Confrontation With Mr. President: Reps threaten to bring down the roof

Posted by admin Headlines, House, Legislature Sunday, June 5th, 2011

Examining the issues in the current zoning palaver of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, fresh pieces of information emerging suggest that a cataclysmic political reconfiguration of immense proportions may be shaping up. This has to do with the probability that should Hon. Aminu Tambuwal from the North West geo-political zone succeed in his quest to become Speaker of the House, zoning would have been effectively killed. But the consequences would be such that in a country where there is a very massive appetite for patronage, his speakership would create friction in the polity. This report presents the behind- the-scene intrigues at play.

There would be a collateral damage whichever way it goes.
Just about a week to May 29, 1999, the quest for the Senate presidency became very hot. Eventually, Evan Enwerem, the Olusegun Obasanjo-imposed winner, began what turned out to be one in a long list of removed Senate presidents.

Today, the building blocks for a collapse-bound speakership are being put together by the same Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leadership, with, of course, the same Obasanjo at the centre of the drama.

The party’s decision to zone the office of speaker to the South West, which has just six members in an assembly of 360, is already doing the party in with the plethora of intrigues on display. The oily Hon. Aminu Tambuwal from Sokoto State, in the North West geo-political zone – from where Vice President Namadi Sambo hails – is planning to put a stain on the white garment of PDP’s zoning arrangement. The North West zone has over 20% of the total number of members in the House and the members are all rooting for Tambuwal.
But if the problem was how to contain Tambuwal, who is of the PDP, alone, then there would have been less agro.

The multiple stress that the PDP has put itself are as follows;
The party, firstly, allocated the office to a zone with only six members in the House. That way, even if the zone gets the office of speaker, he would be relying on a home base of just six members. The leadership of the PDP in the zone, made up of Obasanjo loyalists, did not see Mulikatu Akande-Adeola coming.

They were focused on Muraina Ajibola and he was endorsed. Therefore, even before Tambuwal entered the fray, Mulikatu was already flexing her muscle and she has so far proved that she has muscles – she continues to gain incremental support to her aspiration for the office. That is one leg of the battle. The second leg of the battle has to do with what a source described as “unintended consequences on both sides – for the PDP and Tambuwal. But there is a third leg to the imbroglio.

An emissary who was sent by President Goodluck Jonathan to have a talk with House members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, AC N, failed to impress the members. In fact, Sunday Vanguard was told that the members shooed the emissary, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Anyim Pius Anyim.

Anyim was delegated to meet with Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu, the AC N leader. It was believed that the SGF would talk Tinubu into convincing the AC N House members to support the president’s choice of South West, especially since the bulk of AC N’s House members are from the zone. But that appeal to tribal consideration would not move the members. No dice.

Sunday Vanguard was reliably informed that the AC N members disclosed that Tambuwal had already placed on the negotiating table the issue of “true federalism and had also promised that he would do all within his powers, if elected speaker, to force a review of provisions of the constitution through an amendment or other possible means that would enthrone true federalism”.

The ACN members were said to have asked, rhetorically, what either Mulikat or Muraina was bringing to the table? They answered the question: Nothing. But there are more interesting developments going on regarding the tussle for speakership.

In fact, Sunday Vanguard was informed by one of the AC N legislators that the arrow- head of the pro-Tambuwal aspiration is a committee member from one of the states of South South geo-political zone.

In addition, the AC N members flaunted the numerical strength of Tambuwal as one of the reasons their own votes would not be wasted.

Further more, the members said there was already a tar being put on the AC N as a compromising ally to the PDP. “This is not true and you know; that is why we cannot even begin to contemplate any support for a PDP establishment backed speaker in the House of Representatives; at least, as of now, that is not even in our estimation or consideration, at least for now”, an can Representative elect said.

“Doing so”, he said, “would give the people in the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the impetus to cling to their accusation that we sold them out just before the presidential election. We will not allow them have that pleasure at the expense of our integrity to the goodness of the PDP leaders”.

An earlier meeting held with an enlarged group of loyalists to the three front runners, on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, failed to yield any meaningful result.

It was learnt that the meeting, which was at the instance of the Acting National Chairman, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, was designed to make the members of the House accept the zoning agreement.

The meeting, held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, was with both the returning and outgoing members of the House of Representatives in attendance. The meeting was rancourous all the way.

The appeal by Mohammed to the members of the House of Representatives of the need to respect the party’s position and ensure that the decision of the party was supreme, especially with regards to zoning of key political offices, simply turned out to be an engagement with the deaf.

“He told us that, as the Acting National Chairman, it is his duties to ensure that the decision of the party is carried out and obeyed by all”, a member told Sunday Vanguard.

Mohammed also reminded the members of the constitution of the party. That was a blackmail spot which did not hold water with the members. The line of a possible disciplinary committee to summon those pushing against the party’s decision also did not make the pro-Tambuwal supporters shift their position.

What Sunday Vanguard has also learnt is that some hawks within the leadership of the PDP are in the process of exploring the option of a possible suspension of Tambuwal or his outright expulsion from the party.

A source, one of the hawks, who made this disclosure, also hinted that “this is just one of the options being explored but it may backfire because if you expel him from the party, other unsavoury things might happen and we do not need that at a time like this. This is a confrontation. They are confronting the President and Commander-in-Chief and it is not the type of thing that people should do. We have just resumed this tenure.”

Asked why the speaker’s office was allotted to a zone that has just six members, the source simply said, “It has already been done, so members should abide by it. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, has already been appointed.”

But the Tambuwal group has perfected a response to any disciplinary measures by the party (See Cover News).

Then, there is the disturbing matter of the newly elected members, 262 of them, who are also demonstrating that their figure matter and, therefore, would want to have their own people occupy principal offices – only 98 returned among the old members.

On Wednesday, speaker of the House, Dimeji Sabur Bankole, had advised some of the newly elected members at a closed door meeting to tread cautiously and ensure they apply wisdom in appointing their leaders as the end matters a lot than the beginning.

In his response, spokesman of the newly elected members, Abdulmumuni Jubril, said the essence of the meeting “was to rub minds with the speaker and the leadership of the House considering the fact that you have four years’ experience as the speaker and four years as a member, we believe we could tap from your wealth of experience.”

In the Senate, David Mark, may likely be challenged by former Governor Danjuma Goje who was said not to have formally briefed his North East chapter of the party of his interest in the Senate presidency. However, if for any reason the House elects Tambuwal from the North West as speaker, then there would be a lopsided leadership in Nigeria with the North having all of Vice President, Senate President, Speaker and the chairman of the ruling party, PDP, then the Senate might move to salvage the situation by not electing Mark.

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