The House of Representatives on Wednesday reacted to condemnations trailing the defection of its Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and insisted that he retains his position.
The National leadership of PDP and party satlwarts had condemned the defection of Tambuwal with all of them asking the Speaker to resign from office.
However, the House of Representatives in a reaction through the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Afam Ogene, said the commentators passed their verdicts out of ignorance of the law and the rule governing the parliament.
It therefore asked all commentators to keep away from the internal affairs of the parliament.
Ogene in a statement issued on Wednesday said the law permits the parliament to elect whosoever it chooses, to lead it irrespective of which political party such a person belongs to.
“In the main, many of these commentators, rather than correctly stating what the true position of the law and the House rules are, take delight in advertising ignorance of both, with some even advocating a recourse to anarchy as a way of achieving what they imagine ought to be the ‘solution’ to the issue.
“Following several inquiries by especially; Journalists and some members of the public, it is easy to narrow the concerns to two key issues. One, whether Speaker Tambuwal ought to vacate his seat as Representative of Kebbe/ Tambuwal Federal Constituency, Sokoto State, by virtue of Section 68 (1) (g), of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended; and two, if he shouldn’t step down as Speaker, having defected from the majority party in the House to a minority platform.
“On the first issue, it is common knowledge that following the defection of 37 members of the House in December 2013, from the PDP to APC, there has been multiple court cases on the matter, thus rendering it subjudice to discuss any likely outcome. Everyone is thus enjoined to await final judicial pronouncement on the issue of defection, which has afflicted virtually all political parties in the land.
“Concerning calls for Mr. Speaker to step down from the position which his colleagues freely elected him to on June 6, 2011, we wish to reaffirm – even with the pains of almost sounding monotonous – that the Speakership of the House of Representatives, or indeed, any other national elective position, belongs to the generality of Nigerians, and not the political platforms upon which such leaders emerge.
“While the case of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who as a sitting Vice President, moved to another political party – and did not get judicial reprobation for the act – is still fresh in our memories, the clear provisions of Section 50(1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution easily settles the worries regarding the continued Speakership of Rt. Hon. Tambuwal.
“There shall be a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves,” the above quoted portion of the constitution stipulates.
“It would, therefore, amount to an affront on members’ privilege to question their constitutionally-guaranteed right to freely elect their leader.
“Additionally, Order 1, Rule 1 (2) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives states: “ In all cases not provided for hereinafter, or by Sectional or other Orders, precedents or practices of the House, the House shall by resolution regulate its procedure.
“It is in the light of the foregoing that the House wishes to appeal to those who seek to “regulate its procedure” from outside its hallowed chambers to have a rethink, as the nation’s Constitution, the Standing Orders of the House and precedent – as in the Speakership of the late Rt. Hon. Edwin Ume-Ezeoke in the Second Republic on a minority platform – have all provided answers to what would have otherwise been a knotty political issue,” he stated.
