Tambuwal fell on his own sword ..... Those talking about members of the house electing their own speaker do not even know that in law you cant rest something on nothing. The house cannot elect or keep a non-member as Speaker. Tambuwal is simply no longer a member of HOR. Similarly, those talking about factions in Sokoto PDP should ask themselves which of the partys structures that nominates federal and state legislators. For the avoidance of doubt, it is the national PDP that issues and signs nomination documents of federal legislative candidates to INEC. Whereas the state PDP endorses that of state legislators submitted to INEC. Claim of factionalization is only valid for a federal legislator if the national leadership of the party is factionalized and INEC was made formally aware of the factions. While the Baraje-Oyinlola factions remained with PDP it was possible for Tambuwal to benefit. But they are all now members of APC and no other faction exists at the national level for PDP. The framers of our constitution delibrately inserted the clause on loss of legislative seat at decampment to avoid a situation where someone is sponsored by one party to make laws in line with the partys ideology and manifesto presented to the people (and on the basis of which the people voted) and he abandons ship to defraud the electorate by supporting another ideology and manifesto. It amounts to 419 on the electorate. Our constitution is clear that only parties sponsor candidates for elections and hence only parties can canvass for votes based on their manifestos. It was on the basis of this underlying constitutional framework that the supreme court awarded the governorship of Rivers State to Rotimi Amaechi who never went to the public to canvass for votes. It was also the basis that our courts ruled that since Omehia was of PDP there was no basis to extend Amaechis tenure given that the party was enjoying the benefit of its victory at the polls through Omehia and later Amaechi. Strange politics made in Nigeria. An honest man will simply dump PDP and elect to lose all privileges associated with the evil PDP. But not this saint of the Federal Republic who for months worked from within to destroy his own political party that sponsored him to office. And now he wants to retain his pecks of office after falling on his own sword of political greed. Nigerians should not permit it because of partisanship or else it will haunt us later. Just like we didnt accept minority PDP members leading Rivers State House with more APC members, (albeit decampees from PDP at a time of PDP state factionalization) we should not permit a minority party leading at the HOR. PDP has a majority at the house of representatives and should enjoy the constitutional benefit of that majority by producing the speaker. Tambuwal is now in the minority party and no longer a federal legislator. The reason why we have developed slowly politically is because of emotional interpretation of constitutional matters. When a breach favors us or those we support we clap. But when it works against us we pontificate and cite the same constitution. Yet if we allow the law to be applied to the letter in all cases we will develop our democratic institutions faster. There is simply no provision in our constitution that says that the Police should wait for the courts to make a pronouncement before accepting the indirect resignation of the Speaker. The onus of going to court rest with the former Speaker if he imagines his rights have been breached. Hopefully, he will not be manipulating the courts to issue an ex-parte injunction because there is no urgency involved in this matter. He took a well considered action knowing the consequences. The House of Representatives can continue running without him until the determination of the case. Please no court should lend itself to being used to sidetrack or abuse the constitution. The Police is one of the institutions established by the Federal government for the protection of rights, enforcement of laws and regulations in the country. Section 214.(1) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution directly makes the police force a creation of Nigerian constiturion just like the National Assembly. The operational guidelines for the police are well encapsulated in the police act enacted by the national assembly. According to the Police Act, the duties of The police includes the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations. The question Tambuwal fans have not answered is whether or not section 68(g) is an enforceable law of the Federal republic of Nigeria. But given that one of the constitutional role of the police remains to enforce the law of our land, and they have done so in this Tambuwal case, one wonders if the noise from various sources is not motivated by partisan considerations only. Asking the police to wait for court interpretation is akin to asking them not to arrest an armed robber until a court directs them to do so. Isnt that a laughable prescription for anarchy? Just this September, The Appeal Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, sacked the lawmaker representing Akure South/North federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Sunday Abegunde for defecting from Labor party to defunct ACN in 2012. His tale of factionalization was dismissed by the lower and appeal courts. Is that not enough judicial interpretation?
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 19:52:43 +0000
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