There is a festering sore in Rivers State that is threatening to become an epidemic. It started effectively on October 29 when a part of the State House of Assembly was bombed and it caught fire. This followed the move made by 24 members of the State House of Assembly to impeach the State Governor, Mr Siminalayi Fubara who was just five months old in office then....CONTINUE READING
Many people wondered what the Governor could have done within such a short time to merit being pursued with the koboko of impeachment. Impeachment is supposed to be the punishment for “gross misconduct” but in Nigeria it has been converted into a frivolous instrument for settling cheap scores. Since that October date, the state has moved from one messy situation to another, giving the impression that insanity was about to take over the state.
Now 27 of the PDP lawmakers have crossed the carpet to APC and are making laws from the auditorium of the Assembly quarters since the State Government has recklessly demolished the State House of Assembly or what was left of it. The lame excuse for the demolition of the building is that the integrity of the building may have been affected by the bombing. But opponents of the government think that the demolition was done to prevent the lawmakers from meeting in plenary to impeach the Governor. That is a stupid excuse because right now the G27 and G4 are meeting in different places.
The G4 met at the Government House and with the speed of lightning they passed the state’s 2024 Appropriation Bill into law. With an Usain Bolt speed, the Governor also assented to the bill. Whether a bill passed by just four parliamentarians out of 31 can be legitimately and legally accepted as lawful is another matter.
On the other hand, the G27 fellows have been churning out bills from their make-shift legislative chamber. But the question also arises whether the bills passed by legislators who have crossed over from the party on which they were elected to a party on which they were not elected can be considered to be validly passed or not. And even if they are validly passed would it not be a sheer waste of time if the Governor withholds assent, rightly or wrongly, to them?
The two parliaments are probably illegal contraptions right now and therefore useless to themselves or to the State Government or to the people of Rivers State. That situation creates a super messy situation which does not help the gladiators either.
At the last count, 10 Commissioners had resigned from the State Executive Council, leaving nine commissioners to slug it out as Fubara struggles to run a government without a parliament and an Executive Council that has been deeply depleted. This situation has thrown the state into a tailspin.
This godfather/godson brouhaha is not new. It has occurred in several states since 1999 and right now it is hanging fire in Edo and Ondo states, where the governors and their deputies are slugging it out and causing needless tension in those states. The frequent friction between godfathers and godsons, mentors and mentees is a vivid evidence that our democracy is built around men, not around institutions.
Godfatherism in politics and governance is anti-majoritarian rule, a degradation of the voting power of the people, a desecration of the concept of followership and the ascendancy of political brigandage. If we do not stop its flowering, our democracy will continue to remain a pygmie, short, stunted and sleepy.
Carpet crossing is another incurable disease that is eating into the fabric of our democracy. Even though the Supreme Court has made some pronouncements, which ought to discourage politicians from jumping like gymnasts from one party to another, they are still making it a routine transaction.
The law is that if a legislator decamps to another party, he loses his seat except where there is a division within the party. From every available evidence, there is no division within the PDP in the Rivers State. The G27 fellows therefore have to prove that they deserve to retain their seats in the Assembly, otherwise INEC will have to declare their seats vacant and conduct fresh elections.
Part of the electoral reforms that many Nigerians are asking for is that carpet crossing must be severely punished in order to breathe discipline into our politics and governance. There are three scenarios where people cross carpets: (a) when a candidate loses, or is schemed out in the primaries of his party, he decides to leave and search for another political party platform on which to contest the election. (b) When a politician in an opposition party loses an election, he may decide to cross over to the ruling party where he thinks his chances of electoral success may be brighter. If he doesn’t have the opportunity to contest, he may get stomach infrastructure as compensation (c) When a politician wins an election in an opposition party, he may cross over to the ruling party to solidify his situation in preparation for the next election.
This Rivers’ example of decampment does not fall into any of the three scenarios listed above. They decided to cross carpet simply to satisfy the whims and caprices of their godfather or mentor who allegedly sponsored their elections. This may be seen as evidence of loyalty, loyalty to friendship, loyalty to godfatherism.
But it is also disloyalty to the party that provided the platform for them to use in contesting the election. It is equally disloyalty to those who voted for them because some of them may have voted for them because of the party on which they contested the election. Did they consult their voters? Did they receive their consent to leave the party on which they contested the election or did they think that since the election is over, the voters do not matter any longer. That is taking the voters for granted.
There are several questions for which answers must be provided in this Rivers’ affair. One of them is, can an Appropriation Bill passed by only four legislators in a parliament of 31 be acceptable even if it is assented to by the Governor? If it is not acceptable, how is the Governor expected to operate without a budget and without the enablement to execute the duties of his office?
The view is being expressed that the G-27 fellows are planning to resurrect their plan to impeach the governor. Some questions have arisen: Can they lawfully impeach the governor in a place outside of the parliament building, which has now been demolished? Are the seats of the 27 legislators still intact even though they have changed parties or are their seats vacant now? If their seats are vacant will the four remaining members be considered as constituting a complete parliament that can pass laws for the state? These are questions that ought to be urgently resolved maybe through the law courts so that things do not get out of hand.
Before the demolition of the parliament building, some gunmen had reportedly attacked the residence of Edison Ebie, the G4 Speaker who was reportedly recognised by the court last week. The gunmen were reportedly led by a senior police officer.
Also, when the governor went to inspect the House of Assembly building after the bombing, there were reports that some apparently compromised policemen were shooting to scare him away from the premises. The governor claimed that it was an assassination attempt at him. The police have an enormous responsibility to bring stability to the state, which always has a high dose of volatility ordinarily.
They must demonstrate a high sense of professionalism and impartiality. Any dose of partiality is capable of setting the place aflame.
Several people have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene on the matter even though he had done so some weeks ago. But things have deteriorated since he met both parties in Abuja.
Twenty seven parliamentarians have decamped to the President’s party, APC. What is he supposed to tell them? Should he tell them to go back to their original party, the PDP or he should welcome them with open arms? The Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, did the President a favour by getting Rivers people to vote for him even though they were in opposing parties. That has brought Wike and the President closer. That closeness puts the President between the rock and the hard place.
But statesmanship prescribes that Tinubu should pluck up courage and tell Wike not to put Rivers State, that he governed for eight years on fire because of his desire to rule Rivers by remote control. The elders and youths in Rivers State should not stand and stare while the state is burning instalmentally. No one person owns Rivers State. Every Rivers person owns it.
The state belongs to everybody who comes from there. It will be the failure of followership if the citizens should allow one or two persons by whatever name or designation they are called, to bring destruction to the state. Now is the time to act. Please act now.
