Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Scores of lawmakers have left his
ruling party for the main opposition and smaller parties, heaping
pressure on his re-election bid next year. PHOTO | SUNDAY AGHAEZE | AFP
ABUJA
Scores of
lawmakers have left Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's ruling party
for the main opposition and smaller parties, heaping pressure on his
re-election bid next year.
Buhari and his All
Progressives Congress (APC) party have until now been seen as being in a
stronger position to win presidential and parliamentary elections in
February 2019.
But his opponents are now picking up
momentum before party primaries in August, amid mounting discontent at
his style of government and handling of widespread violence across the
country.
SENATORS LEAVE
Fourteen
senators and 37 members of the lower chamber House of Representatives
left the APC Tuesday, on the last day before parliament adjourned for
recess.
There are 109 seats in the Senate and 360 in the House of Representatives.
Most of those leaving joined the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Senate President Bukola Saraki told lawmakers their colleagues have "decamped, have defected."
"37
@HouseNGR Reps members defect from @APCNigeria," said Saraki's aide
Bamikole Omisore on Twitter. Saraki has not made any announcement on
whether he will stay in the APC.
DEFECTORS
The
list of defecting senators includes Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor
of the key northern state of Kano, who lost to Buhari in the APC
presidential primaries before the 2015 election.
He has been seen as a potential presidential candidate for the upcoming election in February next year but has not yet declared.
Should
he do so, that would put him up against former vice-president Atiku
Abubakar, who quit the APC late last year, accusing it of failing to
deliver on its promises.
PDP national secretary Kola
Ologbondiyan called the defections "a good development for our
democratic culture" and blasted Buhari for "intimidating" and
"harassing" the opposition.
Buhari responded by
reiterating his "total commitment to the values of democracy", urging
his party members "not to despair" and promising that "no harm or injury
will be done to the party."
CONVERTED DEMOCRAT
Buhari,
a 75-year-old former army general who once served as military ruler,
came into power in 2015 promising Nigerians that he was a "converted
democrat".
He enjoys strong support from his base in
the north and the power of incumbency, which until he defeated president
Goodluck Jonathan had been seen as a guarantee of electoral supremacy.
But
he has been criticised as authoritarian against opponents, prompting
increasing moves to stop him securing a second, four-year term.
Earlier
this month, more than 30 parties, including the PDP, said they were
forming a new alliance, while a splinter group formed within the APC of
disaffected party members.
They called his stewardship of Nigeria in the last three years "a monumental disaster".
Social
unrest has flared in Nigeria over an escalation in bloody clashes
between farmers and cattle herders and Boko Haram Islamist attacks
persist as a constant threat.
That has threatened Buhari's pledge to tackle insecurity, overhaul the oil-dependent economy and create much-needed jobs.
UNDER PRESSURE
Rumours
of potential defections have been swirling in recent weeks because of
deteriorating relations between the executive and legislature, with
lawmakers complaining that the security services were being used by the
government to target perceived political opponents.
Buhari
has held closed-door meetings with the ambitious Saraki, who despite
being a member of the ruling party believes he has been marked out as a
critic and rival by the presidency.
Many of those under
investigation or on trial for corruption are PDP members. Saraki
himself defected from the PDP to the APC before the last election.
Earlier
this month, Saraki was cleared at Nigeria's Supreme Court of corruption
charges, which he said were politically motivated.
Police
on Monday summoned Saraki in person to answer claims he was linked to a
gang that conducted a violent armed robbery in April in his home state
of Kwara.
Saraki on Monday evening called the
invitation a "ploy" to stop the mass defection and said the police were
being used by the executive to conduct a political "witch hunt".
On
Tuesday morning, police surrounded his house in Abuja but he managed to
make it to parliament after sending a decoy to the station.
Police said in a statement that they did not "besiege" his house.
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