What is the National Assembly? How do you get there? It is an assembly of political leaders elected from their constituencies. It is not an assembly where you always pat each other’s back and hug each. It is a place to contend and canvass interests, so conflicts will naturally arise from time to time. It is not unusual to have fisticuffs there, and this happens in every parliament. It is not the business of government that there could be anarchy there. They created the impression that some people were allowed to get in while the gate was shut on some people. That was wrong. It is their office. It is not for the police to begin to anticipate that there could be crisis. It is an assembly of disharmony and harmony, of crises and peace, of idiocy and anything. It all depends on the issue in discussion. That is not the police business. So the police were wrong. Even if the police had reasons to take action, the way they went about it created the problem. They should have closed the gate, allow members to get in and keep away non-members, even if it means keeping away some categories of staff, at least for that day. Let them go in there, fight and box, it is not the business of the police. Parties have processes and traditions. There is a difference between a party function and a government function. Government functions are full of officialdom and red tape. When you are in a party function, such as congresses and conventions, whether you are the president, vice president, senator, member of the legislature or governor, you are there first and foremost as a party man. Therefore, you should be able to bring the power, aura and charisma of the office down to the level of the other party men and women and youth, the party grassroots, in such a way as to make them feel this is mine. The party grassroots must feel today is my day. You must connect to them because it was from there that they sent you to your high office, and when you finish your tenure, you must return to them. When you appear among them they feel elated, that that thing which is up there, which I sent up there is now among us today. It gives the party a lot of cohesion. Many people make the mistake of erecting too many barriers and subject the ordinary party members to hardship just because the people they produced in public office are around. That is wrong. If you annoy the people, they can walk away. In fact, they should walk away if they are harassed too much. I make sure that fellow party members are respected. I give them their due courtesy, and I give them a sense of belonging to the party and to me. I see it as a family reunion. And that is why at the end of the function, there was no rancour. Rather, everybody went home happy and feeling part and parcel of their party. What you saw today was part of the tradition of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and that is what we have entrenched here in Jigawa State. Sule Lamido
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:01:50 +0000
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