AS Nigerians continue to proffer solutions towards ending the crisis rocking the National Assembly, an internationally acclaimed management consultant, Dr. Ndi Onuekwusi, has urged the leadership and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to adopt what he described as “sacrificial heroism” in tackling the matter.

He said: “The party is trying to use high-handedness and divisiveness as it were to solve the problem, which never solves any problem.

They have to adopt what I call sacrificial heroism. Sacrificial heroism is a situation where leadership subdues its emotions and self-interests and goes for what is in the greatest interest of society and humanity. So, sacrificial heroism is very critical to the resolution of the problem and there is no running away from that.”

He maintained that the onus of sacrificial heroism lies on the party, its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and their supporters because the entire members of the House of Representatives participated in the election of the Speaker and his deputy through the support of their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) colleagues.

The same scenario would have played out in the Senate even if the other APC senators were not at the International Conference Centre at the time of the election. Therefore, having won, the onus is on the party not to become an opposition within its own house.

This is the critical issue; APC cannot afford to become an opposition within its own house when by divine providence they have emasculated the major opposition, the PDP.” Onuekwusi, who is the Managing Director of Bifex Consultants Limited, Lagos, insisted that the crisis has been persisting because the right approach to managing it had not been adopted.

He added: “In any nation, there are two different levels of managing crisis. The greatest and most important level is the greatest common good.

In Nigeria, the greatest common good is for all the people; it is not partisan or political. The crisis in the APC over the leadership of the National Assembly has grown beyond the interest of the party.

The superseding interest now is national interest. And it also coincides with the peculiarities of the presidential system of government we are running. After the general elections in the presidential system, the party is very quiescent. The role of the party is very significant in the period leading up to the election.

After the election, the state is now in the hands of the elected representatives — the executive and the legislature. In dealing with the crisis, therefore, we need to move on to how governance runs in a presidential system — those elected representatives should sort out issues among themselves without being teleguided from outside.”

He said the APC could create positives out of the situation to its advantage, noting, “once you get positives out of negatives and expand your positives, you will be growing. It will amount to adding negatives to negatives for the APC to insist on having the principal opponents of the elected leaders of the National Assembly as the leaders in the House and in the Senate. That is creating an in-built opposition within the same party.

So, some moderate members of the Lawan/Gbajabiamila group and some moderate members of the Saraki/Dogara group should form the principal officers of the National Assembly.

That again is the manifestation of sacrificial heroism. The first level of sacrificial heroism has to be exhibited by the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, who resisted impunity and created the platform for a meaningful opposition party to germinate.

It is a very important national service that can never be over estimated. But he should tone down the issue of party in a presidential system of government because it doesn’t wash. It is a fountain of turbulence. In a presidential system of government, the leadership and governance revolve around the President and the legislature and not the party.

It is in the parliamentary system that the party is important. And there are constitutional provisions for managing the two systems because they are very different. So, it is a nuisance to be reading everyday in the newspapers and to be hearing over the radio and television that PDP is saying this or the APC is saying that.”

Onuekwusi, who urged President Buhari to incorporate intellectuals in his mould into his administration to drive governance, said an effective resolution of the crisis requires “delicate diplomatic intervention of the President.” “Mr. President is the overall leader of Nigeria now.

To ensure that the crisis does not rise to the level of disrupting governance, which is the ultimate for the whole country, the President has a duty to intervene in the appropriate way.

You know, the role of the presidency is multifaceted. So, he must quietly assuage Asiwaju Tinubu and the key people who lost out in the election and then work with those who won to also pick some people from opposing camps so there can be peace. This horse-trading is done outside public eye.

Governance is not theatre; it is not African Magic. So, it is in the interest of the President that this problem is solved. The President will be judged based on his performance and he won’t be telling Nigerians that the National Assembly hindered him.” Onuekwusi added: “It is also important to recognise the factor of the beautiful Olori of Asiwaju Tinibu, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.

The home front has become critical to solving this problem. She is an active politician and is involved in the matter. So, it is also important to involve her in finding solutions to the crisis by assuaging her emotions so she can help her husband to ‘cool temper’.”