The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is no stranger to intrigues and manoeuvres. His ascendancy to the exalted position of Speaker resulted from calculated intrigues and astute coalition building. The Gramscian coalition he built across party lines not only gave him victory, it also enabled him to maintain a hegemonic hold on the House even at moments of crisis.
However, by defeating the establishment candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, from the South-West, Tambuwal screwed up the party’s zoning formula and even angered some politicians from the South-West. No wonder the PDP leadership never forgave him for it nor did it ever overlook his romance with minority parties, especially the All Progressives Congress, and his occasional critical comments about President Goodluck Jonathan. As far as the PDP is concerned, Tambuwal is like the proverbial fellow, who robbed himself with flammable oil. All that was needed to roast him was open flame.
The flame the PDP had been waiting for came when Tambuwal finally announced his switch from the PDP to the APC on October 28, 2014. Never mind that party switching has become a standard election time pastime, from which the PDP has benefitted. Yet, it was quick to demand Tambuwal’s resignation, while His Master’s Voice, the Nigeria Police, quickly withdrew his security details. Tambuwal went to court to stop them. And the court gave a nebulous maintain-the-status-quo order, which lawyers on both sides interpreted to suit their case.
Tambuwal’s defection and subsequent events raise four major issues about Nigerian politics and political culture. First, it demonstrates the ignorance of many a politician, some highly placed, about the nature of our presidential democracy. Here is someone who was elected to be their Speaker with the majority of votes by his fellow legislators in a free, fair, and peaceful election. How can one political party demand his resignation all because he switched parties?
Some of our politicians ignorantly invoked the American presidential system, which we copied. But there are significant differences between the two systems in regard to the leadership of the Senate and the House. In the American system, the Vice-President is the President of the Senate, regardless of which party has the majority in the Chamber. Moreover, the majority party in the Chamber elects one of its members as the Majority Leader. Similarly, it is the majority party in the House of Representatives that elects one of its members as the Speaker.
Compare this to the Nigerian system in which the election of the Senate President and the Speaker is open to all members of their respective Chambers. In this situation, no single political party can demand the resignation of either officer as the PDP has demanded. This leaves the PDP with either of two options: Either Tambuwal is impeached or he forfeits his membership of the House by voluntary resignation or by being removed by the court. The former requires the votes of two-thirds of members of the House, while the latter requires the PDP to prove that there is no division within the party to justify Tambuwal’s switch to another party as required by the constitution. Of course, Tambuwal would be foolish to resign, when he has committed no offence whatsoever.
Knowing full well that the PDP could not get its way with either option, it seems to be relying on presidential powers. Why the PDP cannot remove Tambuwal as Speaker is well known. It is equally well known why it should not even seek to do so. For one thing, there are many members of the House and the Senate who have switched parties in the same parliament, but who continue to retain their seats. Moreover, it is morally wrong to require those who switch from the PDP to other parties to lose their seats when the seats are cushioned for those who switch from other parties to the PDP.
This leads to the second major issue: In Nigeria, presidential politics is the politics of power. Not just executive power, but absolute power. In short, the Nigerian President is Power Almighty. Everything is in his pocket, from the treasury to the security services. True, power is recognised more in its abuse than in its lawful exercise, the problem with Nigerian Presidents is that they abuse their powers much more often than they lawfully exercise them.
Who does not suspect that the President has been pushing several remote buttons, all aimed at upstaging Tambuwal? As if the withdrawal of his security details were not enough, he was prevented from entering the House Chamber the other day to attend to a matter the President himself requested – the extension of the state of emergency in the North-East.
The action of the police on that day leads to the third issue and raises several questions. Who instructed the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abbah, to approve the actions of his subordinates? If the President did not know about those actions, why did he not condemn them publicly? Is it true that the Police demanded the maze, the symbol of the Speaker’s authority, on the eve of the emergency meeting into which the Speaker was prevented entry? Is it also true that the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, was allowed entry when the Speaker was being prevented?
This leads to the fourth issue – the image being created about Nigeria by the Tambuwal saga. What message is being sent out to the international community by legislators climbing fences and the Speaker being forcibly guarded by fellow legislators through a section of the entrance that they had to break down themselves? Do the Presidency and the PDP leaders realise that they are implicitly desecrating the Presidency and the country’s image by orchestrating a variety of shenanigans in desecrating the position of the Speaker?
Finally, how do Jonathan’s handlers think that shaming Tambuwal will enhance Jonathan’s reelection? Will voters from Sokoto, Tambuwal’s home state, and others from across the country, who are disgusted with all the shenanigans, be eager to rush to the polls for Jonathan on polling day?
If Jonathan truly has the qualifications for reelection as Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria and Protectors of Nigerian Posterity have been telling us, why mar those qualifications with the show of shame associated with the Tambuwal saga?
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