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As the ninth National Assembly winds down its activities for a new legislative composition, TIJANI ADEYEMI and KEHINDE AKINTOLA examines some of the salient peculiarities of the incoming tenth assembly and the power game that will shape the composition of its principal officers and decisive legislations.
The February 25, 2023 National Assembly election will go down in history as the election that produced the highest number of political parties representation in the National Assembly since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999.
In the build up to the election, political analysts had believed that it would be a walk-over for the major political parties as only few people believed in the ability of the smaller parties to spring surprises during the contest. But the election came and no fewer than seven political parties made their marks, which implies that their candidates will form the composition of the tenth National Assembly by the time the parliamentary session kicks-off in June this year.
The composition of the tenth NASS will be in sharp contrast to what is obtainable in the outgoing ninth Senate, which comprises representatives from only three political parties of All Progressive Congress (APC); Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Young People’s Party (YPP).
In line with Nigeria›s legislative convention and practice, the tenth National Assembly is expected to be inaugurated on the 9th of June, 2023. It is constitutionally required that the incumbent president at the expiration of tenure of the outgoing parliament will issue a proclamation which will automatically dissolve the outgoing Assembly and fix a date for the inauguration of the new one.
As stipulated in Order 2 of the tenth edition of the House of Representatives› Standing Orders, all the newly elected 360 members of the House of Representatives, who got the Certificate of Return at their separate and special inauguration plenaries, will go through roll calls under the coordination of the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Sani Tambuwal as his first major official duty after taking over the helms of affairs of the NASS. In line with established legislative practice, the CNA is expected to carry out similar functions in the Senate Chambers.
The exercise will subsequently be followed by announcement of the procedure on how a presiding officer and their deputies (Senate President, Deputy Senate President as well as Speaker and Deputy Speaker) shall be elected. After the successful organisation of the election and with presiding officers and their deputies unveiled, the tenth Assembly will start in earnest.
For the election of the Presiding Officers, Order 2(Rule 2(1-3) further provides that: «The election of the Speaker shall take precedence over any other business and no motion for adjournment or any other motion shall be entertained, while it is proceeding and the House shall continue to meet, if necessary, beyond its ordinary daily time of adjournment, notwithstanding any standing or special order, until a Speaker is declared elected. A member-elect may, before taking the oaths prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to the constitution, take part in the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The election of Speaker shall be conducted in the following manner: (3a) a member-elect, addressing the Clerk, shall propose another member-elect with legislative experience as member of the NASS to be Speaker and shall move that such member-elect do take the chair as Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
Order 2 Rule (2b) also stipulates that: «A member-elect when nominated and seconded shall inform the House whether he accepts or declines the nomination. (c) The member-elect so nominated may address the House for a maximum period of 5 minutes for the purpose of (b) above. (d) The Clerk shall, where the nominee accepts, then ask ‹Are there any further nominations?›, and if there are no further nominations, the Clerk shall say ‘l declare the nominations closed’.
“The Clerk shall then declare the member-elect so proposed and seconded, elected as Speaker. Such member-elect shall be conducted to the chair by the proposer and seconder of the motion, and shall take the chair of the House as Speaker. (e) If more than one member-elect is proposed as Speaker, the Clerk shall, after the second nomination and after each subsequent nomination, if any is made and seconded and accepted or declined, ask: ‘Are there any further nominations?’, and if there are no further nominations, the Clerk shall say, “I declare the nominations closed”.
The rule also provides that: “When two or more members-elect are nominated and seconded as Speaker and where the two or more accept, the election shall be conducted either by an electronic voting or a manual one to be conducted by the Clerk to the National Assembly or his or her deputy using the list of the members-elect of the House, with the proposers and seconders as tellers.
“Every member voting shall name clearly and in the open the candidate of his choice. When all members that are present and who wish to vote have voted, the Clerk to the NASS or his or her deputy shall declare the exercise closed. The Clerk of the House shall submit the result of the voting to the Clerk to the NASS or the deputy, who shall then declare the member-elect who has received the highest number of votes as Speaker-elect.
Meanwhile, with the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as president-elect, which paints a clearer picture that a new regime is underway, the jostling and lobbying for positions within the parliament has begun.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared results for 423 federal legislative seats, following the conclusion of the 2023 NASS election, but supplementary elections will still be held in 46 more constituencies.
In terms of party representation, the coming tenth NASS will be the most diverse one since the fourth democratic dispensation in 1999.
In the Senate, seven political parties shared the 98 out of 109 seats so far declared, while in the House of Representatives, 325 out of 360 seats have been won by eight political parties.
In the Senate, the APC won 57 seats, PDP had 29, LP took six, NNPP and SDP won two seats each, while APGA and YPP won a seat each.
From the information released by INEC so far, out of the 324 seats of the House of Representatives, APC won 162 seats, PDP clinched 102, LP had 34, NNPP won 18, APGA took four, both ADC and SDP won two seats each, while YPP won a seat.
Speakership power game
Sequel to the confirmation of their election after the keenly contested election across the 360 Federal Constituencies, some raking members have started consultation with both returning and fresh counterparts across political parties with a view to slug it out for the ten positions reserved for Principal Officers of the Lower Chamber.
For the office of the Speaker, some of the top contenders opting to succeed the incumbent Speaker, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, include: incumbent Deputy Speaker Wase, and Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, Honourable Muktar Betara, who incidentally is from the same North-East with vice president-elect, Senator Kashim Shetima.
Other persons eyeing Gbajabiamila›s seat include the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Benjamin Kalu, who has curried the support of his kinsmen from the South-East geopolitical zone.
It is however ye to be seen what the political fortune of the embattled Majority Leader, Honourable Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, would be after his election was voided by INEC, following his travail over alleged homicide charges levelled against him in the aftermath of the presidential and NASS election held in Doguwa/Tundun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State. Honourable Ado-Doguwa was the first lawmaker who publicly announced his intention to work with Senator Tinubu during his campaign consultation to the House, ahead of the APC party primary election.
As it stands, the APC in control of both chambers will fill the positions of Senate President and Speaker as well as other principal majority offices, while the PDP no doubt, will dominate the principal minority positions.
The Labour Party, which has six senators and about 30 House members in the House of Representatives and the NNPP which has two senators and 18 members will also have a say in the tenth NASS when the activities resume in June, 2023.
It is also on record that the election on February 25 produced many great winners and losers across the political parties. Some of the great losers are incumbent state governors, who had positioned themselves for the Senate and who suffered serious battering at the poll.
Among the governors in this group are Samuel Ortom (Benue State), Ben Ayade (Cross River), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi).
In Benue State, only Senator Abba Moro (Benue South) was re-elected. Senators Gabriel Suswam (Benue North East) and Emmanuel Orker-Jev lost abysmally. Other great losers are Senators Ahmed Babba Kaita (Katsina North), President Buhari’s senatorial district, Suleiman Abdu Kwari (Kaduna North).
Another surprise was witnessed in the South-East Zone. The zone has a total of 15 senators. Results of the February 25 election showed that Enugu State has two LP senators, while the remaining seat was decided yesterday 11 due to the killing of the LP candidate, Oyibo Chukwu.
Anambra State has two LP senators and one YPP senator. Imo State has two APC senators and one LP senator, while Abia State has one APC senator, one LP senator and one APGA, while the APC won the three Senate seats in Ebonyi State.
The summary is that APC has six senators, LP has six senators, APGA one and YPP one senator just as PDP and NNPP have none. With the performance of the APC in the South-East, it is likely that some of the senators elected on the platform of the party may try their luck by vying for the office of the Senate President.
The case of Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), who defeated Governor Bagudu is very dramatic. The governor frustrated Aliero, former governor of the state out of APC into the waiting arms of the opposition PDP. Another great loser is Senator Ibrahim Kabiru Gaya (Kano South), the Chairman Senate Committee on INEC, who was roundly beaten by the candidate of the relatively new party, NNPP.
Race for Principal Officers
The race for top jobs at the Senate has begun. APC senators, both returning and new ones, have started lobbying for the position of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Majority Leader, Deputy Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip.
Already names like Godswill Akpabio, immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs; Orji Uzor Kalu from Abia; Barau Jibrin from Kano Abdulaziz Yari from Zamfara; David Umahi from Ebonyi and Adams Oshiomhole from Edo and Senator Sani Musa from Niger State as well as the incumbent Senate President, Ahmad Lawan from Yobe state are already being mentioned in the race for Senate Presidency.
On Thursday, some Senators of the APC were in a marathon meeting with the outgoing Senate President, Ahmad Lawan to strategise. The politics of who gets what position is the next level of political intricacies and high tech horse trading. Currently, Senator Musa, who is in the forefront, is unarguably the most popular in the ninth Assembly, because of the importance of his committee to his colleagues, a majority of whom he interacts with virtually on a daily basis.
Popularly known as ‹313› among his political associates, Senator Musa narrowly missed being the National Chairman of the APC before President Buhari and other leaders of the party appealed to the aspirants to step down for Senator Adamu.
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