Jonathan’s disregard for opposition lawmakers our major challenge’ Print Email Category: Inside politics Published on Friday, 07 June 2013 05:00 Written by Abbas Jimoh & Musa Abdullahi Krishi Share Deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives, Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila in this interview says President Goodluck Jonathan is threatening democracy by choosing not to recognise opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly. Excerpts: How would you describe the leadership of the House in the last two years? Let me first of all thank God who made it possible for me to be part of the leadership of the House in the last two years. I think this is the first time the opposition is getting it right in the House of Representatives because this is the first time the leadership takes all the 360 members irrespective of party politics along. So the opposition is being carried along? Yes. The Speaker is a team player. You know opposition played a major role in the way and manner he came in. From the appointment of committee chairmen and their deputies, it was pro rata; it was according to the strength of the party in the House. This is the first time we achieved this. Again, at any given time when the House decides to form an ad-hoc committee or arrangement in the House, you will see that it reflects the interest of each and every political party. There is no discrimination when you need to contribute in any matter arising. The open door policy of this leadership is commendable. The way and manner the membership of the House, especially the PDP members, reason with the opposition or minority members is also commendable. We must commend PDP members of the 7th Assembly. It is said that it was because the opposition helped the Speaker defeat the PDP preferred candidate that he is according favours to them.... No, it is not like that. The opposition has played a key role in the election of past speakers. During Ghali Na’Abba, the opposition members, AD and ANPP, were solidly behind the leadership of the House, supporting anything that came from him. The same thing obtained during Masari, Etteh and Bankole’s leaderships. But we need a serious cohesion; we need an understanding. You can’t drive a House where you are 360, and exclude 160 in taking any decision. You need to have the support of at least two-third of the total number of members. Are you facing any challenge as opposition members? Our relationship with the current Executive is the major challenge. This is the first time the opposition in the House would be facing serious challenges from the Executive. There was no time in the history of parliament from 1999 to date where the leadership of the opposition was excluded in taking decisions when it comes to national issues. This is the first time the leadership of the minority is excluded, that is almost 40 percent of the House. Whenever there is a meeting, they call only PDP members as they have stopped calling us for meeting. Whenever they have any issue, they resolve not to discuss it with us. During Obasanjo, there were serious engagements with the opposition and same thing under Yar’adua. Even when Jonathan came as acting and later substantive President, he used to consult us. But this time around, the President is running the affairs of this nation, excluding the minority leadership of the entire National Assembly. Let me give you a scenario. There was a time when Late President Yar’adua invited the leadership of the National Assembly to a meeting in his House under Etteh. She thought it was only PDP invitation, not knowing that it was all inclusive when they met Mr. President with their team, he asked of the opposition, and they said they thought it was PDP meeting, then he said ‘let us cancel the meeting. Go and inform others in the opposition and let us meet.’ So our challenge is the leadership style of President Goodluck Jonathan, because he refused to recognize the existence of the over 40 percent opposition members. If not because of the mutual respect and understanding that exists between the chairman of the National Assembly, David Mark, his deputy, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and the rest of the PDP leaders in the House, we will not at any time have gone the same way. Let me give you another example. This issue of emergency is a national one, which needed 2/3 of the House, and the PDP members alone are not up to that. But President Jonathan invited only the PDP members to go and discuss without thinking that we must complement their efforts. They are 200, but he needs 240 to pass it and even in the Senate. This is the major challenge we are facing. On the issue of budget, he never invited us to discuss it. All he does is to invite the PDP members. There was a time he invited us for a meeting to discuss the issue of Bakasi, when he intended to brief the leadership of the National Assembly. It was because of the magnanimity of the Senate President and the Speaker that we went. We reached a decision, although he went against what we all agreed. From our understanding and belief, Mr. President and the current Executive are not ready to work with the National Assembly, because you cannot work with one party without carrying the opposition. This is a serious disaster in our democracy. If not because of patriotism, we would have not passed the state of emergency thing. This is the danger, and I assure you he is not in control of 1/3 of the members of the House, because he does not have any business with the members. One of our major constitutional responsibilities is budget appropriation. We experienced two budget delays from 1999 to date. The first one was in 2005. It was as a result of that that Obasanjo, fired Okonjo-Iweala. Jonathan is therefore a serious threat to this democracy. We are respecting the personality of the Senate President and the Speaker. They are trying their best to show us the reason for doing everything, but Mr President is fighting Nigerians. Nigerians are not on the same page with Mr. President at all. We are parallel, because you cannot run an exclusive government; it must be an inclusive one, and you exclude more than 1/3 of the National Assembly from taking decision. That is the reason why each and every day if anything from Jonathan comes to the floor of the two chambers, it does not go through, because it is a game of numbers. The House recently passed a bill seeking to simplify the impeachment process, and now you’re saying all these, don’t you think that people will interpret it that you are targeting President Jonathan? No, it has nothing to do with Jonathan. We want to enhance this democracy we need to give it a human face. The executive powers given to Mr President are too much. We are also thinking of ways to reduce our powers too as members of the National Assembly where members of a constituency can easily recall a member if he is not doing well. Another bill is on the way. So, it is beyond Goodluck Jonathan. What was the difference between the previous administrations of Obasanjo, late Yar’adua and that of Jonathan? Late President Umaru Yar’adua gave a timetable to meet with us and we were meeting at different places for a peaceful and smooth running of government and good working relationship. We started from the Senate President’s house, the entire leadership of the House came there rubbed minds and got better understanding of each other. Yar’Adua used to call Bankole and many of us by our names. President Jonathan cannot call us by our names. Obasanjo and Yar’adua arranged breakfast and dinner meetings with us and even with the committees. Obasanjo even met with the House committee on special duties that is responsible for oversighting the villa and would crack jokes with them. But when we sent an invitation to Jonathan that the House committee on special duties is coming for oversight functions they closed all the doors to the villa. When the committee got to the gates they were turned back.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:54:26 +0000