EMMANUEL AZIKEN WROTE: "...House spokesman, Rep. Zakari Mohammed, who despite his sometimes very caustic tone, described Emodi as a very good politician, who brought a lot of experience to her job. “She is quite experienced and in the course of my own experience as a legislator she was one person I had a lot of respect for and of course, she would have added much more value to our democracy,” Mohammed told Vanguard over the telephone". "A legislator speaking on the basis of anonymity said: “She treated many of us especially in the House as a mother and for me any time I wanted to raise my voice on issues, the image of her pleas almost always had an effect on me,” one of the most vocal members of the House told Vanguard at the weekend". "It was as such not surprising that at the end of the second legislative year, the House passed a resolution recognising her as “The Joy of the Villa and the Joy of the National Assembly.” Even before going on its last vacation, the House of Representatives adjourned plenary for one day to enable members fully attend an international seminar organised by her office on fostering good relations between the executive and legislative arms". "So, given the positive dimensions to Senator Emodi’s brief many were as such surprised when the presidency announced the termination of her appointment". "The development, according to many sources, was not unconnected with the increasing hold of hardliners over the presidency. Mrs. Emodi ,by many accounts, had faulted the deployment of an alternative structure outside the recognised leadership in the two chambers". “Emodi’s argument was that it was of no use forming groups to support the president in the two chambers because in her view Mark and Tambuwal were not directly against the president and even at that, it was her argument that any alternative group formed would be ineffectual in pressing through the legislative agenda of the president,” sources disclosed. "The hardliners it was alleged had taken to forming groups purposely to mobilise for the impeachment of Speaker Tambuwal who they believed to be a potential threat to the president’s re-election prospects in 2015. It was in the process of doing that that some of the hardliners reportedly mobilised funds to the tune of $25,000 given to each of the lawmakers supportive of their agenda." Though many of the legislators took the money, it is instructive that last Wednesday and Thursday that motions and bills supportive of the president were either thrown out or withdrawn at the threshold of defeat, a development that supported Emodi’s argument of the ineffectiveness of their tactics. Commenting on the developments in an interview with Vanguard, Mrs. Emodi said: “They said I had a shouting match with Diezani and that was not true. I have never fought with her. I have heard all kinds of things since last Friday but you must realise that National Assembly members are my colleagues. I used to be one of them. I was there as a member of the House and a senator. I was relating with them through dialogue and diplomacy. You don’t achieve anything by fighting.” Her calm nonetheless, the Kawu Baraje led faction of the PDP saw her removal as another faux pas of the Jonathan administration. “We learnt Senator Joy Emodi was sacked as Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters because of her candid advice that inducing members of the National Assembly financially to impeach their principal officers would be counter-productive. If this is true, we hereby demand her immediate reinstatement.” “For Senator Emordi to be bold enough to tell Mr. President the implication of such a corrupt inducement of the lawmakers should earn her commendation rather than a sack. Instead of sacking such a forthright and patriotic Amazon, the President should sack those hawks around him planning to ridicule him by encouraging him to embark on acts capable of making him very unpopular among his supporters and followers.”
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 07:17:25 +0000
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