By the time the new National Assembly is inaugurated today, Monday 6th of June, 2011, its leadership will bear a heavy imprint of the Executive’s hand. Since the return of democratic governance in 1999, no administration has been more desperate to affect the emergence of the legislature than this one. Whatever its motives are, there are serious grounds for the nation to worry over what the executive intends to use the legislature for.
The less-than-discreet efforts of the executive and the leadership of the PDP to affect the unopposed emergence of Senator David Mark as the Senate President had raised the concern of many Nigerians regarding the designs of the Executive over the Legislature, and in the longer term, in terms of its dealings with the legislature on substantive issues such as the exercise of functions, oversight or constitutional matters. Even making allowances for the PDP’s zoning principle, and the need to impose party supremacy over legislators, the strong arm tactics being employed in engineering the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly has crossed all boundaries of decorum and propriety.
As from today, Senate President David Mark will preside over a Senate only with a heavy push from the Presidency. In the maneuvers to ensure that he stands unopposed, using the dubious criteria of seniority and a zoning policy which has largely been discredited, the Presidency and the PDP leadership has foisted upon the Senate a leadership which will substantially owe its position to it. It is probable that Senator David Mark would still have been chosen by his colleagues as their leader, and there is certainly enough on the ground to suggest that he would have emerged as Senate President on the basis of the perception of his performance among returning Senators; but this is all the more reason why the overt involvement of the Executive and the PDP leadership in his emergence today detracts from his record, and the integrity of the process.
Whoever emerges the Speaker of the House of Representatives after a messy and divisive fight to pre-determine the outcome of the contest will have a huge task just merely justifying his or her position. So bitter has the fight been over who should be the next Speaker that the membership of the House has been split right down the middle, and the fallouts of the fight have allegedly even involved the dramatic arrest and detention of the out-going Speaker. The contest between candidates of the Executive arm of government and the PDP leadership on the one hand, and that of many of the members of the House on the other, have opened up old wounds, and are reminding the nation that the fallouts over the last elections are still haunting the nation.
The candidate of the executive arm and the PDP leadership is being forced upon the legislators under the cover of a zoning arrangement which provides that the Speaker of the House of Representatives should come from the South West geo-political zone; a zone which has produced only four PDP members in the entire House of Representatives. Yet whoever the Speaker is, he or she will have to preside over a Chamber with elected members from many Parties and from many zones. Even though the PDP has more members in the House of Representatives than any other Party, a Speaker from the South West will be representing the zone with the least representation, whereas the North West, which is fielding the opposing candidate, has one of the largest PDP representatives in the chamber. If the executive-sponsored candidate emerges Speaker, substantial time and energy will have to be deployed by him or her to win the trust and confidence of members of the lower Chamber. This will be wasted time and energy, which should be more productively utilized in addressing the many challenges of governance in which the legislature is involved.
If the independent legislator with substantial following succeeds in defeating the government-sponsored candidate, he or she will face executive hostility which will subsist, subject to the degree of bitterness and damage to Party unity and harmony of the House which the fight would have engendered. He or she will also have to mend fences and build bridges with the opposing camp, as well as evolve strategies to facilitate the normalization of the work of the legislature within the shortest time-frame.
The legislature which is being inaugurated today will not have had a free hand in choosing its leadership or at best, the Speaker would emerge against a strong resistance of his Party and the Presidency. Yet this leadership will have decisive influence in the manner the legislature relates with the executive arm. The overbearing influence of the executive arm in determining the emergence of leaders of the legislature is bound to raise questions over what the PDP administration plans for the nation. The speculations or plans to push through some profound constitutional amendments which will seek to alter the nature of the Nigerian federal system, or amend tenures of the executive or some other initiatives which will affect the balances of power will draw much fuel from these heavy-handed tactics of the executive. The efficacy and integrity of the legislature will be compromised to the extent of the influence of the executive over it. The manner of the emergence of its leadership will have a definite influence on it in this regard.
The April 2011 elections have thrown up serious political problems for Nigeria. These problems include many which have roots in the limited space for good government, transparency and competence. The emergence of a leadership in the legislature which is the product of the executive will not aid the need for good governance. It will put too much power in the hands of the Presidency and the PDP, and deny Nigerians the benefits of a government which operates with sufficient respect for the rule of law and enough controls to limit potential abuse.
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