Section 68: TENURE OF SEATS OF MEMBERS (1) A Member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if: (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.– Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. Sulaiman Abba and tambuwal Sulaiman Abba and tambuwal Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, carries both the good and bad faces of Nigerian politics all in one man. The good side is that he is an excellent manager of people. I agree with those who say he is arguably the most successful Speaker of the House in our history. Tambuwal’s tenure at the House of Representatives has been exemplary. Once he mounts the exalted seat as a presiding officer in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly, Tambuwal rises above petty politics. He strives assiduously to strike the delicate balances to carry his colleagues along, in spite of the frequent rises and falls of the political temperature of the nation, especially since the phenomenon called the All Progressives Congress, APC, started taking shape roughly 18 months ago. Tambuwal’s predilections towards the APC have been obvious, but he has never fallen for the temptation of trying to push through some of the rabid APC political agenda aimed at making governance difficult for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Federal Government. It was due to his competent management of the affairs of the House of Reps that many have suggested – and I agree – that Tambuwal is more of a presidential than governorship material. Honestly, if Tambuwal is presented by the APC as its presidential candidate, it will tickle the fancy of many, provided he does not pick a Muslim running mate. At least, he is not one of those narrow-minded, born-to-rule, Arewa bigots seeking to grab power back by all means, including killing their own people. Tambuwal may, some day, become the president of Nigeria. However, when it comes to the politics that this dashing Sokoto-born leader has pushed in the past 41 months, I have very few words of praise for him. He has demonstrated crass opportunism and bad partymanship. Of late, he has joined the long queue of lawmakers seeking to rape the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their personal political gratification. Tambuwal was elected on the platform of the PDP in 2011. His party had, rightly or wrongly, zoned the seat of Speaker to the South West. Tambuwal refused to abide by that decision. He became a pawn in the hands of the leader of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Alhaji Bola Tinubu, one of the principal leaders of today’s APC. Tinubu blocked the zoning of the plum position to his home zone and supported Tambuwal and his Deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, to upset PDP’s zoning applecart. To be honest, Tambuwal’s emergence went down well with his colleagues, including those from his party. The PDP and the Presidency realised it was no good raising Cain, and allowed sleeping dogs to lie. That is the difference between President Goodluck Jonathan and President Olusegun Obasanjo. Had it happened under Obasanjo’s watch, Tambuwal might not have lasted more than a few weeks in office, even if it meant demolishing his official residence or wherever the Mace is hidden, to get him removed. But then, Tambuwal became a sore on the nose of PDP. During the day, he would perch majestically on the exalted chair he grabbed by virtue of his membership of the party, but at night he would sneak into conclaves of those seeking to destroy the party and flush it out of power. Many people chose not to see what was wrong in what Tambuwal was doing because he was doing it to the PDP; and for the opposition. Once you are playing for the opposition, morality can go to hell. Party discipline is non-sequitur. I don’t believe in such double standards of judgement. Anything that is wrong is wrong, whether it is being perpetrated by the ruling party or the opposition. It is, in fact, more dangerous if it is being perpetrated by the opposition because it means there is no hope. Society is trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. The opposition must show a ray of hope, rather than merely demonstrating its capacity to outdo the ruling party in political malfeasance. By far the most grievous offence of Tambuwal was his recent decamping to the APC while striving to keep his position as a member of the House and its Speaker, in barefaced contravention of Section 68(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 quoted above. In order to ensure the success of this odious scheme, Tambuwal adjourned our House of Reps for FIVE long weeks to enable him see if he could grab the governorship or presidential ticket of the APC. If he failed, he would come back. Even if PDP wanted him removed they would not be able to summon the two-thirds majority. Unfortunately, many Nigerians are not looking at the number of legislative man-days Tambuwal has sacrificed on the altar of his selfish ambition. They are not looking at the 2015 budget, which could be passed within this period. They are not seeing that Tambuwal has crippled the legislative arm of government and put his personal ambition above national interest. All they are seeing is the rightful step taken by the Nigeria Police to get him to obey the Constitution as quoted above, having moved to another political party. For those who are faulting the police action, I have questions. Whose duty is it to implement the laws of the land? Is not the Police and other law-enforcement agencies? When did the Police need to obtain a court verdict before doing their job? Is not for the persons involved to go to court and seek redress if they feel the Police have done their job unconstitutionally? In the absence of any other person to get Tambuwal to obey the Constitution, who else, if not the Police, should enforce the law? In Edo State, four members of the House moved from APC to PDP. The Speaker of the House of Assembly simply did the right thing by declaring their seats vacant, while they went to court to seek redress. That is the correct and democratic order of things in a society under the rule of law. Tambuwal and all members of the Senate and House of Reps who crossed from one party to the other in the past one year must vacate their seats pending court verdicts. Failure to do so amounts to a rape of the constitution. The Police must protect the constitution from these political rapists.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:03:08 +0000
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