As the battle for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly gets heated up, a former Governor of Edo State, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, has urged lawmakers-elect, especially those elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to vote for the party’s candidates for presiding officers positions.
Osunbor said that failure to heed APC’s directives will erode confidence in them, stressing that there will be consequences.
Osunbor, a Professor of Law and former chairman of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, however, said that respecting the party’s zoning arrangements will help the Federal Government function very effectively and speedily deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.
It will be recalled that APC had on May 8, 2023 named senator Godswill Akpabio, from Akwa Ibom State, South South geopolitical zone and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna State, North West zone as its preferred candidates for the senate president and the speaker of the House of Representatives in the incoming 10th National Assembly, respectively.
Similarly, the party named Senator Barau Jibrin from Kano State, North West and Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu from Abia State, South East its choices for Deputy Senate President and Deputy House Speaker respectively.
The zoning, however, did not go down well with some of the lawmakers who have vowed to contest for the offices against the run of play.
Barring his mind on the issue, Osunbor said “Yes! I respect party decisions because if you do not respect party decision, then there will be problems. It is only fair that once the party has come out to say this is the position that all conscientious party members should adhere.
“Well, that is important. The party has the responsibility to guide its members that is why it is a party. We don’t yet have independent candidates, at least none of the persons elected either in the House of Reps or Senate is independent. They were all sponsored by political parties.
“And I think having just emerged under the platform of a political party, they must not just immediately disregard directives from their political party; it is too soon in my view for anybody to say to his party, we are not going to listen to you, I am here on my own basis, I won’t listen to you as a political party, I don’t think that will be very responsible behaviour.
“They were sponsored by political parties and the reasons they were sponsored is that they will go and implement the programmes and policies of the party; for you to now get there, the very first test you fail it, I don’t think it portends well for our democracy.
“When you get to the National Assembly and form your own group against the position and directive of your party, remember you only have a four year tenure and you will still need the party’s ticket reelection back to the legislature.
“The party will wait for after the four years and remind you how you rebelled against it when you were requested to do a particular thing for it. It will be at liberty to say no, we will only support loyal members who won’t rebel against the party when they are needed for a particular purpose.
“So, it’s a give-and -take kind of relationship that I believe they should understand, that every action if in obedience has its rewards, and if it’s disobedience also has its own rewards as the case may be.”