In a meeting of the National Executive committee of the ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) yesterday, July 2 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari told APC lawmakers to accept party’s superiority over the national Assembly rules. The plea to his party members supposedly for the interest of peace in his party is bad omen for Nigerian democracy. After election, victorious parties are normally expected to come out of their party’s shadow and become the government for the entire nation. The National Assembly, State Assemblies, federal and state executives should elect or appoint principal officers of their institution according to their rules and then get on with the task of governance.
So far, the ruling party are embroiled in intraparty power struggle. It is a fight for the spoils of victory. Party chieftains of the ruling party wants the party to be the center of gravity so they can pick and impose principal officers of the National Assembly, state Assemblies and federal cabinets who are likely to be their political stooges. They want to be the power behind the throne when they are done imposing principal officers of most institutions with their stooges who will do their bidding.
National Assembly members rightly decided to ignore APC’s preferred candidates and went on to elect senate president, deputy senate president, speaker of the House of Representative, majority and minority leader and their deputies, Whip and Deputy whip against the wishes of their political party officials who claimed that they zoned principal offices to various regions. The National Assembly leadership contends that their action was necessary in order to maintain the independency of the legislature as stipulated in the senate and House rules.
After election, the president is suppose to becomes the leader of the party at the national level while governors are suppose to become party leaders at the state level. This is necessary so elected officials can serve all Nigerians irrespective of their party affiliation. Mr. President is wrong to ask his party members to place party interest over elected institution. Going that route will likely lead Nigeria to endless crisis because the agenda of party chieftains is not necessarily the best agenda for Nigeria. Ruling parties compensates party officials by taking their recommendations into consideration when appointing ministers, commissioners and ambassadors. Nigerians have noticed how attempt to mollify political party stalwarts have basically lead to paralysis of this new government. To date, no cabinet minister has been appointed since May 29, when the new president was sworned into office.
Boko Haram who has been on the run within the past couple of months are now back to life. I understand that the president wants to shrink the size of his cabinet which may require more time to merge the ministries but he is losing momentum in the process. A lot of Nigerians thought he will hit the ground running since he was a former president.
In United States, political parties are relegate to the background after elections. The National Assembly elects their officers based on seniority in some cases and rules of the senate and House of Representatives. The principal officers then try as much as possible to work with the sitting president and move the agenda of the nation forward. Sometimes sitting presidents and the national assembly never get along as they should have due to unbridgeable political differences. The back and forth is a form of political competition which is essential in a democracy.
Mr. president, you need to take control of events in order to move the nation forward. Your party will have no choice but to follow your lead if you move decisively. You are the APC Leader. Trying to mollify all factions in your party will end up in failure because there is no way to accommodate or satisfy all the factions with competing interest and agenda. You initial instinct to respect the independence of the legislative branch is the correct call.