Date Published: 02/24/10

“YAR’ADUA ABSENCE: APPRAISING THE LEGISLATURE” By Akindele Lawson Femi and Kunle Olukolo

While every well meaning Nigerians are grateful to God for the tentative steps to resolve the constitutional crisis that stared the nation in the face following the illness and absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua from office, and are working towards a stable polity in all arms of government, some faceless and unpatriotic Nigerians are working to cause disunity, disaffection and instability within the polity and disunity between the two chambers of the federal legislature responsible for providing solution to the logjam.

It is in this light that one can situate some recent the write-ups aimed at ridiculing and bringing to opprobrium the leadership and members of the House of Representatives. The pedestrian write ups that equally purports to assess the role of the two chambers-Senate and House of Representatives- also did a hatchet job of condemning Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole on his alleged role in resolution of the unending constitutional crisis while the Senate President, Senator David Mark was praised to high heavens for his own role in the Senate. We want to believe that this is not indicative of the source of this unpatriotic write ups.

Indeed anyone is free to hold opinion based on his right or wrong perception of reality or self interest. In this instance, we think wrong perception and self interest are involve in this skewed analysis and there is need to place on record issues as they really are instead of playing to the gallery, which seem to be the past time of those behind this divisive plot.

The position of the House on the absence of President Yar’Adua from office has always been that due process, constitution and rule of law should be followed instead of playing to the gallery like passing meaningless resolution to FORCE an ailing president to do what he was apparently incapable of doing at the point of departure from the country. This was inspite of the fact that there was no compulsion in Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution on the President. This is how one sees the initial resolution of the Senate in relation to Section 145. In any case the resolution never resolved the crisis as it could not be enforced as was proven later.

On the other hand, the House under Bankole did not see any merit in passing a ‘useless’ resolution. And overwhelming majority voted down a similar motion after Bankole has ensured that all the rules of the House were waived for the motion to be debated as a matter of urgent national importance dated. Indeed, Bankole stood his ground against 14 point of orders against the motion for it to be heard. Alas it was defeated democratically. In its place the House was proactive in finding solution to the problem of section 145 arising from the President inability to transmit a letter to the National Assembly.

 In contrast to the Senate and its leadership, which prefer to treat eczema while leaving leprosy, the House immediately proposed a bill to amend section 145. The bill titled “ A bill for an act to Amend the Constitution to make provisions for Vice President and Deputy Governors to assume and discharge the functions of the President and Governors during their absence and temporary incapacitation and matter connected therewith” was sponsored by Hon. Abdulrahman Kawu (ANPP, Kano) and 33 others members. To show the seriousness of the House in finding a lasting solution, it rushed the bill through first and second reading and committed it to the House Committee on Constitutional Review under the Deputy Speaker Alhaji Usman Nafada Bayero for further and conclusive legislative action. This was days before the resolution to make Vice President Acting President on February 10,2010. A public hearing has already been organized for stakeholders to make contributions and the bill passage is assured. Interestingly, while all this was going on, the Senate President was proposing a need to amend section 145 and its own version of the amendment is still at second reading stage as I write!

And while the general public may see the resolution of the National Assembly making the Vice President Acting President as organic, it is to be noted that the two chambers arrived at the same conclusion through different route. While the Senate ‘constructed’ the BBC interview of the President to the mean a “letter of transmission”, the House of Representatives based it resolution on “the constitution and judicial pronouncements.” It is interesting to know that on this score what the author is praise-singing the Senate for were the very grounds on which at least four legal suits have been instituted challenging the “construction” of Senate on what amount to transmission. So far none of the suits have challenge the grounds of the House resolution even while wrongly joining the House as defendant in ‘sin’ of Senate.

Of course, the writer was not really interested in looking at the merit of the case of the House and the fact that it is easier manipulating or coercing 109 members in the Senate into passing “useless’ or problematic resolutions than manipulating a whopping 360 members by Bankole as the writer alleged. His sole aim was to attack Bankole, make him look like an enemy of Acting President while the Senate and its leadership are painted as friends even if fair weather friend. It is also on record as reported in some newspapers that it was Bankole who galvanized the Governor’s Forum on the need to support the Vice president to become Acting President through a meeting he held with Governor Bukola Saraki and four other governors in his residence. This was to snowball into the National Assembly resolutions

 However, it will be recalled that even when the Professor Wole Soyinka “Save Nigerian Group” came visiting the National Assembly, the Senate and its leadership refused to see them and it was Bankole that deem it fit to leave the plenary he was presiding over to the meet the group. The writer has wrongly alleged that Bankole is a hostage to “the northern agenda” and spurn “his people of the Southwest” who the writer claimed “did support his candidature for House Speakership”. This blatant lie can easily be punctured as Bankole was supported and elected by an overwhelming majority of the House from across all political parties and all geopolitical zones. Only a negligible minority of 20 out of 360 voted against his candidature. Bankole from his Pan-Nigerian mandate will always support issues on the basis of national interest and is open to advice from all sections of the country leadership and political spectrum as he is not Speaker of a section but Speaker of Nigeria.

And indeed Bankole and the House leadership were one of the very first groups to visit and pledge cooperation and support for the Acting President. Those playing to the gallery can continue their chicanery but Nigerians and posterity will record those who are traitors, betrayers of goodwill and those ready to stab their benefactor in the back for political gains and selfish power calculations in disregard of the constitution.

Akindele Lawson Femi               Kunle Olukolo (Publicity Secretary)

Coordinator,

Nigerian Youth Awareness Initiatives

Suite 42-44, Kazan Plaza

College Bus Stop, Ikotun Lagos

08035480885