There were controversies on Sunday over a directive by the All Progressives Congress to its National Assembly members to block the passage of all legislative bills, including the 2014 budget estimates.
The party, after its Interim National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Thursday, said its lawmakers needed to do so until constitutionalism was restored to Rivers State in particular and the nation in general.
But on Sunday the PDP caucus in the House dismissed the directive as impossibility.
The caucus observed that there was a difference between national interest and “party and personal interest, which the APC is pursuing.”
The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, told The PUNCH in Abuja that it would not serve the interest of the electorate in APC-controlled states that national projects should be stopped because a political party said so.
Ogor said, “The directive is totally impossible; we are waiting for them to see how they will do it.
“Take the case of the budget for instance. There are projects sited in states like Lagos, Kano, Rivers states and so on.
“Are you saying these projects should be stopped? Are you saying civil servants should not be paid salaries?
“Besides, the APC members swore to an oath of allegiance to defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
A member of the PDP Senate caucus also said the APC was day-dreaming since it was not in control of the majority in the National Assembly.
“How do you think that that directive will work when the PDP still has the highest number of lawmakers in the National Assembly? Again, don’t forget that most of those in smaller political parties are invariably PDP supporters. So the APC is dreaming in the daylight,” the PDP senator, who declined to have his name in print, said.
When reminded that the APC has the highest number of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, he retorted, ”how did you come about your calculation? Go and cross-check and please do not forget to add those in small parties in both the Senate and the House.”
The APC controls 172 out of the 360 members of the House while the PDP has 171. The remaining 17 members belong to other political parties.
In the Senate, the PDP has 72 senators, APC, 33 and other parties, 4.
Also, Labour Party lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly described as “absurd and highest level of irresponsibility,” the directive by the APC.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Senator Boluwaji Kunlere, urged members of the APC in the parliament to “shun the retrogressive order”
Kunlere said, “ Only an irresponsible member of the parliament would heed a retrogressive call from his or party and carry out actions that would cause tension and slow down the nation’s progress.
“The security agencies should be on the alert because the action could be a plot to destabilise the country.”
He dared the leadership of the APC to equally direct its governors to stop collecting monthly allocations from the federation account if they had any grievances against the country.
But a key member of the APC in the National Assembly insisted on Sunday that the party’s caucus would “always win” by relying on its supporters in the PDP.
He said, “People are saying that APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance) and LP members are likely to support the PDP against us, thereby allowing the PDP to win.
“ I say that even in the PDP , 30 of its lawmakers in the National Assembly are supporters of the APC wearing the garb of the PDP. They are actually APC in spirit.
“Any time there is a voice vote, these members will support us against the PDP.”
The APC members, who asked not to be named, claimed that the PDP members had some “scores to settle with their party “, but were afraid of publicly declaring for the APC.
Although the APC leadership boasted on Sunday that its directive was already yielding results, its members in the Senate expressed different views on the issue.
One of them, Senator Kabir Marafa, said he would participate in the debates on the 2014 budget, and the screening of the Chief of Defence Staff and service chiefs which will begin this week.
Marafa, who said he had not received any official communication from the party on the directive, argued that since the APC was in the minority in the Senate, its members would not be able to frustrate the passage of the budget and the screening of the new military chiefs.
He said, “As of today(Sunday), I have not received any official communication from our party directing me not to participate in the debate on the budget or screening of the military chiefs and the ministers.
“In any case, I do not think that our great party which parades eminent, respectable and highly experienced politicians could issue such a directive knowing full well that an institution like the National Assembly has its unique ways of doing things.”
“As senators, our responsibility, first and foremost, is to the nation and the people and if my party leaders should call me to tell me to carry out a directive, I will tell them my own position on it first.”
But another member of the APC caucus in the Senate, Olufemi Lanlehin, said that his colleagues in the National Assembly were duty bound to carry out the directive of their party.
He said, “It is a directive of the party and obviously, we will abide by it. We are not unaware of the goings-on in Rivers State and the fact that the crisis there could affect the whole country.
“The interest of Nigerians is to find a lasting solution to the crisis and since there is no way you can dialogue with a deaf man, decisions that will ensure a speedy resolution of the crisis may not be out of order. It is in the interest of all Nigerians that the country is not plunged into chaos.
Other APC senators who also spoke with one of our correspondents on the issue, followed the lines of arguments by Marafa and Lanlehin.
Earlier on Sunday, the APC national leadership had claimed that its directive was already yielding positive results.
The results, according the party, include the support of of its National Assembly members and the successful rally held by the Save Rivers Movement on Saturday without an attack by hired ex-militants.
The rally it said was possible because the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, directed the police to provide protection for the SRM members.
‘’What we are saying is that Nigerians, irrespective of their party leaning, who wish to stage a peaceful protest anywhere in the country must be able to do so without the police looking away while hired goons attack them,” the APC said in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The party said there was nothing anti-democratic, anti-people or inciting about the directive, which was aimed at ending the reign of impunity in Rivers state.
It added that those faulting the directive were either ignorant of the workings of democracy or were simply playing to the gallery.
‘’Either way, these critics have rushed to judgment without even taking time to study the directive, without understanding that governance is about people, and without caring about the principles of fairness, justice and equity, and they should cover their faces in shame,” the APC said.
Reiterating the directive which it argued was ”a product of deep thinking and robust debate,” the APC commended its members in the National Assembly “for their unequivocal support for our stand, and for understanding that filibustering or legislative non-cooperation are veritable tools of democracy.”
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