouk, in this interview with ONWUKA NZESHI, warns that such move may boomerang

What is your opinion on the controversies triggered by the zoning of leadership positions in the 9th National Assembly?



As far as I am concerned, the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not seem to have learnt any lessons from what happened in 2015. The leadership of the National Assembly is determined only by the members of the National Assembly. Every member is important, but the kind of talks I hear from outside the parliament, particularly from the leadership of the APC is giving the impression that they can decide for the National Assembly. I don’t think that is the route to go. You have to be a senator to be in that chamber for you to be able to elect your leader.

Even in the American presidential system that we are following, the Leader of the Senate is the Vice President, so it does not matter, which party holds sway in the Senate. In their own case, if there is a tie on any issue, he comes and casts the deciding vote. So, all these talks by a political party that it will not allow members of the National Assembly to elect their leaders are very strange. You cannot from outside to tell them they shouldn’t hold an election to elect their presiding officers.

Immediately the gong is sounded by the President through a proclamation for the inauguration of a new Assembly, the first item on their programme is to elect a leadership that will preside over their affairs for the next four years. If these people who are seeking to interfere in the business of the National Assembly continue like this, they won’t be there when the lawmakers will elect their leaders.

How do you feel about the position of the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole that his party men can do without the PDP in the National Assembly?

He has never been a member of the National Assembly, so he doesn’t understand the issues. He doesn’t understand that there’s what they call horse trading. He does not also know that there are certain bills or motions that must be passed by two-third majority of members of the legislative chamber. How can you not require the support and cooperation of the other political parties? There are also certain bills that you will bring, which some members of your party may not support, so how can you say you do not need other parties? Even in the election of the leadership, you need other parties, otherwise, you will be taken unawares.

What do you think the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should do?



The PDP is keeping its plans close to its chest and I think that is the best strategy. You cannot say that the PDP with its 46 or 47 members are not important because your party happens to be more in number. How can they not be important in the chamber?

What do you want changed in this whole matter?

My call is that the system should not be overheated unnecessarily. In times past, political parties normally sit down and decide on a zoning formular. When you zone and give positions to different zones, you should allow the zones to present their candidates for the position. But, if you cannot go that route, as a party, you will need to lobby because lobby is an essential part of democracy. What is lobbying? Calling people; talking to them; consulting them and persuading them to accept your point of view on an issue. So, basically, all these grandstanding that the leadership of the APC is doing is not the right path to go because it will create further problems.

The PDP is not bound to take the candidate the APC has anointed for a particular leadership position. The opposition can also see from amongst the ruling party, someone who they prefer to lead them. They are part of the house, and of course, parties do have their own caucuses. Once you are talking about the leadership of the entire house or chamber, I think the ruling party ought to tread cautiously and learn from the mistakes of history if it doesn’t want to be bruised because I see them going through the path, where they will be bruised.

Are you saying that we might end up with another Bukola Saraki in the 9th Senate?

Excuse me. I don’t even get the question because Saraki is a senator and it was the senators that chose him to be their leader. Saraki is not from outside; he is a member of the 8th Senate and it was his colleagues that elected him. The way APC is going, it will soon become the minority even in the House, where it is in the majority. So, they should better learn from history.

The APC has said that its decision on who becomes the Senate president will stand because of party supremacy. How do you see this posture?

What do they mean by party supremacy? The party says it has zoned the position of Senate President to the North-East, but don’t forget that in spite of the fact that the party has decided along this line, there are people, who would rather not agree with that decision. It is their lot not to agree because there has to be another election in the chamber.



It is just the same thing like, when the party said it had zoned the presidency to the North, but Southerners also contested the same election. If the party wants to show its supremacy, it would now prevail on other contenders via lobby. When you choose a candidate, you should go all out to lobby for that candidate and convince others why it should be that candidate.

That is how a party can show its supremacy. It should show its supremacy not through a directive or an order, but through consultations and negotiation. As a party, you have no right to order around the senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A senator is a lawmaker and is also entitled to his own opinion. Lawmakers have right to disagree with the position of their parties.

If you recall, during the Obama election in the United States, Collin Powel, a Republican, decided that he would rather support the candidate of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had chosen its candidate, but Powel did not agree with that candidate because he preferred the candidate of the Democrats (Obama) and he voted for him. This is the beauty of democracy.

If such a thing happens here, such a man would be accused of anti-party activities and he is either suspended or expelled…

What type of anti-party activity can be worse than what the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi did in Rivers State? Have they expelled him? In spite of all their strength, did APC field any candidate in all the elections held recently in Rivers State?

Did APC have any candidate in Zamfara State? What are you talking about? What have they done to such persons, who caused them such devastating blow and disgrace?

I do not have to agree with you, when you say this should be my leader, when I know that I am entitled by law and the constitution to choose my leader. As far as I am concerned, the party’s decision is a guide; it is more like a recommendation, which should be followed up by strong lobby. If you don’t lobby and you ambush everybody and push everybody around, you can’t take away the Senate presidency from somebody you have expelled from the party.

What would you advise the likes of Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje to do now as there is a threat to expel them if they go against the decision of their party?

They should pursue their ambitions. They should go for it if it is their conviction that they stand a chance to get the support of their colleagues.

It is their entitlement, not an advice. They should go for it if they feel sufficiently strong to become the president of the Senate. Let them go for it. They should get their colleagues, talk to them. If they see leadership in you, who are you to say no? They should go for it.

How do you see the tussle in the House of Representatives?

It is the same story. But, is seems to me that the House is doing it probably better. Femi Gbajabiamila has been there for quite a long time; they know him and he knows them. There are so many returnees; I guess that could be to his advantage. But again, just like I said about the Senate, lobby could do the magic.

If you don’t lobby and you just sit down because your party says it is you, meanwhile your party’s leadership is neither in the Senate nor in the House; they don’t have voting right and they might not even be allowed into the chamber that day, then you’ve lost it. The people that anointed you might not even be allowed into the premises of the National Assembly on the day of the election. It is only members of the House of Representatives that can choose their leaders.

The same goes for the Senate. So, let us stop overheating the polity and do things in the right way. Even the President, during his campaigns said in the presidential election, vote for me; in the other elections vote your conscience.

Isn’t that controversial? You might say it is controversial, but again, it is within his right to say so because he probably must have seen in the candidate of his party, somebody he does not agree with in terms of capacity to win the election. The President is a human being and can disagree with the choice of his party. He is a Nigerian, who knows almost everybody and might not want to sell a particular candidate during that election. But, if the people of your state decide it is you, he says who am I? So, if the President was wrong, why didn’t the party caution him?

Can a political party caution a Nigeria president?

The President is a party man. He is first and foremost a member of the party; if he didn’t have a party, he wouldn’t be there today. If they are talking about party supremacy, it should be on everybody. But, in exercising that, your power of supremacy, you must also come with clean hands.

The APC national chairman has been talking about this concept of party supremacy and has been using it to reinforce his move to compel the lawmakers to do the bidding of their party. Is this not a form of dictatorship?

I heard that he is also tempering down now because he was also a governor of a state and had worked with a state legislature. You can only talk about the supremacy of the party if there is justice, equity and fair play.

Above all, in everything you do in life, you should apply common sense. In all that you do in life, you should subject it to the Four Way Test of the Rotary International. When you come out and you want to do or say something, you should think if it is it right; is it good; would it be beneficial to all concerned? If it is not, then you need to retrace your steps.

Do you think that the tussle for the leadership of the National Assembly is the only thing that should concern parliamentarians and Nigerians at this time?

First and foremost when you go to any party or social gathering, there is a programme or agenda and there are items on that agenda.

The first item on the agenda of the National Assembly is the election of their leaders and it is so because the leader is important to the successes or failure of the Assembly based on the actions they take or do not take. So, first things first; get the right leadership and you get the right results. If you get the wrong leadership, then there will be friction, factionalisation, infighting and all sorts of troubles. These are the kind of things we do not wish the 9th Assembly.

Some Nigerians feel that much of the struggles about who should lead is because of perks of office rather than providing real leadership in the National Assembly. Do you share that view?

I don’t think so. I don’t agree with that proposition. The first item on the agenda of the National Assembly after the presidential proclamation is the election of leaders of the parliament.

So, going by that agenda, when the emphasis is on this, all actions should be directed towards it and that is what the case is now. But it’s becoming so heated because of the pronouncements, declarations, agitations and threats from different quarters, particularly the leadership of the ruling party. They don’t have that power to say the Senate cannot elect its leadership the way it wants to go.

What are those issues of national importance which you think the 9th National Assembly should focus on when it is inaugurated

? I can’t advise them on what to focus on. They are lawmakers, so they should just focus on their brief, which is basically lawmaking. But, the executive must appreciate the fact that there is separation of powers and that in so many things they would bring, including the budget, it is not as you take it in that it would come out. If they don’t realise that the powers to make laws is in the National Assembly, then they are getting it wrong.

That is why the issue of leadership doesn’t begin and end with the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. There are other principal officers and the chairmanship of the various committees. You must at all times take them along.

The executive should note that it is not the responsibility of the National Assembly to make overtures. It is the responsibility of the executive to make overtures to the National Assembly on a wide range of issues of governance.

Some of the laws you want passed bothers on governance; the budget also bothers on governance. It is important that even before you send certain things to the National Assembly, you hold consultative sessions with them. There must be rapport that will strengthen synergy for things to move smoothly.

The advice is not for the National Assembly alone because until the executive appreciates the fact that before they take anything to them, there’s need to sound them out, so that they know your motives for initiating a particular bill.

You know that the lawyers talk about the spirit and the letters of the law. If they don’t know what moved your spirit to bring this kind of law, they are not likely to treat it the way you want it. At times, even some of the corrections they would make on what you brought before them will further enhance it.

So, that understanding must come. There must be strong relationship between both arms. Politics is about dialogue. But you don’t wake up in the morning, bring me a budget in December and expect that it must be passed by the first day of January.

No! It doesn’t work like that at all. You might want to ask why is there no such rancour in the states. Are they also not politicians in the states? It looks like the arms of government there have mastered how to relate with one another to the extent that people even say that the state legislature is an appendage of the executive. It seems to me that it is because at that level, the governments at the states are doing it right – lobby them, talk to them.

If you look at their ages and say they are going men, or that you don’t like their faces, when they go into the chamber, they are charged with the responsibility of making laws. You didn\t give them that power; the constitution has given them that power.

So, the advice is not to the National Assembly alone. To any Assembly; the advice is for the executive to appreciate and understand the role of the role of the judiciary and National Assembly. For there to be harmony, you must dialogue.