A reporter’s account of security siege on National Assembly

For any journalist, the parliament is an interesting place to cover as it represents the peak of politics and politicking where different contending interests come to play.It is not unusual to see MPs hurling insults at each other at the slightest provocation and even edge close to fisticuffs in the National Assembly, but the security […]

For any journalist, the parliament is an interesting place to cover as it represents the peak of politics and politicking where different contending interests come to play.
It is not unusual to see MPs hurling insults at each other at the slightest provocation and even edge close to fisticuffs in the National Assembly, but the security agencies never intervened to the point that they did last Thursday.
I witnessed the infamous free-for-all in the lower chamber on June 22, 2010 in the hey days of former Speaker Dimeji Bankole when Hon. Dino Melaye and co were beaten by their colleagues and subsequently suspended. But even then, the police remained neutral and distanced themselves from the crisis in the lower chamber.
On Thursday morning, about 10am, I drove to the Three Arms Zone heading to the National Assembly complex but met with heavy traffic jam occasioned by presence of soldiers, the police, SSS and hooded security officers brandishing sophisticated weapons while they frisked vehicles entering the parliament.
Before I left the house, I received a call from a friend, telling me that the head of the Assembly security outfit, Mr. Ndako had been whisked away to the FCT police command after refusing to give them the keys to the House chambers. I then knew that all was not going to be well.
While we moved slowly in the traffic around the second gate, Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, in company of his colleagues and aides, arrived. We all made way for them to pass, but on reaching the gate, police officers hurriedly locked it.
I watched Tambuwal alight from his car and began trekking to access the premises. I turned off my car engine and followed them behind to watch the unfolding drama; but to our utter shock, policemen at the last gate started shouting, “Close the gate, close the gate,” which they did effectively, locking out the nation’s number four citizen from the parliament.
I, together with other journalists, senators, reps and staffers, watched as Tambuwal made spirited efforts to get the police officers on duty to open the gate for him. His please fell on deaf ears.
“Hello! Who is the most senior officer here? Can I talk to you please? Could you please approach me? Do you recognise me? I’m Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives. Can you allow me to enter and preside over the sitting of the House?” he again pleaded; but the police officers shunned him.
His colleagues, about 30 of them, began shaking the gate and eventually made a way for him through the pedestrian gate, but all the others had to scale over the fence while shouting, “We are ready to die.”
To our utter dismay and shock, while he trekked to the White House, the police followed him and hurled canisters of teargas at him and his colleagues again. Tambuwal covered his nose and moved on.
As we made our way behind him into the White House lobby, there again, more canisters were thrown at him, with another police officer spraying it directly in the face of the deputy minority leader, Kawu Sumaila who was leading other members to shield their speaker.
The White House, which houses the Senate and House chambers, became filled with teargas, forcing people to quickly evacuate while shedding tears and sneezing. The teargas remained up to the evening.
My friend and fellow reporter, Mrs. Uju Ejeye of the African Independent Television, who has been covering the National Assembly since 1999, later told me that she had never seen anything like that, and that having witnessed the inauguration of the Third Assembly in June 1999, she never imagined that 16 years later, Nigeria’s democracy would be denigrated to this level.
It was Senator Magnus Abe from Rivers State who gave me a handkerchief to cover my nose. I made my way to the convenience, washed my face and moved out of the lobby to have “fresh air.”
It was there, by the House’s new extension that I met four lawmakers, two of which are from President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa discussing the unfortunate incident. They were all angry that the president could come this far in interfering in the affairs of the legislature. “This is our matter, we should have been left to handle it our own way,” they said.
Few minutes later, I returned to the Senate Press Centre. The centre was the only habitable place for us as the teargas didn’t get there. We could rest and monitor the Senate proceedings there.
Senators were quick to ask that the plenary be suspended. Senate President David Mark got the message and even said he had shut down the National Assembly till Tuesday.
While I sat, I reminisced over the two similar episodes I witnessed in the parliament as a reporter, which include the June 22, 2010 during the days of former Speaker Dimeji Bankole, when a free-for-all broke out in the Green Chamber, leading to the suspension of Dino Melaye and his colleagues over corruption allegations against Bankole.
Also, for Tambuwal, the journey had never been a smooth one. I was also covering the House when he became speaker against the wishes of the powers that be, namely, President Goodluck Jonathan and the almighty Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
On that faithful day of June 6, 2011 when the Sixth Assembly was being inaugurated, the police invaded the parliament, frisking people and watching out for Tambuwal. He was later bungled into the House chamber by more than 30 of his colleagues, also led by Kawu Sumaila. The would-be speaker had to disguise himself in a black suit with a resource control hat.
Since then, the relationship between him and Jonathan had never been the same despite the speaker’s numerous efforts to make peace.
I later learnt that Tambuwal’s deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, was accompanied into the premises by 50 policemen apart from his security details, and that he was mandated by President Jonathan to approve the emergency rule extension and get Tambuwal impeached by whatever means possible.
As a reporter, I know that Tambuwal holds firms control of the House and they need 240 members or 2/3rd to remove him, which is “impossible” since the PDP doesn’t have such number. Also, even among the PDP members, most of them are pro-Tambuwal.
Later that day, after adjourning the Senate, Senator Mark went to the Green Chamber to meet with Tambuwal, but he was confronted by angry reps who assaulted him and chased him out of their chamber. What a day indeed!
In the Senate, even senators called David Mark “Baba,” and no one dares to oppose him, let alone insult him, but on that Thursday, a lawmaker gave him a heavy blow in the back. He left humiliated. Mark, on Friday, issued a statement, saying he had forgiven the one who assaulted him. The lawmakers saw Mark as a “stooge” to the executive; hence, he was a persona-non-grata in the hallowed Green Chambers.
The speaker’s trouble with the president got aggravated on October 28 when he dumped the PDP and joined the APC. 24 hours later, about 1am, I received a desperate call from some of his aides saying, “They have withdrawn all the security details of oga.” That terminated my sleep and I began to work on the story, which we broke on our website that night.
The speaker now drives himself everywhere he goes and had to hire a private security firm to guard his house.
If Nigeria’s number four citizen, together with federal legislators, could first be locked out of the parliament building, and tear-gassed, not on the street but in the precincts of the National Assembly, what then is the fate of ordinary Nigerians? Does that mean that if it were ordinary citizens it could have been live ammunition that would be used on them! Are we really in a democracy of military dictatorship? Is this the Nigeria of our dream? Who then is safe from police brutality? Why has impunity became deeply imbedded in our country 16 years in civilian rule? Is it the same Jonathan who told Nigerians that he had no shoes while he grew up in the riverine area of Delta? Was it the son of former fisherman from Bayelsa State, now president that gave such orders to the police?
Since that Thursday, these thoughts have been bogging my mind and I am yet to find answers to them because the crisis seems not close to being over. Every time I sleep, these thoughts wake me up.
Already, lawmakers said they had commenced collecting signatures for the impeachment of the president. And now that the emergency rule has expired, Jonathan would have to make fresh proclamation and write another letter addressed to the same Tambuwal, seeking approval. It is left to be seen if Jonathan would make peace with the speaker and sheathe his sword, or continue with the onslaught that he is very unlikely to win, even with all the state apparatus at his disposal. But it is believed that Tambuwal has always been a step ahead of his “enemies.” Whither Nigeria’s democracy?