Why House of Representatives needs a competent speaker

Democracy is a system that thrives on charm and chicanery, it does not always throw up the best people for leadership positions. In order to win elections in Nigeria, and elsewhere, you must be willing to suffer fools, to make promises you do not plan to keep, and to hobnob with the very people that […]

Democracy is a system that thrives on charm and chicanery, it does not always throw up the best people for leadership positions.

In order to win elections in Nigeria, and elsewhere, you must be willing to suffer fools, to make promises you do not plan to keep, and to hobnob with the very people that created the problems you were sworn to solve in the first place. All is fair in love and war, they say, and in politics too, apparently.

To give it a veneer of respectability, they speak of the game of politics, a game without the proverbial level playing field, one in which the goal posts may change, the umpire is less than impartial, and the rules differ for different candidates. But the goal is always the same: the acquisition of power.

What is not the same is the reason why  people want power. In most cases it is for personal aggrandizement, or to shore up fragile egos, or just the sickening need to lord it over others. In most cases, the welfare of the people does not factor into the equation at all, and the vast majority of those who seek to govern us are scratching some itch that had nothing to do with our problems.

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Yet there are some people, fewer than we need, who strive to navigate thI’e murky waters of politics mainly because they want to pull others to shore, to use whatever comparative advantage they have in intelligence, education or willpower, to gain access to the commonwealth so they could share it more equitably.

In the race for the leadership of the 10th Assembly, there is already a frenzy of interest and a plethora of permutations going on. There is talk of religious balancing, of zoning and compensations and alignments. No one is having the conversation on competence.

The legislature is the closest arm of government to the people, the one which approximates the original system of governance in Athens and thus the one whose wellbeing signifies a virile democratic culture. It is an institution that must be protected from the shenanigans that has ruined many a public institution.

In the run up to the National Assembly leadership elections, some of the less salubrious aspects of our politics have begun to rear their heads. We like to think that only the poor and hapless illiterate is susceptible to inducement, that if only there were more comfortable middle-class and educated people, votes would not be traded. Well, not exactly. The difference is only a matter of degree, of means, of content.

As the country grapples with rising poverty and inflation, primordial divisions exacerbated by the last elections, hunger, diseases, unemployment and crime, and deficit infrastructure, the leadership of the National Assembly must be people with the intellectual capacity and moral probity to be able to guide the legislature.

The fact is, the quality of the presiding officers would not only impact on the laws that will be churned out of the National Assembly and the kind of oversight we should expect over Ministries, Departments and agencies, it would also reflect on the entire administration of the elected president and his ability to fulfill his campaign promises.

The House of Representatives is particularly dicey. With 360 members representing different regions, and more opposition party members than ruling party members, it is going to require a leadership that is experienced in administration and diplomacy, and blessed with legislative chops to booth.

Only one man fits this profile. His credentials, which opponents hate to hear mentioned, are staggering, his morals unimpeachable, his administrative acumen and knowledge of the law-making process, is first-rate.

For 14 years, Hon. Sada Soli has worked as a civil servant in the National Assembly, clerking for the Senate and House committees of foreign affairs, National Planning, and National Security and Intelligence. For four years he worked with the inimitable Prof. Jibril Aminu at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington as his Special Assistant and Minister Counselor in a special dispensation that was granted by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He left the civil service to join politics following the leadership recruitment drive of the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua and since then he had represented the Jibia/Kaita federal constituency, winning the election for the third term last February. Indubitably, his tenure as a member of the House of Representatives has been singularly successful, and his contributions on the floor of the House where he had sponsored and contributed enormously to motions and bills on sundry national issues.

The President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu has campaigned on the mantle of competence and how it is the overriding factor in the choice of candidates for office in his administration. He had defended this at great risk and expended huge political capital in the process, especially after choosing Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate, sparking a huge uproar over the Muslim- Muslim ticket.

But the Jagaban whose political savvy has now reached legendary status went on to win his election, proving that he is both a man who knows what he wants and has the chutzpah to go ahead with his plans whatever the huddles.

One hopes that in the same measure, the president-elect and his vice, together with the party, will be making this factor the main point in their deliberations.

More importantly, members of the House who actually have the voting power to elect their leaders must realize that in order for them to have a fulfilling tenure, one that will make them satisfy the yearnings of their constituents, they must elect someone with the capacity and the organizational discipline to provide them with all the tools they need to perform optimally.

 

Jajiri wrote in from Sabon Layi, Katsina