By Femi Aribisala
The APC did not win any seat whatsoever in the House of Representatives in the
2011 elections. Therefore, it cannot provide the Speaker of the House. Have you ever heard the parable of a man who stole a goat and was arrested and
prosecuted? When brought before the judge, his line of defense was that others
had stolen goats in the past but had not been prosecuted. How does that
absolve him of guilt? The man is a thief, pure and simple. When one talks of the treachery of Aminu Tambuwal’s defection from the PDP to
the APC, his apologists trot out opposition-party legislators and governors that
also defected to the PDP in the past. So what? All such defections are equally
treacherous and morally indefensible. What we have today is the glorification of
treachery for political reasons. The honorable thing for any defecting politician to
do is to resign his or her seat in the legislature and then seek a fresh mandate under the new party through a by-election. Dishonorable politics. In 1983, Abubakar Rimi resigned
as Governor of Kano when he
defected from the Peoples’
Redemption Party (PRP) to the
Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NPP). He
did this because he was an honorable man; a true
progressive. In 2014, Aminu
Tanbuwal defected from the PDP
to the APC but has refused to
relinquish his seat in the National
Assembly. He did this because he is not an honorable man; neither is
he a true progressive. Tambuwal
has been Speaker for four years,
and yet he has not championed
one single piece of progressive
legislation in all that time. With his defection, some busybody parliamentarians with 27.5 million naira to
burn bought the APC nomination papers for Tambuwal so he can contest for the
party’s presidential ticket. Almost immediately, he was touted as a spoiler for
Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential ambitions and was shamelessly courted by
the Tinubu brigade in the APC. Realising that his hopeless candidacy would only
be used to foment problems within the APC, Tambuwal wisely resigned from the contest, forfeiting the millions paid. As a face-saving device to camouflage his signaled readiness to ditch Buhari for
Tambuwal, Bola Tinubu went public to congratulate Tambuwal for deciding not to
contest for the APC presidential nomination. He said: “This sacrifice you have
made will not be in vain. It must be noted by all democrats across the country as
an act of great patriotism.” Trouble-maker Tambuwal This is really neat. Tinubu’s definition of patriotism applies to the APC and not
to Nigeria. Tinubu forgot to mention that while Tambuwal decided not to cause
trouble in the APC; at the same time, he decided to be a trouble-maker at the
national level. Should this man who has the good sense to withdraw as APC
presidential candidate “as a sacrifice for the cohesion and unity of the APC” not
also have the good sense to resign from the National Assembly now that he has defected from the PDP for the sake of national peace and cohesion? Apparently
not! According to the Godfather of the APC, a patriot can be a trouble-maker at the
national level, as long as his trouble-making is in the interest of the APC. That,
in a nutshell, is the crux of the problem with the APC. It is a party of trouble-
makers. The APC does not really believe it can win the 2015 elections.
Therefore, it is determined to cause as much mayhem as possible; even
threatening to create a parallel government when and if it loses the election. The Tambuwal saga is the latest example of APC mischief. The party’s strategy
is to achieve power immorally and illegally. It is a party of treacherous
defectors. It even went to Obasanjo, a former PDP president, asking him to
defect to the APC. Instead of attracting its own membership, it gathers together
a coterie of treacherous defectors. All its presidential candidates have jumped
from party to party. It is now encouraging Tambuwal in his treachery of attempting to defect to the
APC with the position of Speaker. However, the APC remains a minority party in
the National Assembly. The position of Speaker belongs to the majority party.
The APC cannot receive by subterfuge what rightly belongs to the majority PDP. Tambuwal knows he can no longer be Speaker. He knows that APC cannot win
a majority of the seats in the legislature in the coming elections. He knows the
“mago mago” he used to become the Speaker cannot be duplicated in the next
House of Representatives. Therefore, in defeat, he has picked up the
nomination form to contest as Governor of Sokoto under the APC ticket. Show of shame Since this is the new reality confronting Tambuwal, the man should stop causing
trouble and simply resign his seat in the House. But rather than resign, and with
his security detail removed, Tambuwal drove with a convoy of “thugs” to the
National Assembly. This led to a show of shame that was televised and
broadcast to the whole world. The fact that Tambuwal led this brazen display of
lawlessness at the National Assembly shows that he is unworthy of being the number four citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Emmanuel Ojukwu, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police, had this to
say: “The speaker came with thugs, refused to be searched and six of the
hoodlums attacked a police man, after which the police tear-gassed the Speaker
and his riotous crowd so as to restore order. Everybody has seen that
somebody was even beating somebody; somebody was pushing a policeman
from the car. Somebody was removing road blocks mounted by police.” Those “somebodies” are supposed to be Nigeria’s law-makers. In effect, championed by Tambuwal, our law-makers became law-breakers.
Impeded by the police from entering the House, some climbed the gate. The
Speaker himself flouted the directives of the police. He forced his way inside.
Later, in disgrace, he sent his media aide with the statement that: “The honorable
speaker wishes to state that he is a law-abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria who has no immunity against arrest and prosecution.” This is what is called “campaigning after failure to be elected.” The video of his lawlessness
had already gone viral on the internet. Time to resign There is nothing left for Tambuwal to do now than to resign from the House of
Representatives and save Nigeria from all this “wahala” he has created.
Defecting from one party to another is against the spirit and the letter of the
Nigerian Constitution. Section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution says: “A member
of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the
House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political
party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected…” Tambuwal’s name did not even appear on the ballot-paper when he was elected
to the House of Representatives from his constituency in Sokoto. It was the
PDP that was on the ballot. That is how Rotimi Amaechi became Governor of
Rivers State. He was not even the candidate who ran for the office. However,
the courts ruled that he should have been the PDP candidate. Since the PDP
won the election, Amaechi became the Governor of Rivers State even though he did not campaign in the election for the post. The only proviso in the Constitution for Tambuwal to remain in the House is if his
defection to the APC is as a result of a division in the PDP or the merger of the
PDP with another political party, or the faction of another party. This situation
does not exist, except in the imagination of APC supporters. The courts in
Nigeria have ruled that the PDP is not divided and is not bedeviled by any
factions. Everyone in Nigeria knows this in any case. Some people say it is not the business of the executive to determine if
Tambuwal should remain as Speaker or not: it is a matter for the courts.
However, the courts don’t execute laws: the executive does. The Constitution
says if a man defects from his elected party to another party, he automatically
loses his seat. Tambuwal resigned; therefore he has lost his seat. The
executive has implemented that loss. If Tambuwal has a problem with that, the onus is on him to go to court. The
onus is not on the executive. Until the courts say otherwise, Tambuwal can no
longer be a member of the House of Representatives; and someone who is not a
member of the House cannot be the Speaker. We borrowed our political system
from the United States where it is well understood that the Speaker of the House
cannot belong to the minority party. Attempted coup Tambuwal, the Speaker, is APC. Emeka Ihedioha, the Deputy Speaker, is
PDP. This situation is unacceptable, especially given the fact that the mandate
for leadership in the House was freely given by the electorate to the PDP and not
the APC. You cannot have a situation of minority rule, when in actual fact it is
the majority that has the mandate. Indeed, at the national level, the APC is unknown and has yet to be recognized
by the Nigerian electorate. The APC has never presented a candidate to the
electorate at the national level. Therefore, the APC cannot come out of nowhere
to commandeer the major office of the Speaker. These shenanigans have gone
on for too long. The APC did not win any seat whatsoever in the House of
Representatives in the 2011 elections. Therefore, it cannot provide the Speaker of the House. Tambuwal should have known that by resigning from the PDP while hanging on
to the position of Speaker he is bound to generate unnecessary political tension.
If he did not know this before, he knows this now. Failure to resign from the
House now only portrays him as a shameless troublesome opportunist.
Tambuwal needs to redeem his battered image soonest. He should do the
honorable thing and resign from the House without further delay.h


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/tambuwal-law-breaker-supporters/

Femi Aribisala is a Hungry intellectual without integrity

Abiolainfo:
Femi Aribisala is a Hungry intellectual without integrity

Read before you comment.

What is Femi Aribisala

Abiolainfo:
Femi Aribisala is a Hungry intellectual without integrity

He will feed you and your family from his hard earned money - hungry indeed.

HisRoyalHardnes:

Read before you comment.

I don't have time to waste with a non-brainy guy, I've read it b4 you copied it from the source.

Oga Femi, why didn't you tell Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko to resign as the state governor, and advise INEC to conduct another governorship election when he defected to PDP. Sir, you need to be objective in your analysis.

alabiyemmy:


He will feed you and your family from his hard earned money - hungry indeed.

You must be one of those pauper seeking for attention I don't have your time.

adeyemik:
Oga Femi, why didn't you tell Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko to resign as the state governor, and advise INEC to conduct another governorship election when he defected to PDP. Sir, you need to be objective in your analysis.

He is as daft as those who read his article and start using it as a case study e.g Nigeria Police, alabiyemmy etc

there is no other way to say this


please read before you insult the man cos he was not taking sides with PDP...

good to know people are still intelligent in this country...

Femi Aribisala a die hard fan of PDP . Its exactly eight months + that immigration tragedy that takes the lives of about 16-24 Nigeria citizen occur yet Uncle Femi Aribisala is yet to write about it while he is always ready to tackle APC on any slight thing. I guess he did not write about it because his in-direct employee are involved.
@topic, If Femi Aribisala, PDP or any other concern person is not satisfied with Tambuwal as Speaker then they should do the needful by going to court.

adeyemik:
Oga Femi, why didn't you tell Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko to resign as the state governor, and advise INEC to conduct another governorship election when he defected to PDP. Sir, you need to be objective in your analysis.

The law is silent when it comes to the executive, but read with understanding next time because he actually said something about a thief that steals goat and claims innocence because someone else stole goat also. Two wrongs dont make a right, when obj fought atiku for defection the court ruled that the executives are not included in section 68g(I).Is tambuwal right because others have been wrong all this while?

And this says he practises journalism. His bias is so severe and obvious. With all his learning and knowledge, he has nothing to o say about the illegal siege of the Police Force on the National Assembly.

Another Abati in the making..... complete disgrace...

lanrefront1:
And this says he practises journalism. His bias is so severe and obvious. With all his learning and knowledge, he has nothing to o say about the illegal siege of the Police Force on the National Assembly.

Another Abati in the making..... complete disgrace...

He is hungry to get an appointment letter

Osakah24:
The law is silent when it comes to the executive, but read with understanding next time because he actually said something about a thief that steals goat and claims innocence because someone else stole goat also. Two wrongs dont make a right, when obj fought atiku for defection the court ruled that the executives are not included in section 68g(I).Is tambuwal right because others have been wrong all this while?

Mr. Understanding, the problem that we have in the country is we like to turn our eyes away from other action and castigate another when they take the same action.

Where was Femi when 3 senators defected from PDP to SDP in Ogun state? Why did he tell them to resign? Was Femi Aribisala in Jupiter when 4 Taraba state house of representative defected from APC to PDP, why did he come out and tell them to resign.

We should not encourage this illegality in any ramification of our polity. Mr. understanding before you respond to issues, try and flash your brain back to similar happenstance and make objective analysis and criticism.

adeyemik:
[b][/b]

Mr. Understanding, the problem that we have in the country is we like to turn our eyes away from other action and castigate another when they take the same action.

Where was Femi when 3 senators defected from PDP to SDP in Ogun state? Why did he tell them to resign? Was Femi Aribisala in Jupiter when 4 Taraba state house of representative defected from APC to PDP, why did he come out and tell them to resign.

We should not encourage this illegality in any ramification of our polity. Mr. understanding before you respond to issues, try and flash your brain back to similar happenstance and make objective analysis and criticism.

Those are all irregularities that should be condemned, You also know APC was not formed in 2011 so no one actually won any office through the party.

Also, I'm waiting for his editorial concerning the fiasco taking place at the Ekiti House of Assembly.

Or is the issue minuscule it has escaped notice?

adeyemik:
[b][/b]

Mr. Understanding, the problem that we have in the country is we like to turn our eyes away from other action and castigate another when they take the same action.

Where was Femi when 3 senators defected from PDP to SDP in Ogun state? Why did he tell them to resign? Was Femi Aribisala in Jupiter when 4 Taraba state house of representative defected from APC to PDP, why did he come out and tell them to resign.

We should not encourage this illegality in any ramification of our polity. Mr. understanding before you respond to issues, try and flash your brain back to similar happenstance and make objective analysis and criticism.

Hi dude, u dey vex 3 much o.
Sake of dat vex u no Rmemba add Ondo state gov.
May be Aribisala went for medical check up in Europe when Mimiko took the mandate of a whole state to another party and all of them in the party kind of lost their voices to tell him to resign.
They found their voice now that it affects them.
All politicians are rogues.