TAMBUWAL: BETWEEN IMMUNITY AND IMPUNITY - For years to come the story of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the young, suave and dexterous Speaker of the House of Representatives will be told with pride by progressive Nigerians. Tambuwal is the first person to defy and subdue the voracious PDP monster. Even more amazing, Tambuwal achieved from within what a decade collective effort of Nigerians could not from without. When it was time to share the booty after the 2011 (s)elections, the PDP, armed with a faulty manual and operating by its even faultier default setting went shopping for a convenient and flexible candidate to kit the lower chamber of the National Assembly - a candidate that will ease the pressure of good governance off the frail shoulders of its latest, albeit ill equipped discovery, the obviously deficient President Jonathan, the choice fell on a bench warming parliamentarian, Hon Mulikat Akande-Adeola. Just like those before her, Adeola was set to become another puppet leader of the most vital arm of Nigerias tripod democracy. The deal was sealed in series of nocturnal meetings between Wadata Plaza and the Aso Rock villa. Little did the mighty PDP gave the idea of a revolt against the old and institutionalized order of impunity. To the PDP, its a sacrilege to stand against its wishes from within or without. It doesnt matter if those wishes are in conflict with the law, expectations or aspirations of Nigeria. To PDP, the more conflicting the signal it send to the public, the better its hope of survival on chaos. Its a Party that survive on oddities and chaos. Its belief in chaos is such that it could actually believe 16 is greater than 19. On the D-Day, it was, therefore a horrified and overwhelmed PDP that stood helplessly watching as Aminu Waziri Tambuwal walked into the green chamber in a protective circle of his colleagues, and to rub salt to injury, to the thunderous cheering of the House. Shortly after Tambuwal became the 6th Speaker, House of Representatives from the PDP but, in spite of the PDP. To the movers and shakers of the Party, a renegade was born and the first shot of the long dicey war that culminated with Tambuwals recent defection to APC has been fired. Going by PDPs desperation to win this war and in the process balance its with Speaker Tambuwal, one could assume it could go to all extent without recourse to our extant laws. We have to appreciate the importance of this war to PDP. Its a Party that survives on impunity hence, any sign of weakness from it could be deadly. Tambuwal had successfully opened the Achille heel of PDP which, hitherto was hidden to public. Its a desperate rush to threat the wound inflicted on it by Tambuwal to prevent a deadly infection that may lead to a sudden death - political tetanus, if you like. Lets review PDPs conflicting technique in slow-motion. For each of the many members poached by the PDP, leading members of the party danced away the pain of its victims while celebrating its victory. As at today, not a single person lose his seat on the basis of the quoted-out-of-context constitutional provision on which the jittery PDP is resting its hope to oust Speaker Tambuwal and Im certain Tambuwal is not going to be the first casualty of this constitutional disrespect despite the fact that PDP is leaving no one in doubt as to how it could be choosy when it comes to the constitution, its respectability and applicability. It was Mr. Femi Falana, a respected and learned human right activist whose opinion on this issue could fill the voids mischievously being created by the rampaging PDP who drew the attention of PDP about the conflicting signals it is emitting which only exposed why Nigeria keep moving deeper into the wood. I could imagine Falanas pain, being forced by PDP to go back to elementary level constitutional law to knock some sense into the dizzy and confused heads of the few leechlike characters holding Nigeria to ransom. Beside quoting the relevant verses of the Nigerian constitution in their proper contexts, he went further to give a rich and acceptable interpretation of the constitution against the roadside interpretation being offered by many emergency constitutional lawyers working hard to be noticed by the PDP for patronage. Worried by the obvious slide of the Nigeria Police Force into partisan politics, Falana went full blast on the acting IGP whose propensity for selective blindness in matters relating to PDP/APC is as glaring as the pathetic trajectory on which Nigeria is wobbling. He told the IGP that Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that when the Ondo State legislators elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) decamped to the PDP last month the IGP did not declare their seats vacant. In particular, he did not withdraw the security details of Honourable Jumoke Akindele, the Speaker who led her colleagues to dump the LP for the PDP. In the same vein, Honourable Ahmadu Fintiri, the Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly and his colleagues who decamped from the PDP to the APC and have since returned to PDP. The IGP did not have cause to declare their seats vacant, neither withdrawn the security details of the Honourable Fintiri. One may be left wondering which convenient and flexible code of rules is the IGP operating which seem to handle similar situations with entirely opposite solutions. Is Fintiri and Akindele covered by a different constitutional definition of a Speaker other than the definition which bestowed SpeakerTambuwal the rights and privileges striped from him by the IGP? Even more important, if the IGP could exercise restrain by not executing premeditated murderers after police investigations find them guilty, rather opting for the courts to declare them so and punish them according to the provisions of the law, why was the IGP overzealous to a point of usurping the functions of the judiciary? If anything, recent actions of the IGP only proved the misfortune of Nigeria. Nigeria is now swinging precariously on an inexplicable phenomenon. No doubt its the only country blessed with a Good luck that is more of a bad omen. Neither common sense nor simple logic could support the tragic attitude Nigeria is being operated with. On one hand you have constitutionally unrecognized super ordinary citizens like Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and other lesser VIPs running around with ferocious looking police convoys breaking each and every breakable traffic law with the Police playing blind while on the other hand you have the Speaker of the House of Representatives, constitutionally the 4th on Nigerias power hierarchy striped bare of Police protection with just a flick of a finger. Do you still need to keep pondering why characters like Tompolo could threatened decent citizens like Festus Keyamo with death threats over open lines? Could it be any worse?
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 14:05:57 +0000
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