Standing by his earlier position to work with whoever emerged as the National Asembly leader,

President Muhammadu Buhari has agreed to work with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.  

But a constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, sees it differently. “It was an attempted coup in the first arm of government in Nigeria and it is a very serious assault on democracy in this country and if I was the President, I would refuse to recognise the result of such an illegal exercise and insist that a proper Senate is convened to elect its officials,” he said.

However, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), said there was nothing illegal about Saraki’s election.

The President’s view is that constitutional process “has somewhat occurred” and he stands by his sentiment though he would have preferred that the process of electing the leaders as initiated and concluded by the All Progressives Congress was followed.   

This position was contained in a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.

Adesina said the stability of the nation’s constitutional order and overall interest of the common man were uppermost on the President’s mind, as far as the National Assembly elections were concerned.

The President, therefore, called on all the elected representatives of the people to focus on the enormous task of bringing enduring positive change to the lives of Nigerians.

Prof. Sagayhinged his stance on morality. For Saraki, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to collude with members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and hold an election in the absence of over 50 APC senators “is immoral.”

 “The bulk of the APC senators were having a meeting with the President and in their absence, PDP senators and Senator Saraki’s supporters in the APC went to the chambers and started the proceedings and nominated Saraki unopposed as President of the Senate.

“In my view, it is not only an act of gross impunity which Senator Saraki has brought from the PDP but he has now demonstrated it in the Senate. It is an illegal act because there is no way a Senate can be formally inaugurated without all the members being present – provided they want to be present.

“They knew that the bulk of the APC senators were not there and the APC senators intended to participate in the election. For Saraki and other PDP senators to have gone ahead to do that election in their absence was an act of illegality and criminality,” he said .

 “It was an attempted coup in the first arm of government in Nigeria and it is a very serious assault on democracy in this country and if I was the President, I would refuse to recognise the result of such an illegal exercise and insist that a proper Senate is convened to elect its officials.”

 Agbakoba dismissed Sagay’s statement, explaining that there was nothing illegal about Saraki’s election. Agbakoba also spoke with the Punch on Tuesday. He explained that the APC did not complain when the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, defected to the APC from the PDP and refused to relinquish his position. Agbakoba also explained that the law did not require every member of the Senate to be present in the chamber when electing principal officers, explaining that all that was needed for an election to take place was a simple majority of the senators and this condition was met.

He said, “The election of principal officers in the National Assembly should not be confused with a political process. This is different from the American system which says that the ruling party must produce the key officers.”