Ahead of Tuesday inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, former Governor of Edo State, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor has advised lawmakers-elect, particularly those of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to respect the decision of their political party while casting their votes….CONTINUE READING...CONTINUE READING
The two-term lawmaker gave this advice in a chat with journalists in Abuja stating that this will go a long way in making their party have adequate confidence in them in pursuing the manifesto of their party as lawmakers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Recall that the APC which is the majority party in both chambers of the National Assembly had on May 8, 2023 zoned presiding officers’ positions to the South South region, naming Godswill Akpabio, from Akwa Ibom as preferred candidate for the office of the Senate President, just as it zoned the Speakership seat to the North West, naming Rt. Hon. Tajudee Abbas PhD from Kaduna as it’s preferred candidate.
The party also went further to zone the Deputy Senate President’s seat to the North West, naming Sen. Barau Jibrin from Kano, while Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu from Abia, was named the preferred candidate for the post of Deputy Speaker.
In light of the zoning arrangements, Osunbor, a professor of law who’s also a former senator premised his views on the fact that it will be out of place for a newly elected or retuning member of National Assembly not to respect the decision of a party that sponsored him.
Asked what he would have done if he was a newly elected member, 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,” he said.
The former chairman of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission also pointed out the possible consequence of disobeying one’s political party, saying that “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,” Osunbor stressed….CONTINUE READING
