House: Sacrificing unity for power

Tambuwal, Gbajabiamila and Ogor
 

ALLWELL OKPI writes that the tussle for the leadership at the House of Representatives seems to mark the end of unity that has characterised the lower chamber since inception

The House of Representatives of the 7th National Assembly, led by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, has been, unarguably, very united since inception in 1999. But that seems to be changing very fast.

Last Tuesday, members of the two largest parties in the House, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress had a major clash and it was a tussle for supremacy.

The Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, a member of APC, while contributing to a motion, referred to the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, as “Deputy Minority Leader,” eliciting angry reactions from the PDP lawmakers, who moved to attack him. But as if they had anticipated the reaction, fellow APC members swiftly formed a protective ring around Gbajabiamila.

Tension has been on the rise in the House since December 2013, when about 37 lawmakers defected from PDP to APC, giving the opposition party a slim majority of 172 members over PDP’s 171 members in the House.

It is believed that the near-violent showdown merely exposed a division that now exists in the once-united House.

A look at the history of the current House from 2011 shows consistent and remarkable non-partisan unity among the lawmakers.

Past Speakers, from Salisu Buhari, Ghali Naaba, Bello Masari, Patricia Etteh to Dimeji Bankole, never enjoyed the loyalty of their colleagues across party lines the way Tambuwal has enjoyed it so far.

Beginning from the election of Tambuwal as the Speaker and Emeka Ihedioha as his deputy, it became obvious that the House, which was predominantly populated by members of their party, the PDP, was united irrespective of party affiliations.

In electing Tambuwal and Ihedioha, the members defied the wish of the leadership of the PDP, which had zoned the office of the Speaker to the South-West and that of the Deputy speaker to the North-East.

The party and the Presidency had supported the emergence of Mulikat Akande-Adeola as Speaker, but she got only 90 votes as against Tambuwal’s 252 votes.

Since then, the PDP has made several attempts to remove Tambuwal but to no avail. Majority of his colleagues have defended him.

The latest attempt, some weeks before the end of Bamanga Tukur’s reign as the party’s National Chairman, failed because it became very difficult to muster the statutorily required two-third majority required to remove Tambuwal.

At other times, the House had shown unity in many of its resolutions.

In its position on the January 2012 protest against the removal of fuel subsidy; the capital market probe; the probe of the N255m bulletproof scandal involving the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah; and others, the House spoke with one voice, often aligning with a majority of Nigerians.

In the last quarter of 2012, when Gbajabiamila spearheaded an attempt to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan for the poor implementation of the year’s budget, he got the cheer of most of his colleagues, including PDP members.

Also in their protest against the President’s alleged reluctance to sign the bills passed by the House into law, the representatives were united.

But when it came to resolving the issue of the leadership of the House, the unity buckled.

With the PDP insisting on declaring the seats of the defected lawmakers vacant, the conflict is not likely to end soon.

Political analyst, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, said the conflict is connected with the emergence of APC as an alternative party, which has the potential of taking power at the federal level.

Igbuzor, who is the Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, told SUNDAY PUNCH that strife would likely continue till 2015.

He said, “It is likely that what we are seeing is the end of unity in the House of Representatives because of two reasons. One is that the formation of APC has thrown up formidable opposition that has a high possibility of being an alternative government. But apart from that, from the figures we have now, the difference between the majority and the minority is going to be very small. Therefore, the tension between the two major parties is going to increase more and more.

“The fact that election is around the corner will further aggravate the situation. My take is that our legislators must follow procedure and the rule of law. Any party that produces the greatest number of legislators in the House must produce the majority leadership.  Let us not forget where we are coming from. The difference between democracy and military rule is that, in democracy, the will of the majority must be sustained.”

Igbuzor added that the APC may not easily take over the office of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, but should automatically take over the offices of the House Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip.

Also on the issue, constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, said the argument over the leadership of the House was unnecessary since the guidelines stipulate that the party that controls majority of the members of the House should produce the leadership.

Sagay said, “I don’t know the specific procedure which they adopt in the House but once one party controls the majority, automatically, it is entitled to produce the majority leader. That is the law. I suppose it is done by resolutions in the House under the leadership of the Speaker. There should be no argument about it. Once it is established that the former majority party has become the minority, those positions change automatically.”

Sagay warned that the legislators should ensure the leadership of the House does not go the way of the Nigeria Governors Forum, where “the minority is the real governors’ forum while the majority is not.”

“They have to be careful with all this breach of rule of law and enthronement of irresponsibility. People must be ready to surrender power when they lose. It’s not a matter of do-or-die,” he said.

In another dimension, the Minority Leader and Chief Whip of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said apart from the tussle over the leadership of the House, the uncertainty surrounding Tambuwal’s stand, regarding his rumoured plan to defect to APC was causing tension in the House.

He said, “The Speaker has the responsibility to first of all declare his stand; is he in the PDP or does he intend to move over to APC? I don’t think his position as Speaker is threatened. He should make up his mind because the delay is causing tension and was one of the causes of the near-violence the House experienced last week.

“Everybody knows that Tambuwal is sympathetic to APC. Everybody knows that even when PDP was united, it did not have the numbers to remove him as Speaker. I know for a fact that he is respected by members of the APC.  My observation is that he is in spirit with the APC but he is still playing along with PDP. Trying to please both sides will not work. He will end up alienating but sides. It is like trying to make an omelette without breaking the egg. He should take his stand as someone who is ready for politics.”

Mohammed said the Minority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, was right to refer to his colleague, Leo Ogor, as the former Deputy Majority Leader, since APC now commands the majority in the House.

He noted that the reaction that followed Gbajabiamila’s statement stemmed from the tension that was already in the House.

“I hope this will not be the end of unity in the House for the sake of the nation. I hope they would be able to achieve unity of purpose, so as to push the nation forward,” Mohammed said.