Revisiting the Tambuwal Project

The last two weeks or so were as interesting as they were very difficult as far as Nigerian politics was concerned. The 7th National Assembly was inaugurated on Monday 6th after President Jonathan had issued the traditional proclamation to do so. The politics of the inauguration was heralded with tricks and high profile politicking on […]

The last two weeks or so were as interesting as they were very difficult as far as Nigerian politics was concerned. The 7th National Assembly was inaugurated on Monday 6th after President Jonathan had issued the traditional proclamation to do so. The politics of the inauguration was heralded with tricks and high profile politicking on who the presiding officers of the two chambers of the Assembly were to be.

In the case of the Senate, there was almost no dispute since the new comers represented by Senators Danjuma Goje and Bukola Saraki were literarily overpowered by the gimmicks of both the members of the 6th Senate and the leadership of the PDP which clearly made its case for the retention of both Senate President David Mark and his Deputy Ike Ekwerenmadu.

The new entrants of course accepted the party’s desire not because they were strangulated but by clearly reading and understanding the basic rules of parliamentary politics which definitely favored both David Mark and Ike Ekwerenmandu. Once the Senate was inaugurated, the duo were returned unopposed as the presiding officers.

This was exactly the reverse of what happened on June 4th 2007 when the 6th Senate was inaugurated where the emergence of Senator Mark as the president was rather a heated battle with his former state governor and definitely one of the shrewdest politicians in this country today, George Akume. I think the heat generated by that contest and given the strong support base of the candidates in the Senate made it clear that David Mark didn’t have any other way but to steer the ship of the senate with maximum caution. This he did very well until it became the tradition in the red chamber.

While the reverse was the case in the beginning of the 6th House of Representatives, the session, typical of the vibrancy of the chamber ended in great turmoil. The emergence of the presiding officers of the House on the 4th of June 2007 was very peaceful. Patricia Etteh and Saidu Nguroje were elected unopposed.

In the 7th House of Representatives, the emergence of presiding officers was the major issue of concern to most Nigerians. While the PDP which either unknown to it or otherwise lost substantial grounds in the composition of the chamber, it at the same time thought it could threaten its members into voting for a leadership that wasn’t popular.

The thesis in this piece is the politics of failure which the PDP deployed in the inauguration of the House which led to that very woeful defeat of the party. As I have said before now, the emergence of Aminu Tambuwal and Emeka Ihideoha was the aspiration of the new and old members.

Like many other similar projects, it did not come without casualties. Apart from the threats and intimidation from government and its security apparatuses, the former Speaker of the House was made the number one victim by the arrest and subsequent arraignment before a Federal High Court on charges of inflation of contracts and award without adhering to due process.

On Wednesday 8th when Dimeji Bankole was arraigned, the charges read clearly manifested the fact that the whole thing was a gimmick. I cannot imagine how a number 4 citizen of Nigeria would be implicated in petty purchases of television sets and even torch light. This is amazing.

Little wonder it was when the Daily Trust on its cover of Monday 6th, the day of the inauguration, reported the Rambo-style arrest of the former Speaker as the climax of the desperation of the PDP and its government to stop Aminu Tambuwal and Emeka from emerging as presiding officers of the House.

This is aside the numerous harassments and intimidation the two aspirants suffered, both of whom literarily had to go under for days in order to avoid the agents of the coercive apparatuses of the Nigerian State. The way they emerged on the floor of the House on the day of inauguration in disguised attires only confirmed the speculation of the massive witch hunt which these gentlemen faced.

All this is now history and the PDP has the choice to either live with the reality of the maturity in parliament or continue to shoot itself in the leg. Definitely, the House of Representatives has again reawakened the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians in the democratic project. They have sent a clear message that the bulldozer fashion of politics which was inherited from the days of Obasanjo will not see the light of the day in the parliament.

The election result was definitive. It wasn’t a confusing situation for the members who voted for the Speaker with more than 12 votes over the two-third majority of members of the House required for victory. This is even against the backdrop of the fact that almost 10 elected members from Katsina State could not attend the inauguration because they were not issued certificates of return by INEC due to the failures of the CPC in the state.

Not for a moment was I surprised by the position of the members of the House. They are as exuberant as they are resolute in their focus and in my view, the Executive arm must cash in on this solidarity and build bridges of friendship with the House especially if governance is to move smoothly in the next four years. The kind of votes that Speaker Tambuwal received from his colleagues is a loud statement.

What the PDP was reported to have said on the recalcitrance of the House I hope wasn’t true. In the first place there is hardly anybody within the National Working Committee of the party that has the democratic credentials to oppose free elections that was conducted on the floor of the House.

How many of the big guys in Wadata House were elected by their party delegates to occupy the present position that they occupy? Were they not just nominated by their governors? Do they think they are standing tall enough to discredit what a duly constituted national parliament has done? This is a mistake but as I did say, I hope Abubakar Baraje was quoted out of contest and the statement credited to him wasn’t his.

I look forward to a more robust House of Representatives that will assuage the feelings of Nigerians and embolden the belief in parliament as the pillar of democracy. I look forward to more robust and functional partnership between the Senate and the House of Representatives in the next four years so that Nigeria will witness greater things.

In my view, the most important lessons to learn from the events of this week is that the time is fast approaching for the nation’s democracy to take roots. Separation of powers and principles of checks and balances is the way to go.