Mark

Mark in a fix as pressure grows over 11 senators

Senate President David Mark did not read on the floor the letter written by the 11 senators who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) for six tactical reasons, The Nation learnt last night.

Mark, who is said to be in a fix, plans to meet with the Senators on Monday to weigh some options on managing the situation . The reason, it was said, is to avoid a crisis in the Senate.

Mark is under pressure from majority of the Senators and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to invoke Section 68(1) (g) and (h) of the 1999 Constitution to declare vacant the seats of the senators, until a court decides otherwise.

According to the PDP camp’s plot, which The Nation reported exclusively yesterday, the 11 vacancies would be declared as soon as the letter is read at the plenary.

There are also plans to engage the police and other security agencies to prevent the senators from either entering the premises of the National Assembly or participating in the Senate’s activities.

But there were fears last night that such a drastic action could lead to a serious crisis, which could ground the Senate.

According to sources, Mark offered to stay action on the letter for six reasons. The reasons are:

•the yet-to-be considered report of the Ayo Akinyelure’s Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the defection of Senator Ajayi Robert Boroffice from Labour Party (LP) to APC;

•likely ethnic backlash from the North, which is mostly affected by the defection;

•pressure from PDP, which would make him (Mark) a partisan leader;

•attendant disunity in the Senate;

•the long-standing relationship between him ( Mark) and the affected Senators; and

•the international implication of wielding the big stick on 11 Senators on democracy.

Mark is said to have been consulting on available options beyond the brief from the PDP.

It was learnt that the need to explore all options informed the “tactical method” adopted in managing the letter and in fixing a meeting for Monday with the 11 senators.

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Mark is in a fix because he does not want to invoke to invoke Section 68(1) (g) and (h) of the 1999 Constitution to declare the seats of the 11 affected Senators vacant and create a crisis in the Senate.

“Yet, he is under pressure from PDP and most PDP senators, who are desirous of staving off the heat from the opposition coalition, the APC.

“What has created a dilemma was the report of the Ayo Akinyelure Ad Hoc Committee on the defection of Senator Ajayi Boroffice from the Labour Party to APC. Some of the defecting Senators condemned Boroffice and agreed in principle that his seat should be declared vacant by Mark.

“The report, which has been submitted to the Senate is still awaiting consideration by the Committee of the Whole.

“So, there is agitation from PDP senators to consider the report and adopt the same sanction for the 11 senators. By implication, 12 seats of APC senators would be declared vacant in one day.

“There is no way APC will take this from Mark and it might lead to different court injunctions which could ground the Senate.”

Another senator said: “Mark is being careful because if he declares the seats of the 11 senators vacant, it will reawaken North-South conflict in the Senate. Out of the 11 Senators, nine are from the North, including the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Senator Umaru Dahiru.

“Being from a minority state in the North, Mark might be seen as pursuing anti-Hausa/Fulani agenda or anti-Muslim agenda.

“Declaring the seats of the Senators vacant would also confirm that Mark is acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s script. With the 2015 polls already assuming the colour of religion, the Senate will be the worst for it.”

Another Senator expressed fears that a crisis in the Senate might have “fatal consequences” on the nation’s democracy.

“Once there is commotion in the Senate, which is the livewire of our democracy, the prediction that Nigeria might be a failed state in 2015 will manifest,” he said, pleading not to be named.

“Those whose seats have been declared vacant would not lie low and anarchy might set in. It will get to a stage that the Senate will now choose which order of the court it will obey.

“And a crisis in the Senate will go viral internationally. Mark and a few of us are looking at the issue beyond the PDP-APC bitter politics. We are considering the bigger picture,” he added.

A PDP Senator said: “If Mark declares the seats of the 11 senators, some of whom he respects or relates with at interpersonal level, he will be regarded as partisan and might lose his rating as a national figure.

“Some of us in PDP do not mind whatever toga Mark is robed because there is a constitutional provision to support his action. A court has pronounced that there is no crisis in PDP; therefore, there is no basis for defection by any senator from the ruling party to APC.”

An APC senator, however, criticised the arguments to support the declaration of the 11 senators’s seats vacant.

He said: “It will be subjudice to declare the seat of any defecting senator vacant because there is a case in court. And the Senate has a tradition of respecting the Judiciary by staying action on any matter before the court.

“To avoid anarchy, Mark should leave the court to determine the fate of the senators. Some people in PDP are deceiving him that heaven will not fall, if the seats are declared vacant, but he should think of posterity.

“If there is no crisis in PDP, why did the party change its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur? Why did five governors defect to APC? Even President Goodluck Jonathan admitted in his speech at the PDP NEC meeting that the party was in crisis.

“The judgment of the court which made a pronouncement that there was no crisis in PDP is also being challenged at the appellate court.”

It was learnt that the options available to Mark at the Monday meeting with the 11 senators are:

• read the letter and declare 12 seats (including Boroffice’s) vacant;

• allow Committee of the Whole to take a decision on Akinyelure Committee’s report before declaring the seats vacant;

• raise a fresh committee on the defection of the 11 senators to bid time and avoid anarchy;

• review the status of existing cases on defection in court and defer to the ongoing processes;

• keep the Senate united by leaving constituents of the affected 11 senators or aggrieved Nigerians to go to court and abide by any judgment; and

• give a waiver to the APC senators with a commitment to avoid any blockade of Executive Bills or any shutdown of the government.

One of the 11 Senators said: “We will meet with Mark on Monday and see the options he will table. They have forgotten that the APC is a struggle for change in the country, not a pursuit of personal aggrandisement.

“If our seats are declared vacant, we will regain them through judicial process, no matter how tortuous. Were governors not impeached under the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo without due process? Didn’t the court reinstate governors like Joshua Dariye and Rashidi Ladoja?

“It is left to Mark to rise above partisan interest and stand up to be counted at the right moment. If we leave the Senate in February 2014, Mark and others’ tenure will end in May or June 2015. Is there no life outside the Senate? Now that PDP is under heat, it has found solace in Section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution. There is certainly a battle ahead.”

Section 68(1) (g) and (h) reads in part: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if… “Being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected;

“Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or

“The President of the Senate or as the case may be, the Speaker of the House of Representatives receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of Section 69 of this constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of that member.”