The Limit Of Political Ambition

Recently, speculations were rife in the media to the effect that the Governor of Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodimma, is considering an arrangement that would position him as a probable candidate for the Senate Presidency in the soon-to-emerge 11th Legislative session of the upper chamber after the 2027 general election.

According to political pundits, the arrangement entails Uzodimma resigning from his current position as Governor to contest the Senate seat. If he wins, then he would vie for the prestigious office of Senate President.

Uzodimma was a senator before the Supreme Court installed him as Governor under very controversial circumstances. He is also believed to be an establishment person and a right-hand man of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

However, there has been no official reaction from the Uzodimma camp, either denying the arrangement or indicating his interest in the Senate race by filing a form.  Yet the speculations refuse to go away, gathering momentum by the day.

Without referring to the matter, the Senate swiftly moved to amend parts of its standing rules, effectively eliminating the ambition  any newly elected senator might be nursing of benefiting from the sharing of key offices.

According to the amendment, candidates who were not in the 9th and 10th Senate are automatically disqualified from running for certain offices in the Senate. And that includes Uzodimma, who served two terms in the 7th and 8th legislative sessions of the Senate.

As a newspaper, any amendment in the standing rules of the Senate is not of importance to us, as we consider it the internal affai  rs of the legislators. Having said this, we think the amendment is preemptive and undemocratic because it impinges on individuals’ fundamental rights to aspire to and actualise their dreams.

The Senate is being this myopic, in our opinion, even as the political permutations are still gathering steam. Similarly, it is also presumptive in that it assumes that the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will win majority seats that will empower it to decide who gets what in the legislative body.

Our concern in this instance is the expeditious response of the Senate leadership who may already be feeling threatened by a matter that is essentially speculative. The assumption is that the serving senators will return to the chamber in the 11th Session. And that suggests an undeclared intention to manipulate the electoral process to satisfy that offensive and uncontrollable desire.

Furthermore, this decision to amend the rules failed to take into account the President’s role in selecting the principal officers of the National Assembly. Often, the favoured ones do not necessarily have to be the most experienced. It is largely determined by the President’s understanding of who can best serve his interests.

Since the 4th Republic was instituted, every president has interfered with that process. President Tinubu chose the current President of the Senate even before the general election was held and the result published. That explains why Senator Godswill Akpabio is his lapdog, standing on his mandate and rubber-stamping his decisions regardless of their perceived harmful impact on the citizenry. For instance, check the excessive borrowings of the President, which is so easy because of a Senate that has sold its soul to filthy lucre.

This decision by the Senate can generate the kind of apprehension that is likely to negatively impact the entire democratic process. Specifically, it could lead to the mistaken belief that the ruling party is on a jolly ride at the expense of the rest of the nation.

The pervasive feeling is that with its assumed firm grip on the nation’s purse strings and its instruments of coercion, it is in a position to do as it wishes and get away with it, particularly as the outcome of the forthcoming election is adjudged to be already predetermined.

That, in itself, could lead to voter apathy and poor turnout at the polling booths. Perhaps that could be the ultimate intention: that is, the electorate will be nudged into despondency and drained of the willpower to assert their rights. After all, what sense will it make to waste time going to the polls when the outcome is already known?

Otherwise, why should that be a matter of urgent legislative attention deserving of such haste?

Certainly, there are other issues of National importance begging for the attention of the senators, such as a constitutional amendment needed to midwife state police and state creation.

Given this scenario and the emerging propensity of the ruling party to take the electorate for granted, it is pertinent to appeal for restraint, because we have been down this path before: the seeming overconfidence of the ruling political class, the insanity of daring people’s power, and the inadvisability of playing the divine card.

History, as recent as this 4th Republic, is replete with carcasses of such inordinate ambitions, the not- too- pleasant memories of hurried mistakes as well as the sad experiences they left behind that are still haunting individuals and the nation at large.

In our opinion, there ought to be a limit to political ambition.