Defection of House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, from PDP to APC and politics of return ticket by PDP senators continue to attract attention by Nigeria’s leaders in the face of murderous advances by Boko Haram insurgents in the North East, writes Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU
It did not come to many as a surprise that the defection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28 would generate serious political ripples in the land.
In fact, since Tambuwal’s defection, there has been controversy surrounding his office as whether he would vacate or remain as Speaker. And in apparent confirmation of the fears of informed analysts, Nigerians and governance have been victims of the unfolding development.
Last week, for instance, both houses of the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) had adjourned in manners that were considered untidy. While Tambuwal had adjourned the House of Representatives after announcing his defection to APC, Senate President, David Mark, and his PDP colleagues had caused the Senate to end proceedings over personal issues that bordered on return tickets. This was notwithstanding the frightening advances of the murderous members of the Boko Haram sect in key cities in North East states.
For Tambuwal, it has been a grim battle. Since June 6, 2011, when he emerged the Speaker of the House of Representatives after a dramatic proceeding, described in most political quarters as “a palace coup”, it is obvious that the embattled Speaker has continued to face many travails and intrigues. He had survived many plots of impeachment, thus making him one of the most reported public office-holders in the land in the last three years.
Political watchers, taking cognisance of the forces that threw him up at the House, had long foretold his eventual shift in loyalty to the opposition and had only been surprised how the Speaker had remained in the ruling party, effectively managing the affairs of the lower chamber as the fourth citizen of the country, while also retaining close and intimate relationship with the opposition.
Tambuwal, in what perhaps appeared to be a popularity and acceptability test, received a warm welcome penultimate Wednesday, a day after his formal defection at the extraordinary national convention of the APC in Abuja when he showed up at the convention ground accompanied by not less than 160 of his APC colleagues.
He later addressed the convention, expressing delight in joining the party and said he has embraced its platform as an instrument for genuine change and enduring national development.
Although, there was no pandemonium on the floor of the House after the Speaker’s bombshell, there was no doubt that its after-effect would create furrows.
PDP kicks
Findings by TheNiche show that the presidency and the national leadership of the PDP are not folding their arms, as thick conspiracies seem to be in the pipeline to teach Tambuwal a political lesson he may not forget in a hurry.
Speaking after an emergency meeting of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) to consider the development, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, demanded Tambuwal’s resignation as Speaker since the PDP controls a majority in the House. Said Metuh: “After a thorough consideration of the matter, the NWC came to the conclusion that the honourable Speaker as a responsible elected officer knows fully what is needful and honourable of him since his new party is in the minority.”
Sounding a similar note, Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum (PDPGF), Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, said: “Tambuwal should do the needful, as there is no crisis in the PDP. He has only been a member of PDP by mouth. He has been associating with the opposition.”
On his part, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Leo Ogor, was of the view that the party would await the verdict of the court on the legality or otherwise of a legislator defecting from one party to another.
APC strategises
The APC, it was reliably gathered, has set up a strategy committee to deal with the ongoing moves to unseat Tambuwal. It had fingered the presidency as being behind the mask in directing the action to shoot down Tambuwal.
The decision to protect Tambuwal, a source confided in TheNiche, was taken at a meeting between the leadership and the APC caucus in the House.
The strategic committee is to be made up of members of the NWC and the House of Representatives caucus of the APC.
National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, said the meeting deliberated on the travails of Tambuwal, especially the rough tackles the PDP-led federal government is planning to unleash on him.
He said: “We met to deliberate on the issue of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal. But the ground had been softened before the meeting by the ruling of Justice Ahmed Mohammed who asked that status quo be maintained and that the House could not reconvene until November 7, when the parties were before him. We are seriously strategising and we have the capacity to contain the PDP braggadocio.”
Also as part of the gameplan to frustrate PDP’s efforts, some APC lawmakers are joining in the fray. In a separate suit, members of the APC in the House of Representatives led by Femi Gbajabiamila have filed a suit in the same Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to stop the House from re-convening.
The plaintiffs also want the court to stop the House of Representatives from removing Tambuwal as its Speaker.
Enter the police
The battle took a new twist barely a day after Tambuwal’s defection, as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) suddenly stripped him of his official security details.
Justifying the action, the police said they acted in accordance with Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
Critics say it is amazing that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, is oblivious of the fact that the Speaker of the House can only be removed in accordance with Section 50 (2) of the constitution, which requires a resolution passed by votes of not less than two-thirds majority of members of the House. Further, by his glaring bias and partisanship, the IG, critics insist, has seriously undermined the credibility of his office.
For instance, despite defecting along with her colleagues from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP last month, the Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Jumoke Akindele, retains her security details. That is also the case with the Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Ahmadu Fintiri, who has undertaken a voyage from the PDP to the APC and back to the PDP without police harassment.
Many legal experts had condemned the IGP’s action, describing it as unconstitutional.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Emeka Ngige, said the action of the police was condemnable and shows the institution as biased and a weapon of oppression by federal government.
He said the action of the federal government has, once again, brought to the fore the need for state police.
Ngige said: “The action re-invigorates the urgent need for state police, so that the incessant use and misuse of the federal police to silence opposing political views will be put under check. The IGP is not a court of law to determine whether the Speaker had violated any law in his defection from APC to PDP. I doubt whether sound legal advice from the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) was sought by the IGP before this malicious action was taken. I hope the AGF will advise the IGP to reverse his illegal action.”
Many analysts have continued to argue that it is a dangerous politicking to withdraw the security aides of politically-exposed people like Tambuwal because it exposes their lives to danger.
They cite even former political office holders who still enjoy security protection years after living office, let alone someone still occupying a high office such as that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The popular opinion, going by TheNiche checks, is that the only redeeming grace for Abba will be to urgently restore Tambuwal’s security aides for as long as he remains Nigeria’s number four citizen.
Tambuwal fingers traducers
Tambuwal has wasted no time to point accusing fingers at his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha; the AGF, Mohammed Adoke; the PDP and its chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, as masterminds in the underground plot to remove him from office.
He made the allegation in an affidavit supporting an ex parte application he filed on Monday along with the APC at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Presiding Justice Mohammed, who heard the application, directed all parties in the suit to maintain the status quo, insisting that the order for the maintenance of the status quo was necessary to protect the subject matter in the suit.
The Speaker had told the court in the affidavit deposed to by one of his lawyers, Ejura Ochimana, that the PDP, Mu’azu, Adoke and Ihedioha, who are among the defendants in the suit, were also working secretly to reconvene the House before December 3 to remove him as Speaker.
He stated also that the withdrawal of his security detail on October 30 by the IGP was upon the prompting of the defendants.
Tambuwal, in the suit, also prayed the court to stop INEC from conducting a bye-election to fill his position, pending the determination of the suit.
In addition, he wants the court to stop the federal government and its agents from further interfering in his rights and privileges as the Speaker of the House of Representatives pending the determination of the suit.
Also, the plaintiff is praying for an order of mandatory injunction directing the IGP and the AGF to restore to him his security detail, rights, benefits and privileges.
In a five-paragraph affidavit of urgency attached to the application, Tambuwal specifically said PDP and its chairman have threatened to ensure that his seat is declared vacant to enable INEC organise bye-election to fill the vacant seat.
But in a chat with INEC official, TheNiche was told that the Commission should not be drawn into the rage as the constitution is clear on what to do.
Enter Milikat Akande
The House of Representtatives majority leader, Milikat Akande has been speaking on the Tambuwal defection, distancing herself from perceived complicity by the Speaker to dump PDP. She told the media days after PDP leadership blamed Ihedioha, herself and Ofor for allowing Tambuwal to have his way, saying she was completely green about the Speaker’s move.
PDP at the crossroads
Curiously, PDP seems to be fighting the battle from all fronts. Even as many had expected the Tambuwal phenomenon to have provided a rallying point for the alleged ideology-barren party, its leaders are at one another’s throat over petty personal considerations.
At the moment, the senators on PDP platform have expressed anger with the leadership of the party, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan, for being used and dumped. Their grouse is that the governors have hijacked the party structures, going by outcome of the party’s recent ward congresses. Analyses of the results indicate that most of the senators can no longer return to the Red Chambers in 2015. This is because the governors, especially those serving out their term and with eyes on the upper lawmaking house, are seen to have appropriated the entire party machineries in their states and may not be disposed in handing the embattled senators return tickets.
The senators are insisting on having automatic tickets to return, describing that as the only condition for harmony with party leadership. They have threatened to join forces with equally aggrieved House of Representatives members to impeach the President. What was not particularly certain, by the close of last week, was how far they could go in their agitation that was casually dismissed by a section of the PDP leadership with a wave of the hand.
The argument against the lawmakers that they ended up the fall guys of the party’s politics in allowing themselves to be used in adopting Jonathan as PDP sole presidential candidate without extracting any commitment that would guarantee their return.
The Senate president is also seen as not being completely bothered by the crisis situation that many of his colleagues have found themselves, given that his position, in terms of return and retention of office, had been guaranteed.
However, Mark had pledged to intervene in the crisis rocking the lower house as Chairman of NASS joint session.
A political affairs commentator, who asked not to be mentioned, described him as “the most beneficiary of the cloudy situation”. According to him, “unknown to the senators, it would be in the interest of Mark for most of them not returning since that would rule out any threat to his position as Senate president”.
How far these crises may affect the party coupled with the Tambuwal affront may not be easily be determined.