In this report, the trade of words between ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the House of Representatives over the latter’s insistence that the lower House speakership returns to the South-West comes under the spotlight. EDEGBE ODEMWINGIE reports.
The thing in the PDP is that everything should be equitably distributed. The issue of speakership should be addressed because, if not, we will lose greater things. The issue of zoning of secretary; it is ours, not that they zoned it to us. Our priority is to redress the speakership issue first.” Former President Olusegun Obasanjo fired in the latest in yet another swipe on the legitimacy of the speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu waziri Tambuwal occupying the position.
He said in another forum, “the stability that PDP has enjoyed in spite of many odds is substantially based on the sense of belonging engendered by the inclusiveness that the zoning of those offices entails and signifies, and no zone should be insulted by any offer of an unacceptable substitute”.
So, call it another rabble rousing stunt or a pure bluff by the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Obasanjo’s insistence that the position of House Speaker returns to the southwest continues to receive various reaction – mostly knocks.
It has not gone unnoticed. Lawmakers of the seventh House have not failed to mention and act that it and not political parties or other sundry external elements will choose its leaders. But the lower house will choose to ignore the ranting of the retired general at its own peril. The man continues to wield tremendous influence in the party and indeed the polity in general.
Hurricane Tambuwal
Looking back, what probably would have easily been an easy allocation across board, going by PDP existing rotational regime was made complicated by the death of late President Umaru Yar’Adua and the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan as president- in effect forcing a rearrangement of the zoning formula for key offices across board.
In the lower house where the PDP decided to stick with its old zoning regime, the failure of former embattled speaker Dimeji Bankole (South West) to return to the House following his defeat at the April polls further complicated matters, creating series of twists to events.
In an intriguing power play, the South-west, to which the PDP leadership had zoned the House speakership, in June, lost the office to North-west which already had the vice presidency. The ex president is still hurt that his candidate for the speakership of the green chamber, Hon Muriana Ajibola, was rejected, along with another party choice, Hon Mulikat Adeola-Akande, eventually leading to the emergence of Tambuwal and his Lieutenant, Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha. Thus, upstaging the ruling party’s zoning plan for the nation’s six geo-political zones.
Recall that the same Obasanjo had called on Tambuwal, to quit office by 2013 to give room for the zoning arrangement in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Historians were full of praises for the lower chamber for entrenching what they call independence of the Legislature. What may however erode this independence is the emergence of Adeola-Akande as House Majority Leader. The lawmaker who represents Ogbomosho was anointed by Aso Rock precisely by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
Mind your business
The Chairman, House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti/ACN) had harsh words in reaction to Obasanjo’s call. He said the statements were not in consonance with the position of the PDP, and was in direct confrontation with the popular feelings of Nigerians through their representatives in the parliament. “Three hundred and sixty elected members of the parliament, I believe, should be able to determine who their leaders would be. The position of the Speaker is one of primus inter pares, so you must have the confidence of the members of the House that you want to lead, for you to be able to play such a role.”
Bamidele also said Obasanjo was confused in his interpretation of the zoning arrangement. “In one case, Obasanjo said zoning should not be an issue because he supported President Jonathan Goodluck and everybody voted for him (Jonathan). So, at what point did he become so committed to the South-West that he is now talking about Tambuwal to resign in order not to disrupt the macabre dance called the PDP zoning arrangement?
“If anybody will resign because they want to fix the zoning problem in the PDP, it shouldn’t be Tambuwal. He was not the only person who was elected in disobedience of zoning. So, they should go back to the drawing table. Will Chief Obasanjo have called on the president to resign? Would he have called on the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to resign? Would he have asked the vice president to resign in order to fix this problem? So, why Tambuwal?” he queried.
Also, the lower House Deputy Minority Leader, Suleiman Abdurahman Sumaila (ANPP, Kano) accused the ex-president of playing divisive politics capable of undermining the country’s unity.
The deputy minority leader said Obasanjo had no standing to make such clamours in view of his poor showings in his immediate constituency during the last general elections. Under Obasanjo’s watch, Ogun state lost out to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) the governorship election and other positions including the senatorial seat previously occupied by his daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
“Obasanjo is always encouraging regional politics. He brought ethnic and regional politics into the system. I think he is now all out to see a divided Nigeria. He does not want anybody to rule this country again as one indivisible nation.
The MP said obasanjo’s utterances amounted to’ noice’ as the House leadership was not rattled by the utterance of the former president since he does not have the capacity to remove the Speaker or his deputy.
The lawmaker said. “I don’t think the president will achieve anything if there is crisis in the House of Representatives. He needs 241 members to remove the speaker or his deputy they can’t have it either by the guise of South-west or PDP. It is God who made them.”
“This country has done so much for him. He was privileged to be president twice in less than 40 years. He is just making noise since he has become irrelevant now. He is a politician who lost at his polling booth, he failed to deliver at his polling booth not to talk of the his ward, local government and the entire region so it was a vote of no confidence on him by the same people he claims to be championing their course. He has nothing to show back home” Sumaila said.
It is a shut case-PDP
Obasanjo seem a loner in his speakership quest, the PDP Acting National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, said the party has long put the incident of June 6, when lawmakers of the House of Representatives jettisoned the party’s zoning arrangement behind it.
He said the speaker seat, is already sealed as it would not yield to demands to return the seat to the South West in accordance to its zoning principle as demanded by Obasanjo.
“We have put June 6 aberration behind us as all the key actors acknowledged their fault and apologized to PDP and to Nigerians. When a child accepts his fault you do not give them more punishment than it is due to them and they have served their punishment through the apology”, he said.
A recent monitored piece by frontline columnist Idowu Akinlotan sums up the implication of Obasanjo’s speakership posture “On the surface, and given the inadequate examples by opposition parties, the issue of party unity or discipline is paramount in the dynamics of the legislature, whether at state or national level. To that extent, Obasanjo was right to draw the attention of his party, of which he is chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), to the necessity of respecting the rules and regulations of the party.
However, at bottom, what ailed Obasanjo was not party indiscipline, especially in view of his own flexible principles and merciless exploitation of party regulations, but the loss his candidate suffered in the leadership contest in the Reps. The lawmakers must be wary of the persistence of the former president and his ingenuity in stimulating disaffection and revolt in the House of Reps.”
As the House reconvenes today after a long recess, Nigerians are watching to see how it will react to the Obasanjo noise.
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