Between Tambuwal And PDP: Can The Speaker Be At The Threshold Of Defection?
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In the wake of the beginning of the third session, the Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, delivered a speech in what many public commentators observed as a call to mature politics. In this analysis, ABDULSALAM BADAMASI captures the Speaker’s central message from the Green Chambers.
It is no good fighting a man whose house is in order, especially when yours is amok. It is still no good trying harder, especially when the pendulum of favourable public opinion swings farther away from you and coasts towards the man you unsheath the sword at. It is worse when that man has, in his kitty an army of over 300 kittens who may not easily be swayed otherwise and while you have, to be generous a little over 20 (or far less) elite force of big cats that are willing to bare their fangs, claws, furs and and all to purr hard for you.
If this man, who presides over the single largest and most diverse political institution west of Sub-Saharan Africa, stood and two years on, still sits tight in there, and got there not because the leadership of his party wanted him there, or did not care who was there, but in-fact worked against him being there. Then, it will be safe to assume that this man, somehow, is on point; he has kept a House traditionally akin to go asunder in one piece and stirred that House towards the script they agreed to abide by at the commencement of their voyage with the first leg of it gone and done.
Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal the Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives , and technically the no. 4 man of the 4th republic delivered a bold speech last week Tuesday at the beginning of the second leg of their term (their 3rd session) as federal lawmakers. The sixteen paragraph speech was both introspective and retrospective, carried within were three central messages; unity-the inspiration found in the collective/togetherness, independence-the defiance to be independent, to dare to repel external forces, no matter how mighty “by choosing our own leaders”, and the willingness to heed past mistakes by acknowledging them, the willingness not to “kill the man inside us by remaining silent”.
On his part, he chose an introspective path; to be non-partisan while challenging the new reigning order that is on a self destruct adventure or just plain naive politics, however, the former is likely. As he would describe, “According to this new doctrine it is a political offense for a member of one political party to exchange greetings with someone in another political party, it is indeed a heinous crime for one to visit, attend the burial, birthday, coronation wedding or any such ceremony of someone in an opposing political party. And then the Speaker rammed it in, the proponents of this shameful doctrine not only offend our sensibilities they constitute an affront on the whole essence of democracy and civilized coexistence and must be halted before they do incalculable damage to our polity.”
To prod further, could this be a blunt referral to the inner wrangling going on in his own party, the PDP? or a broad commentary of party politics in Africa? Again if the former is likely, one may wonder aloud especially when one is not quite following the news lately, that wasn’t the Speaker in company of a high-ranking member of his own party when an attempt was made to “clip his/their wings” for daring a condolence visit to a fellow Nigerian (forget that, that Nigerian is VIP)? That wasn’t clandestine, because he did not “hide”. Oh! that was opposition territory. Kayode plus ACN, do the math.
Speaking truth to power, no matter which side of the fence you sit, is an art that few have mastered and even fewer can muster. Saying it as it is without patronage, and pointing at misdeeds without fear or favour is a classical example of what this speech had sought to do. In what seemed like a tacit reference to what has become the norm since the ushering in of the fourth republic; the deliberate blurring of the distinction between governance and politics. Where both concepts should be polar opposites, however, reverse is the case here, they hold the same meaning for those that have been at the helm of affairs in government ever since. Who stands indicted? Definitely not the opposition.
Tambuwal said “At this juncture I am strongly persuaded to state once again that from the little that we know, there is dichotomy between politics and governance. Thus there is a difference between a candidate in electoral contest on the platform of a political party and an elected official who has assumed a non partisan responsibility and taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution, to serve the people and the nation. While the former is not merely at liberty but under a duty to be partisan, the latter must conduct himself in a manner worthy of the call to non partisanship in governance. Needless to say that generally, whenever partisan interests conflict with national interest it is partisan interests that must be sacrificed in the preservation of the national interest. The oath we take is that of constitutionalism and national service and not of suffocating partisanship.”
On the other hand, power, in this perspective, could also be attributed to the collective, to those that chose him to be there, the Honourable members.
He spoke to them with stern caution, in black and white. “It is also appropriate to remind ourselves that beyond the challenges routine to our functions as Legislators, an even bigger challenge is fast approaching, with a pause as if in reflection, he continued, I am referring to 2015 and the gathering clouds of politicking: first we must resist the temptation to beat the gun, we have an electoral umpire whose gun sound we must await; secondly we must resist being distracted from the execution of our mandate which is only half done and finally but perhaps more importantly we must make a difference by rising against every attempt to cause disaffection among Nigerians.”
Giving room to fair assessment of this House full of newbies, one thing stands out clear; they have, within the space of two years amid tumult been able to carve their own identity, one that is consistent with democratic principles, one that might be frowned upon by peddlers of personalised democracy. This House has remained fiercely independent, if not rebellious depending on how you choose to look at it, or which toga you wear. Tambuwal wasted no time highlighting the merits of the epic battle that gave way to his emergence as the Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives, two years ago in June.
“We can all recall with some level of appreciation that when we started out this journey on 6th of June 2011, the situation looked terribly daunting and unassailable given the myriad of challenges that stared us in the face: we instantaneously found ourselves at the crossroads of decision between law and whims of individuals and cartels, on a critical but all important issue as to who determines for us as an institution who our leaders should be. In togetherness as democrats, we opted to choose our own leaders and God blessed our decision that we were right in our togetherness. It was a decision about institutional self identity not of selfish individual aggrandizement.” Tambuwal said, with sombre reflection.
What is in the open is that Tambuwal, first as a man, then as a Nigerian is battling his own conscience, the conscience of the platform he belongs to, and over the course of his soul search is chaperoning our much needed transition to mature politics, which eventually, will deepen our democracy and enable delivery of mandate. Surely, this is a non-partisan message from someone in government.
Tambuwal is no stranger to jumping sinking ships, he has done it quite a few times and managed to swim ashore with no shine taken off his shoes . This time around, should he choose to repeat those stunts, there is, right within reach a shinny old new ship begging to berth with huge political assets such as the Speaker, Buhari and Tinubu beckon.
