Tambuwals seat is vacant I have read with dismay reports on the debate about the status of the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives since Hon. Aminu Tambuwal defected to the All Progressives Congress on Tuesday. I think it is absurd to propose that a member of a minority party could hold the position of the Speaker under a constitution governed by the principle of majority rule. For if that were possible a minority party member would have been the leader of the House. In any case, the entire debate is redundant since Hon. Tambuwals seat has become vacant as a result of the operation of Section 69(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. Hon Tambuwal, a lawyer, ought to have known that that section of the constitution is self activating and that its proviso does not apply to him. The proviso talks about division within the decampees party. The question is: as at Tuesday when Hon. Tambuwal defected, was there a division within the Peoples Democratic Party? The answer is no. His seat has become vacant and his claim to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives is no longer tenable.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 18:22:20 +0000
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