•IGP Abba must know that playing god with Speaker Tambuwal’s security is a serious constitutional crime
Reminiscent of life imitating art, Suleiman Abba, inspector general of Police (IGP) reminds us of the Ola Rotimi comic play, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again.
The way the IGP flexes muscles he does not have by law, and assumes the security of House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, is at his discretion, is reminiscent of a tragi- comedy. He must snap out of his costly delusion — and fast!
After the unprecedented Police invasion of the National Assembly, the tear-gassing of members and the aborted attempt to keep the Speaker from the House — a clear illegality the Jonathan Presidency quickly disowned, putting the IGP on the spot — Abba’s Police appeared to have eaten crow; and tried to right, through the back door, the outlawry it had committed in the open.
It made it be announced, after Alhaji Tambuwal had emerged the Sokoto gubernatorial candidate of his new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that the Police would now restore his security — not as Speaker, but as APC gubernatorial candidate of Sokoto State. The Police statement even worked the spin that since in 2011 the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) Borno State gubernatorial candidate was assassinated before the election, the Police would avert such a disaster this time round.
Of course, the Police plight was self-inflicted. To justify crass political partisanship, even if the Police, as an agent of the state, should be neutral and fair to every party in a political dispute, IGP Abba tragically misdirected himself by misinterpreting Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution — claiming that since Speaker Tambuwal had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he automatically lost his seat in the House: and by extension, his Speakership.
That was arrant nonsense — and the IGP and his prompters knew it. But even if his stance were correct, it still was not his duty — the mere head of the state’s Police — to seize the constitutional duty of the courts, and start issuing illegal orders.
Still, the IGP did not only do that, to the blemish of his oath of office, he also rudely referred to Alhaji Tambuwal, in front of a parliamentary committee, claiming he did not “recognise” the Speaker.
However, ferocious public opinion, including a powerful intervention by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, unnerved Mr. Abba. That probably forced the Police to announce the face-saving gambit to restore Alhaji Tambuwal’s security as a gubernatorial candidate, until the latest twist that he must apply for it!
But even this has further put Mr. Abba on the spot. Alhaji Tambuwal remains Speaker, de jure and de facto — even after the open criminality of the Police raiding the National Assembly to essay an illegal impeachment; and after the attempted judicial sleight of hand of trying to declare the Speaker’s office vacant, even while the case was on. Both failed.
Indeed, when he House resumed on December 16, the Speaker presided, with the Police, outside those posted to the National Assembly, banished to the first gate of the facility.
So, on what basis might IGP Abba still be withholding the Speaker’s security details, the right of his office by law? It is a monumental insult in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of common sense, in the eyes of decency. Indeed, it is crass outlawry — ironically coming from the IGP, the head of the primary state agency to enforce the law.
IGP Abba must restore Speaker Tambuwal’s security today. The Jonathan Presidency cannot continue to play games with the security of Nigeria’s No. 4 citizen. With all the power at our disposal, we say no to executive impunity against the legislature.
We also say no to the grave desecration of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, of which the legislature is the most prominent symbol. This lunacy has gone on for too long.
