STRUCTURE AND THE LAW

At the last constitutional amendment exercise, lawmakers failed to address the issue of defection from one political party to another. It is clear that our politicians do not fully appreciate how dearly their vicissitude and manipulation of the polity will cost. This is one ill that is not peculiar to any political party; they are all of the same cloth and all abuse our mandates.  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Party (APC), as well as the remnant of other parties such as APGA and Labour Party, are guilty of this political prostitution, they all applaud whenever a strong politician switches allegiance. However, the ruling party has not taken the formal announcement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, of his defection from the PDP to APC lightly.

Tambuwal has always been a double-edged sword and has fought vigorously for the independence of the House. This has not endeared him to his party. In this respect Tambuwal, the man, must be commended. He has tried to stand up for the truth and has gone against his party whenever he has felt that they are steering the polity off course. This quality is required and must be admired in the House of Representatives. He has spoken his mind and has on occasion criticized President Goodluck Jonathan. For instance, it was Tambuwal who made the “your-body-language-encourages-corruption” statement to the President.

President Jonathan and his party are now ready for a war that would consume Tambuwal’s political career and attempt to render him worthless to APC. His security detail has been withdrawn in a similar fashion to the fate of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and former Governor Murtala Nyako suffered when they defected. Meetings are being held to exploit loopholes in the 1999 Constitution to institute impeachment proceedings against Tambuwal the way the Emir of Kano was tactically removed from office as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. My two cents to Mr. President is that he should tread with caution.  The consequences can be grave in deciding how to tackle this matter if not handled with legitimacy and decorum. The Speaker is fully aware of his own strengths. He is aware of the fact that unseating him could lead to the PDP losing its fragile numerical strength in the House. What a mess all this uncertainty brings!

Section 50(1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution states thus: “There shall be a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.” What party these principal officers should belong to is a matter for their determination. The PDP should not cry over spilled milk when, only weeks ago, they were the beneficiary of cross-carpeting in Governor Segun Mimiko. The people of Ondo State did not vote the PDP into power; they voted for the Labour Party. But the governor defected to the PDP without vacating his office as governor. Why the double standards?  A former APC executive, Tom Ikimi, recently decamped to the PDP to a rousing welcome, so was the case of former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff. What is different now?

    

Had we done the right thing by putting the matter of cross carpeting to bed ab initio in interpreting our constitution correctly, we would not be in this messy situation. Every politician here wants to take advantage of the lopsided advantage presented by this loophole, and now it is overheating the polity and threatening to disrupt civil order. My take on this issue of decamping has not changed: A defector who holds an elective seat is a thief if he/she defects and holds on to that seat. The people should not tolerate it because he/she has robbed the electorate. The courts should have been called upon a long time ago to clarify this. The last attempt by the High Court in Ekiti State to interpret a law, culminated in the court being overrun by thugs and the judge being beaten. And this is Nigeria in 2014!

As beneficiaries of our lax political system, our representatives in the legislative arm of government have refused to tackle the matter from the standpoints of morality, good governance and the law; something they swore to do. If Ondo people wanted a PDP candidate, they would have voted for the late Olusegun Agagu instead of Mimiko. If the Sokoto electorate wanted an APC rep, they wouldn’t have voted for Tambuwal. Ordinarily, mandates cannot be transferred unless an aggrieved party steps down and elections are held to replace him.

Institutionalizing weak institutions will blow up in our faces and will overheat the polity. The President would do well in protecting and tasking the Judiciary to clarify and put his house in order.