THE PERMUTATION, MANIPULATION, INTERPRETATION OF THE 9TH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

In the incoming days, by the grace of God; the giver and keeper of life, l shall be discussing the permutations, manipulations and interpretations of the 9th National Assembly.

We will take a very critical and deep look into the methodology of conception of the 9th National Assembly; a journey that started in 2015, when “doctors confirmed the pregnancy”, the close-to-abortion onslaught against “the woman and her growing embryo”, the prolonged period of fatal and intricate squabbles and the realignment of “forces of darkness” - exclusively decided by “Nigerian structure of Principalities and Powers”.

It promises to be an exciting exercise as the two powerful forces of “Manipulation & Permutation”; the two key ingredients that qualify and present the Nigerian political delicacy to the dining table of consumption, shall fully come under the hammer of scrutiny.

We will define, with absolute sagacity, the proximity to the Nigerian people of past National Assemblies. Or succinctly put, which of the past National Assembly was more pro-Nigerian or functioned more with the interest of the Nigerian people openly? We need delving into this evaluation as such might help to define the likely place of the current one – the 9th National Assembly.

We will, ipso facto, compare and contrast two National Assemblies - the 5th and the 8th, in the light of the role-function of defending Nigerians’ interest or otherwise. Let us go.

The 5th National Assembly’s evaluation shall be limited to Senator Kenechukwu Nnamani’s tenure as president of the Senate and Honourable Aminu Bello Masari as Speaker of the House of Representative because much water passed under the Nigerian political bridge before Senator Ken Nnamani’s arrival as the President of the Senate. This was the National Assembly (within the period defined) that confronted President Olusegun Obasanjo’s monster plan of “tenure elongation” head-on, lift the joy of majority of Nigerians with a resounding victory to democracy by demystifying powers of incumbency.

The 6th and 7th National Assemblies left nothing memorable; nothing practically in place for the defense of democracy and evidence of adequately representing the Nigerian people, to be remembered. For that reason, there is no compelling reason for a place of competitive analysis to be created for them in this historical exercise.

Then entered the 8th National Assembly with a dramatic bang.

One, the permutation, manipulation and calculation of the South/West political godfather, the authentic “Jagaban” of Lagos politics and the National leader of the All Progressives Congress; Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, in installing the leadership of the 8th National Assembly failed woefully. Yet, there was something outstandingly distinguished in that failure which needs to be mentioned.

It is to fortify the idiom that “he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”. These type of fighters are those, that though, may “run-away from the scene of the battle”, are not necessarily quitting the environment of the war. These fighters understand, with absolutism, the difference between battles and wars, to wit: that there are many battles in any given one war. For that reason, they [who fight and run away] focus their strategies in not necessarily winning a battle but instead winning the war. So, when such man runs away from a battle, he is strategizing on how to return to win the war.

To such a fighter, quitters never win and winners never quit. We may not be able to understand this clumsy analogical and metaphorical expression until we settle down solemnly to understudy why Asiwaju Bola Tinubu did not run away from the theatre of operation after being totally humiliated in June 2015, during the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly, where his preferred candidates for the Senate Presidency and House of Representatives Speakership were “strangulated” by presidential internal forces of the same All Progressives Congress. 

Two, the failure of Bola Tinubu political machine to bring to fulfillment his long calculated ambition of installing a Vice-President, Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives, as it were then, left winners and losers along the route of Nigeria’s polity. And this was not without devastating political impact on the person of Bola Tinubu and his fighting political machines of conquest, which were totally routed then. The man was however wise enough to run away then from the battle zone but not the war. He is now back with a bang as we are seeing, with the formation of the 9th National Assembly.

Three, the casualty made of Bola Tinubu in that battle of June 2015, threw up another powerful Block, a formidable structure built around Dr Oluwabukuola Saraki, who emerged as the Senate President, as against Senator Ahmad Lawan.

Senator Saraki was not alone as he arrived with another authenticated ally in the person of Yakubu Dogara, who emerged Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, as against Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila; preferred candidate of Bola Tinubu and the ruling Party - APC.

For now, the conspiratorial role-function of the President and the Presidency in making emergence of this power Block inevitable is deferred for another day and another exercise. Suffice to say it here that it was for the purpose of “putting Bola Tinubu in check” that most Senators of the APC were summoned, through SMS, to “meet with the PresIdent at the International Conference Centre by 10am” in Abuja, on that very crucial day of inaugurating the National Assembly.

Visible Saints are not always saints! They sometimes look like!

That was the birth of the 8th National Assembly, a delivery that came with pains and hiccups of frosty relationship with the Executive. There is an ode to the 8th National Assembly. It was the most vilified, bashed and tormented by the Executive. Yet it stood to the end of its tenure.

Was there such frosty relationship between the 8th National Assembly and the Executive? Yes, but it turned out to be the most pro-Nigerian National Assembly. I will allow “tomorrow” to conclude the narrative of the 8th National Assembly vis-a-vis what it did or did not do for Nigeria.

We welcome on board the 9th National Assembly, rising from the ruins of the battle of 2015, where Bola Tinubu was “dealt” with “genuinely and treacherously”. The chicken of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that went underground because of the presence of the huge hovering hawk of that time is now back home to roost. 

I present to you, ladies and gentlemen of the Nigerian State, Senator Ahmad Lawan and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila; Bola Tinubu’s rejected cornerstone of 2015, taking over the leadership of the 9th National Assembly.

What National Assembly will this one be? I am leaving the answer for all of you to provide. But wouldn’t you wait until practical action files its final report?

Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

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