Tag: KOGI

•Obasanjo-era legislative rascality is alive and well

Lawless lawmakers, using “simple minority” to “impeach” Speakers in state houses of assembly, and the media uncritically parroting such outrage, appeared to have exited with the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency. Not so – and the latest legislative outrage from Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, is ample proof.

In a reckless show, a minority of 12 purported to have “impeached” the Speaker in a 25-member Kogi House of Assembly. But that was even the cold aftermath, when the futility of that action mocked the legislative conspirators.

The original claim, cavalier as it was, reeked of wanton forgery; and grave constitutional infractions. To remove a Speaker, the 1999 Constitution, as amended, prescribed the sanction of two-thirds majority. By simple arithmetic, two-third of 25 is 16.66, rounded to 17. Having somewhat cobbled together a band of 12, the legislative conspirators – not against the Speaker and his principal officers, but against the Basic Law that gave these legislative mimics life – flashed an “impeachment” document, purportedly signed by 17 members, out of which five were conveniently absent!

And in a comical voice vote, sans the mace (the symbol of Kogi Assembly legislative authority), sans the gavel (the Speaker’s rod of authority, which ironically gave way to a hammer to underscore the legislators’ brazen lawlessness), the Conspiratorial 12 “impeached” Speaker Abdullahi Bello and his principal officers! Some impeachment! But to counter this claim and expose the absurdity, the absent five surfaced, via a paid newspaper advert, with the majority of 13 to disclaim the purported impeachment.

Nevertheless, before this unravelling, the 12 had trooped to Governor Idris Wada to pledge their “loyalty”, as if Nigeria’s presidential system is some medieval feudal contraption where every arm of government is at the potentate’s pleasure; and not, at least in theory, a rigorous system that strictly separates power among the executive, legislature and judiciary; and also programmes the three arms to be mutual checks on one another.

Governor Wada ought to be ashamed for lending his high office to such illegality. Even assuming that he had no hand in this legislative affront, that he did as much as receive an illegal Speaker is enough culpability, if the governor subscribes – and every believer in strong democratic institutions must – to the fact that the high office of governor must be without blemish. But it is not too late for the governor to abandon the path of illegality and protect the law, as he swore by his oath of office.

The National Assembly’s intervention, which has led to the Kogi Assembly’s suspension of plenary, has faced different reactions. That intervention is suspect, strictly on the point of law, given Nigeria’s federal system. The National Assembly is no army legislative garrison that can at will shunt aside lower legislative commands and take their place. Yet, on the point of public order, since the House is split 13-12, perhaps some freezing is needed to avert looming chaos. So, it is at best a doctrine of necessity.

But now that chaos has been averted, it is time for the federal authorities, since they control the security forces, to provide enough security for the House to sit. As at now however, the Speaker known in the eyes of the law is Abdullahi Bello. His colleagues have a constitutional right to choose their leader. So, if they want to remove him, they must do it properly and legally. If however the ‘Conspiratorial 12’ feels otherwise, they should proceed to court to stake their claim.

What the federal authorities must not do is conspire to make Governor Wada sole administrator, as they did in the case of former Governor Gbenga Daniel in the 2010 impeachment rumpus in the Ogun State House of Assembly. That would be illegal, culpable and condemnable.