Benue’s House of Cards, the rise and fall of a speaker in 48 hours
In the span of just 48 hours, Benue’s House of Assembly pulled off what rare political spectacles often only dream of. A Speaker out, a suspended member in all in dramatic, Sunday-emergency motion. On Friday, Hon. Alfred Emberga Berger was a lawmaker in disgrace, suspended by the Benue State House of Assembly for allegedly plotting […]
In the span of just 48 hours, Benue’s House of Assembly pulled off what rare political spectacles often only dream of. A Speaker out, a suspended member in all in dramatic, Sunday-emergency motion.
On Friday, Hon. Alfred Emberga Berger was a lawmaker in disgrace, suspended by the Benue State House of Assembly for allegedly plotting against Speaker Aondona Dajoh. By Sunday, he was sitting on the Speaker’s chair, gavel in hand, after Dajoh scribbled a resignation letter in pen during an emergency sitting held under heavy security.
This whiplash turn of events has left Benue stunned, raising questions not only about legality and procedure but about power, loyalty, and the future of democracy in the state.
The sequence was astonishingly fast. A Speaker resigns, his resignation is accepted instantly, the House sets aside its own Standing Orders, and within minutes a suspended member is sworn in as the new Speaker. All this on a Sunday, a day the Assembly rarely sits.
Why was the Speaker’s resignation handwritten, hurried, and read aloud with such urgency? Why was a suspended member present at plenary? Was his suspension properly lifted before his nomination? Which rules exactly were suspended and by what motion with what record? Why must loyalty override legality? If governance in Benue is to remain credible, these are not trivial details,they are the heart of constitutional order.
Governor Hyacinth Alia’s Chief Press Secretary denied any executive hand in the Speaker’s ouster. But denials do not erase optics. The Assembly had only days earlier rejected two of the Governor’s commissioner-nominees, moved to suspend the SUBEB chair and the lottery board secretary, and began probing alleged contract scams. Dajoh’s Assembly was increasingly seen as an institution willing to assert itself. That independence was tolerated until it began to touch nerves. Nominees, contracts,oversight. Then, suddenly, the Speaker was gone. Was his real crime refusing to be a rubber stamp? Did the Governor demand a legislature that ratifies without question? And if so, what becomes of separation of powers?
In Benue politics, loyalty is the most valuable currency. Dajoh, once seen as an ally, made the mistake of trying to reunite members loyal to Senator George Akume with those loyal to Governor Alia. Unity in the House became a liability. When Dajoh allegedly declared, this is the time to eat the meat and break the bones, some around the governor interpreted it as provocation. Others whispered that the Assembly was threatening impeachment if demands weren’t met. True or not, the perception was enough. In politics, perception is as deadly as fact. In the end, the Governor reportedly told the Speaker his control over the House had evaporated and demanded his resignation.
This drama is about more than one man’s fall. It forces us to ask. Can a suspended lawmaker legally be elected Speaker without first lifting his suspension? Where are the Votes and Proceedings? Who suspended which Standing Orders and why? Is Sunday a valid sitting day? Was quorum met? Who signed and circulated the emergency notice? Who ordered the heavy military presence at the Assembly complex and on whose authority? When did oversight become rebellion? Must every Assembly become a Governor’s appendage? While lawmakers trade gavels, who is safeguarding the children in underfunded schools, the hospitals without drugs, the roads riddled with potholes? What happens to SUBEB projects while its chair sits suspended? And how much of this is governance and how much is a proxy battle between Governor Alia and Senator Akume for control of Benue’s political machinery?
If this spectacle was meant to restore order, it may have achieved the opposite. Instead of stability, it has exposed fragility. Instead of unity, it has deepened mistrust.
Benue’s crisis is a warning to Nigeria, democracy dies not only when generals topple governments but also when institutions surrender their independence for convenience. A legislature that cannot defend its own procedures cannot defend its people.
The Assembly’s rules are not decorations to be suspended at will. If lawmakers can bend the rules to enthrone loyalty today, what stops them from bending the rules against the people tomorrow?
For Speaker Berger, the test begins now. Will he be a mere gavel-holder who rubber-stamps executive wishes, or will he surprise everyone by proving that even in Benue, loyalty to the people can be stronger than loyalty to power?
The Benue people deserve answers. They deserve peace. And above all, they deserve leaders who treat the rules not as obstacles, but as the very foundation of democracy.
In Benue, the script flipped faster than the clock, suspension on Friday, resignation on Sunday, Speaker installed before Monday’s sun rose.
Saturday was politics in mid-chew, by Sunday, it had been spat out, swallowed whole, and repackaged as a new regime.
This wasn’t democracy in motion it was a centrifuge, spinning out loyalty and suspicion in equal measure.
Rules? Orders? Procedure? They were bypassed on the idea that allegiance should travel faster than the law.
What happens when an Assembly suspends a member only to crown him Speaker days later? You don’t just bend procedure you shatter it.
This is not just a political turnaround, it’s a turn on a dime and in that pivot lies a warning.Power didn’t just change hands it redefined the laws of passage. If democracy survives this, it will be because people demanded accountability, not because politics mastered smoke and mirrors. And that will be the real story.
Shaakaa can be reached through [email protected]