Tambuwal is still the Speaker – Reps

 The House of Representatives on Wednesday reacted to cacophony of condemnations trailing the defection of its Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and insisted that he retains his position.

The National leadership of PDP, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and a host of other PDP stalwarts had condemned the defection of Tambuwal with all of them asking the Speaker to resign from office.


However, the House of Representatives in a reaction through the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Afam Ogene, said the commentators passed their verdicts out of ignorance of the law and the rule governing the parliament.

It therefore asked all commentators to keep away from the internal affairs of the parliament.
Ogene in a statement issued on Wednesday said the law permits the parliament to elect whosoever it chooses, to lead it irrespective of which political party such a person belongs to.

“In  the main, many of these commentators, rather than correctly stating what the true position of the law and the House rules are, take delight in advertising ignorance of both, with some even advocating a recourse to anarchy as a way of achieving what they imagine ought to be the ‘solution’ to the issue.

“Following several inquiries by especially; Journalists and some members of the public, it is easy to narrow the concerns to two key issues. One, whether Speaker Tambuwal ought to vacate his seat as Representative of Kebbe/ Tambuwal  Federal  Constituency, Sokoto State, by virtue of Section 68 (1) (g), of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended; and two, if he shouldn’t step down as Speaker, having defected from the majority party in the House to a minority platform.

“On the first issue, it is common knowledge that following the defection of 37 members of the House in December 2013, from the PDP to APC, there has been multiple court cases on the matter, thus rendering it subjudice to discuss any likely outcome. Everyone is thus enjoined to await final judicial pronouncement on the issue of defection, which has afflicted virtually all political parties in the land.

“Concerning calls for Mr. Speaker to step down from the position which his colleagues freely elected him to on June 6, 2011, we wish to reaffirm – even with the pains of almost sounding monotonous – that the Speakership of the House of Representatives, or indeed, any other national elective position, belongs to the generality of Nigerians, and not the political platforms upon which such leaders emerge.

“While the case of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who as a sitting Vice President, moved to another political party – and did not get judicial reprobation for the act – is still fresh in our memories, the clear provisions of Section 50(1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution easily settles the worries regarding the  continued Speakership of Rt. Hon. Tambuwal.

“There shall be a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves,” the above quoted portion of the constitution stipulates.

“It would, therefore, amount to an affront on members’ privilege to question their constitutionally-guaranteed right to freely elect their leader.

“Additionally, Order 1, Rule 1 (2) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives states: “ In all cases not provided for hereinafter, or by Sectional or other Orders, precedents or practices of the House, the House shall by resolution regulate its procedure.

“It is in the light of the foregoing that the House wishes to appeal to those who seek to “regulate its procedure” from outside its hallowed chambers to have a rethink, as the nation’s Constitution, the Standing Orders of the House and precedent – as in the Speakership of the late Rt. Hon. Edwin Ume-Ezeoke in the Second Republic on a minority platform – have all provided answers to what would have otherwise been a knotty political issue,” he stated.

However, the PDP on Wednesday vowed to recover the leadership of the House of Representatives from Speaker Aminu Tambuwal.

PDP National Vice Chairman, South South, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, who gave his party’s position on the matter, told journalists at the PDP National Secretariat that the party would employ every constitutional means to unseat Tambuwal.

Ojougboh also said the party would recover the Rivers State governorship in 2015 and speculated that Governor Rotimi Amaechi would go on self-exile to Ghana before May 29, 2015.
He said:  “PDP is a disciplined party. If you come and steal in the PDP and use the PDP to elevate yourself and get into office, when the time comes, God will get you out like the issue of Aminu Tambuwal. You can see how God has exposed him.
“PDP will do everything within the law to regain its seat and that is what we are going to do in Edo and Rivers states. We are going back to South South to regain our seats,” he stated.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday met with the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and some of the party’s governors and leaders of the House of Representatives, on how to respond to the defection of House Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
However, the meeting in the President’s office ended with none of the participants willing to speak to the press.
It was however gathered that strategies on what next steps to take in the circumstances were thrown up for discussion.
Led by the PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, others who attended the meeting were Chairman of PDP Governors Forum and Akwa-Ibom state governor, Godswill Akpabio; Governors Seriake-Dickson (Bayelsa); Gabriel Suswam (Benue); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu).
Also in attendance were the Deputy Speaker of the House, Emeka Ihedioha; Deputy Leader of the House, Leo Ogor; Chairman, House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu; and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke.
In another development, Tambuwal has bemoaned what he called institutionalised corruption in the polity under the control of the PDP in the last 15 years.
Tambuwal who spoke Wednesday after he was officially admitted as member of the APC at the Extraordinary Non-Elective National Convention of the party noted that apart from corruption, PDP has failed in addressing issues of youth unemployment and insecurity.
Asking Nigerians to reject PDP, Tambuwal stated that with the support of the electorate, PDP would no longer be in office as from May 29 next year.
His position on the failure of PDP government was re-echoed at the event by the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun who described the PDP government as a complete failure.
Tambuwal in his short speech explained that Nigeria only needed a change of leadership to achieve its target goals  pointing out that the PDP failed to provide purposeful leadership, hence his decision to quit the party.
Odigie-Oyegun while presenting his address at the 2014 Extraordinary Non-Elective National Convention of the party carried out a critical analysis of all the sectors of the national life and asked Nigerians to vote out the PDP government in next year’s general election.
He explained that on issues of the economy, security, health, education, tourism, technology and even management of the doctrine of separation of power, the PDP performed abysmally.
Asking Nigerians to reject the PDP government, Odigie-Oyegun cited examples with what he dubbed “sterling quality governance” existing in Lagos and Rivers states, adding that the achievements of governors of other APC-controlled states, speak volumes.
The high point of the convention was the formal admission of Tambuwal to the APC