The election of the leadership of the National Assembly on Tuesday has thrown the first challenge to President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Olayinka Oyegbile takes a behind-the-scenes look at the management of the new administration's first major crisis.

The events that culminated in the election of Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, June 9, would continue to ring and ricochet around political circles. Their election against the wish of the leadership of the party has generated so much heat and upset so many political permutations causing the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to go back to the drawing board and look at itself under a new prism.

It is no doubt a challenge to what is known as party supremacy, the idea that the political party as a unit is superior and that any decision taken by it is binding on members. How far this can be applied in the events of that Tuesday on the floor of the Senate and the House is still in the air. Since the jostling for the leadership of the National Assembly kicked off, President Muhammadu Buhari had declared that he had no interest in who the members decide to thrust the leadership of the red and green chambers on. Many observers have wondered whether it was in the best thing for the president to make such a declaration since any of his programmes and plans have to pass through the scrutiny of both chambers.

Party supremacy on trial

Many of those who wondered why Buhari decided to take this stance point at what happened during the tenures of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar'Adua and lately Goodluck Jonathan. For instance, the Senate Presidency had the highest turnover of occupants during the tenure of Obasanjo largely because he was interested in who occupied the seat. This perhaps was a way of ensuring that his programmes and plans saw the light of the day.

Although, many viewed this as overbearing and undue interference of one arm of government (executive) in the affairs of the other (legislature), the former president played very prominent even if silent role in the choice of who presided over the affairs of the legislature during his eight-year tenure.

During his first term between 1999 and 2003, the senate had three presidents (Evan Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo and Pius Anyim) while the House had two Speakers (Salisu Buhari and Ghali Na'Abba). On his second coming in 2003 the senate had a turnover of two presidents (Adolphus Wabara and Ken Nnamani) while the House made do with only one (Aminu Masari). Of the two chambers, the senate seemed to be the more unstable under Obasanjo. This was not so much so with the late Yar'Adua and Jonathan. But President Jonathan had it tough with the House during his tenure. It is, however, too early to say for how long the president would be able to maintain his 'disinterest' in who presides over the two chambers which are very crucial to his delivering on promises made to the electorate during the campaigns.

For Maxi Okwu, claimant to the position of National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the president’s declaration of disinterest does not bode well for him and his party. He said: "As the president, you can't say you are not interested in who leads the National Assembly. You can't play Pontius Pilate in this matter." He is of the view that as much as he was not advocating outright interference the president cannot allow an antagonistic leadership to control the assembly.

On what he thinks the party has to do, he said: "I think APC is in a dire circumstance. There are two extremes available to it. One extreme is to discipline the party members who disobeyed the directives of the party. At the other extreme is the option of allowing the rebels to go scot free. Either way is dangerous for APC. But if I were APC, I will opt for the option of giving them appropriate discipline. For a party to command respect, it must be ready to bite when it becomes necessary. It is, however, left for APC."

At the other end of the spectrum is the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN), who said the emergence of Saraki as Senate President was not illegal. According to him, the issue at stake was largely moral and not legal. He faulted the argument that the presence of 57 (out of 108) was not enough to pick a new leadership. He said the number had already constituted a quorum.

"Inaugurating the National Assembly is considered as an ordinary business and for an ordinary business the requirement of a quorum is one-third. So, legally, there was a quorum. You can argue from a moral perspective but legally, it is in order," he said.

Alegeh argues it was wrong for the party to have called for a meeting on the day the assembly was to be inaugurated. "Why wait till the last minute? We must understand that if a time had been fixed for the inauguration, one would expect that all those who want to be inaugurated, given the importance of that event, should have arrived on time. The Clerk of the National Assembly, who is in charge of determining such, said there was a quorum. It will be difficult for me to fault that."

Rather than see anything wrong in what happened he said it was a demonstration of the fact that the legislative arm was beginning to show some streak of independence which is healthy four our democracy.

"There is a need to have respect for institutions. If the Senate was having an inauguration, other people should respect that fact and schedule meetings appropriately. The day for the inauguration of the House is a very important day in a democracy."

In the same vein, the Publisher of Ovation magazine, Mr. Dele Momodu, described Saraki's election as fair. In backing the election he posted on his Twitter page that Saraki has earned the right to the plum position because he "depleted the PDP for the sake of the APC." He is of the opinion that "Saraki didn't sell out."

The opinion of the former Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji tallies with those above. To him, the President should steer clear of the issue because "It is none of his business if you ask me. He is the head of the executive arm of government and the National Assembly is the legislature. He has no business worrying his head over that. He should concentrate on delivering on his electoral promises."

A calculated move

The handling of the crisis that led to the emergence of Saraki may have painted Buhari as a man who is slow in making up his mind. But some analysts argue that as a retired and experienced military general he was only being calculating and biding his time to take a decision. They pointed to the fact that the day he emerged as the presidential candidate of the party, many had expected that a few days later he should have named his running mate. This was not to be. It took him longer thus leading to many speculations and conjectures. However, the day he announced his choice, it was hailed as a masterstroke. The choice of Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of Law and a senior pastor at the influential The Redeemed Christian Church of God beat many hands down. It was also pointed out that the APC being an amalgamation of various interests and coalitions needed to be thorough in its moves. All these inform the deliberate and meticulous move which many see as a weakness which has more often turned out to be right. Conspiracy theory

As is expected, since the events of Tuesday there have been many stories insinuating that the president may have had a hand in the drama both at the Senate and the House which saw to the election of both presiding officers against the wish of the party and its preferred candidates. However, investigations have shown that the president was himself taken unawares by the event. In fact, a source close to Aso Villa confided in The Nation that those saying such things were only out to cause disaffection between the president and party leaders. According to our source, it was a deliberate move by some interests to drive a wedge between Buhari and APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. These forces are said to be both within the party and the opposition PDP. The plan of those behind this plot it is to drive a wedge between the president and the party leader. Their expectation is that an isolated Buhari would be more vulnerable and they would then be able to move in and push their own agenda.

Those who believe this added that the absence of the president at the International Conference Centre was a sign that he was not on the same page with the party leaders and their choice of leadership for the legislature. But the explanation by the president's Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) Mallam Garba Shehu that the president decided not to go to the meeting because the legislators had commenced the election process thus making it unnecessary for him to be there.

It was gathered that the meeting was not called to embarrass any one or to back any candidate, the president was only interested in meeting both parties and call for party unity and nip the brewing crisis in the bud. But since the elections have been held in both chambers, the party leaders later met with the president to sound him out on how to respond to what transpired on the floor of the National Assembly.

At the meeting, it was said that the president restated his stand that the decision of the party was okay by him and that he was disappointed that the party’s order was flouted. A two-pronged approach was the proposed with the president restating his stand and saying that since it had happened the party was encouraged to take its stand and continue with moves to douse the crisis. He also restated his resolve to work with whoever emerges as the leaders of both chambers.

Before meeting the president, party leaders were said to have met with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was approached to give the party leaders an expert legal opinion on what had transpired. The vice president, a professor of law was reported to have said that what transpired at the chambers could pass the legality test. He said that going to court to challenge would not only be time-consuming but would deepen the cracks within the party. He advised the party to be "strategic" in its response to the crisis.

It was then resolved after the counsel of the vice president that a fast one had been pulled on the leadership of the party and there was a need to resolve it and move on. Thus the party decided that it would accept the election and then embark on fence mending moves.

Party chairman John Oyegun has since announced a reversal of the APC’s initial position by saying the party had now reconciled itself to the reality that Saraki was the Senate President.

According to The Nation source President Buhari would not meet with the new leadership of the National Assembly until all the fence mending moves have been tidied up.