APC Pitfalls: Saraki's NASS drama is not good for democracy

A spectre is haunting Nigeria- the spectre of divisions. A dark portent. At the hub of the government, walls are beginning to crack. The unholy alliance; it cell has had enough water. It has become turbid. Now it has burst. It burst on the 8th of June, 2015.

What happened on that inglorious day in our democracy only helped to validate what the doubters of the APC, the 'change' party had always chimed before the General election, that when the party is elected, the individual interests of its disparate members will begin to play out negatively for our democracy. And they played out that unfaithful day.

Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, the new Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively have had their ways going out of the way of the leadership of their party. Bukola Saraki got his even ruthlessly.

To become the Senate president, he sold out the deputy senate president slot to the opposition party, PDP. And some called that good for democracy? It is not, and could not be good for Nigeria democracy.

That APC formation was borne out of necessity has always been known; that the quest for power, not people's mandates, was the motives was known; that many of its 'formators' were those that had lost relevance in their former parties was equally known.

READ: Saraki, Dogara outwitted APC to win victory for Nigeria's democracy

But, Nigerians got tired of the behemoth called PDP! And they needed a messiah or messiahs even if the contraption that brought about these messiahs was dubious. Nigerians, thereby saw the coming of the APC literally and figuratively as that of coming of their liberators, even though, there were people of questionable antecedents in their rank.

Now that our trust have been reposed in these set of liberators, the questionable elements among them suddenly metamorphosed into specters, and they have started haunting us, and will for the next four years at least.

Against the wishes of their party, and after many failed persuasions, Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara contested, and won the senate presidency and speakership. For the inordinate ambitions of two men, and the dubious interests of their clouts, god-fathers(yes god-fathers), boot-lickers and fellow reprobates, the interests of the party has been jeopardised.

It is foolish infantilism to say the party should not decide for the legislative chambers. Of course, this is democracy. The majority calls the shots, and the minority has their say. APC as the majority party should be the one dictating the pace of the affairs of both chambers, with inputs from the minority party.

That's how it works.

Saraki became the Senate president with 51 members of the senate (interestingly senators from his party) not in the process. Shockingly, this was when a meeting with the APC senators, which Saraki was one, at the behest of the President of the country, the leader of their party was (supposed to be) ongoing. Insubordination! Insubordination taken so far was when Saraki complotted with the PDP senators to become their president against the wishes of his party, ditto Dogara.

In the plot, he conceded the deputy senate president slot to the PDP: all for his self-aggrandizement, all against the wishes of and to the detriment of his party.

Furthermore, the ramifications of what played out at both floors of the legislative arm of government on the 8th of June has started to reveal the cracks in the ruling party. Different power blocs have beginning to emerge. It is on record that the new senate president visited former vice president, Atiku Abubakar immediately after his election. The visit is of course ominous.

To those who could read well the entrails for signs, the visit revealed the behind the scene power tussle in the ruling party. This will seriously ruin our democracy.

In conclusion, Nigerians could only hope that our democracy will not be finally run amok through these cracks, and the ensuing rancor in the ruling party.

The bodings are not good, not good for our democracy.