Tambuwal and the burden of proof

Many political analysts will not blink an eye before saying that while the body of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, may still be considered to be with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, his soul is with the All Progressives Congress.

What many people do not know is that even top government officials accuse the Speaker to his face. A drama played out on Tuesday at the Council Chamber of the Villa shortly before the commencement of the Council of State’s meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The council has Vice President Namadi Sambo as the deputy chairman and all former Presidents and Heads of Government, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; President of the Senate; Speaker of the House of Representatives; all the 36 state governors and the Attorney-General of the Federation as members.

In order to erase the perception that he is anti-Jonathan, especially in the way he was missing state functions attended by the President in the past, Tambuwal did not only attend the council’s meeting but also arrived early enough. He used the opportunity of his early arrival to exchange pleasantries with some of the governors and other council members who also arrived early.

The Speaker was however taken aback by a joke cracked by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim. Tambuwal was exchanging pleasantries with his state governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, who recently defected to the APC alongside four other ex-PDP governors when the SGF approached them.

Facing Tambuwal, Anyim said loudly but jokingly, “Honourable Speaker, I will join you in the fight!”

The Speaker himself did not seem to understand the kind of fight Anyim referred to or he only decided to feign ignorance. Stretching his two hands forward in a manner that suggested that he was innocent, he declared, “Which fight? I don’t know of any fight. There is no fight at all!” The three of them laughed over the matter.

The meeting started at about 10.50am when Jonathan and five former heads of state arrived at the venue and journalists were excused. Less than 20 minutes after, however, Tambuwal emerged from the venue and left for the National Assembly where he presided over a meeting of the House of Representatives.

Trust journalists. The Speaker became a subject of jokes among State House correspondents immediately he left the Villa. They started casting mischievous headlines about him amidst laughter.

Some of the suggested headlines which did not see the light of the day on the pages of any newspaper were: ‘Jonathan orders Tambuwal out of Council of State meeting,’ ‘We can’t trust your loyalty, Council members tell Speaker’ and ‘Tambuwal storms out of Council of State meeting’ among others.

All these are pointers to the fact that many are still seeing the Speaker as only marking time in PDP; it is left for him to prove them wrong or right. The time he will do so may be near of far.

Nyako and the governorship rumble

still on the Council of State meeting, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State created a scene before the commencement of the meeting on Tuesday.

The governor who is popularly called Baba Meimangoro because he is a farmer, openly expressed fear that his Abia State counterpart, Chief Theodore Orji, might poison him.

According to the sitting arrangement at the venue which is in alphabetical order, the two governors always sit side-by-side. They both belonged to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party until late last year when Nyako and four others defected to the All Progressive Party.

No sooner had they taken their seats than the Adamawa State governor declared openly that he was not comfortable with Orji sitting beside him for fear of being poisoned.  He threatened that his people would drag the Abia State governor to court if anything untoward happened to him.

He even went to the extent of asking the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, to change his seat.  Orji, amidst smiles, however wondered why he would decide to poison his colleague now after many years of being together.

At the time Anyim was ready to change the governor’s seat however, some of his colleagues had succeeded in prevailing on him to remain where he was.

There were divergent views by those who witnessed the scene on whether the governor meant what he said or he was only joking with his colleague and “next door neighbour.”

As it stands, it is only the governor that can say whether he was serious with the allegation or not. We hope this will not also become a subject of investigation by security agents who are currently investigating former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claim that Jonathan had placed some politicians on watch list ahead of the next general elections.

Wife of the CDS competing with Jonathan?

president Jonathan on Wednesday decorated the newly-appointed service chiefs with their new ranks. He was assisted by Vice President Namadi Sambo and the wives of the service chiefs.

Those who were decorated with their new ranks were Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu.

By virtue of his new rank, Badeh became a four-star general. Ordinarily, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President is the only five-star general. That created a dilemma during the decoration ceremony.

The anchor of the programme, while inviting the new CDS to approach the C-in-C for decoration, recalled that in the military circle, officers’ wives are always presumed to be a rank above their husbands because of the supportive roles they play in the home front.

If that theory must be followed, Badeh’s wife should be referred to as a five-star general, therefore sharing the privileged rank with the C-in-C. Jonathan did not allow this to pass by without him commenting on it while thanking the officers’ wives for being the pillars of support behind their husbands.

 “Whenever I am decorating military officers, I commend their wives because it is not easy to be barrack-based and for you to rise to this limelight. For Mrs. Badeh who is contesting with me, we will know who is really the five-star general,” the President said as the hall erupted in laughter.