The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Alhanji Aminu Tambuwal, has said he cannot stop
members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the House from defecting to
other political parties.
Tambuwal spoke in Abuja through the
deputy spokesperson of the House, Mr. Victor Ogene, at the 11th Annual
Trust Dialogue with the theme, “Incumbency and impunity in politics:
Safeguarding our democracy beyond 2015.”
The Chairman, Media Trust, Mallam Kabiru Yusuf, said the discourse was not to heat up the polity, but to add to its quality.
A former President of the Civil
Liberties Organisation, Ms. Ayo Obe; a former Chairman of the Transition
Monitoring Group, Festus Okoye and a senior fellow at the Centre for
Democracy, Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, who at the event, expressed fears about
impunity in the country ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Ogene, who represented Tambuwal at the
event, argued that faulting the Speaker for reading the letter written
by members who defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress
was an “encouragement of impunity.”
“All of us know that no fewer than four
governors had defected from their political parties and issues were not
made out of it. If some members representing different federal
constituencies decide to defect, I don’t think it is right for anybody
to expect Mr. Speaker not to read the correspondence that comes to his
table. He is first and foremost an embodiment and expression of the will
of all members of the House.”
The Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu, who declared the event open, said it was wrong to single out
politicians for encouraging impunity.
According to him, events in the country are a reflection of the character of the nation’s polity.
He said, “If politicians are able to
manipulate the electoral processes with their power of incumbency, it is
because the entire social, economic and political configurations of the
country are conducive for such political corruption.
“If not, an electoral umpire could
resign rather than manipulate the electoral process. A voter could
refuse to trade his or her votes for money. A security agent could
refuse to aid or abate rigging for gratification or reason of ‘order
from above.”He urged the media to shun all forms of harmful propaganda
and hate campaign that serve the political interests of deceitful
politicians.
Ekweremadu assured that the National
Assembly would not “stand and watch a few self-serving fellows truncate
the nation’s democracy. We will continue to take the right steps to
further strengthen our electoral system and curb incumbency
interferences and impunity.”
A former Chief Justice of Nigeria,
Salihu Belgore, who chaired the occasion, said Nigeria made a great
mistake by copying the constitution of the United States.
According to him, no two democracies are the same whether parliamentary or presidential.
“We made a great mistake of copying the
US Constitution when culturally and fundamentally we are different
people. A lot of anomaly exists in our constitution. Our country is
known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is a great misnomer.
“We have Igwe, Obas, Alaafin of Oyo, Oni
of Ife, Emirs, the Sultan of Sokoto and others who are very relevant to
our culture and peaceful coexistence. France is a republic with elected
president. It has its National Assembly with a prime minister with
their constitution clearly defining the role of the National Assembly.
“We must have to look at our past, liaise with the present so that we can build a powerful future,” he said.
Belgore said the problem with Nigeria was corruption, saying some Chief Judges were now romancing with their governors.
“People who should not be lawyers are now made Senior Advocate, it is disastrous,” he added.
Okoye said the present dangers facing
the country ahead of the 2015 general elections were “the empowering of
militant groups and elements, the influx of small arms, the official
backing in oil theft, insurgency and the deliberate and contrived
creation of an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.
“This is self-evident in the acts and
utterances of some incumbents and their cronies suggesting that they
will ‘break the pot’ if they perceive that they may not win the 2015
elections.
“Conversely, there is the desperation of
those that want to be incumbents in 2015 using desperate means and
measures to get to power and they are also ready to break the pot if
they cannot win.”
With the recent events in the country, Obe warned that the season of political violence might be lurking around the corner.
“As we face 2015, it seems as though the
Jonathan presidency has been more engaged in battling local terrorism
gone international in the form of Boko Haram and the issue of political
murder has not regained the heights it attained in the past; but as we
approach the next round of elections, the early alarm raised by the
Northern Governors Forum over the Kwankwaso attack betrays a nervousness
that the season of election-oriented political violence may be stirring
again.
“Particularly now, that in some cases,
it will be possible to hide political assassination under the cover of
terrorist attack,” she said.
PUNCH
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