When leaders act indecorously

By Jide Ajani

Who is the Speaker, House of Representatives, Federal Republic of Nigeria?

Were this question posed to a student of politics, even for POLITICS 101, the straight answer would be AMINU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL.

Sulaiman Abba and tambuwal

The next question then within the context of the serial folly going on around the Speaker would be: On what spirit was the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mr. Abba Suleiman, running when he ordered the withdrawal of the security details of Speaker Tambuwal?

Or better still, why has President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan not ordered the IGP to behave like an intelligent individual befitting of that office?

Well, the answer can be located in the long held belief that leaders are not immune from reckless behaviour.  It is the citizenry that must rise to avert the odium and stench which such acts release into the atmosphere.

For Christians, the book of Proverbs admonishes that “answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him (a fool)”; but the same book of Proverbs, in the next verse, quickly counsels that “answer a fool according to his folly, so that he would not think he is wise”.

The question is:  When is it right to answer a fool at all.

Judging from the response of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since Speaker Tambuwal defected to the All Progressive Congress, APC, it is obvious that good sense and wisdom has taken flight and deserted them all. The leadership of the PDP, along with the IGP, has chosen to answer a fool according to his folly and now they are both seen as total fools.

The reason for this conclusion is simple and straight forward.

Firstly, having dribbled his party and gotten elected as Speaker, Tambuwal moved against the grain of party decision. But the question you may also need to ask is, was the party’s position sensible in the first instance? In a House of 360 members, insisting on zoning the Speakership to the South-west, which had only six members – leaving the members to choose from among just six persons in a plural House – smacks of folly.

But last week, when Tambuwal, expectedly, at least based on his romance with members of APC, defected from PDP, the panic response from the IGP, ostensibly the Presidency and the leadership of PDP, has only served to make Tambuwal the victim of a band of buccaneers.

Rather than allow Nigerians and observers to be divided in the public sphere in judging whether Tambuwal is a saint, victim, usurper or aggressor, the tactless action of redeploying his security details has only served to give fillip to and buoy the image of Tambuwal.

Glibly quoting from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigeria’s IGP said, “Having regard to the clear provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office”.

The affront was signed by one Emmanuel Ojukwu, Force PRO.

Whatever interpretation he was referring to of that Section, only he knows.

But had he taken his time, pain and due diligence to carefully study the Constitution vis-à-vis what Tambuwal did, he would have saved himself and President Jonathan the embarrassment of this clear act in foolishness.  Are Nigerian leaders no longer intelligent or they just like to act silly?

Did Tambuwal tell the IGP or those who gave the instruction that he has resigned as Speaker?

Did he announce that he was stepping down until December 3, 2014?

Was there any private communication between Tambuwal and the IGP to suggest that he did not need the security details?

What Tambuwal has done is to simply, in Lagos parlance, swindle the IGP, the PDP leadership, the Presidency which has not responded appropriately by reversing the order, into boarding a ‘ONE CHANCE’ bus.  A ‘ONE CHANCE’ bus in Lagos is a commuter vehicle used to ferry and dispossess unsuspecting commuters of their belongings, and thereafter pushing them off.

To understand Tambuwal’s game, which should be the concern of the PDP leadership and not this petty dramatization of folly, this is the game plan:

If he picks the ticket of the APC as guber candidate in Sokoto State, he can choose to resign as Speaker but it all still depends on some factors too.

If he doesn’t get the ticket of his party, he naturally is qualified under the Constitution, to stay in office as Speaker.

Even if he wins the ticket of his party, he can remain Speaker without resigning – the law guarantees that for him. For the avoidance of doubt, Tambuwal remains the Speaker until the House resumes on December 3, 2014.

With due respects to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, where was Abba when he decamped to the PDP? Was Abba out of the country or was he inebriated as to spontaneously issue an oder for the redeployment of his men from Mimiko’s office? If Abba could do this to Tambuwal, after just a few months in office in an acting capacity – just to obey, rather unintelligibly, in order to please those who would confirm him – what should Nigerians expect from this man.

To remove Tambuwal as Speaker, the PDP would need 240 members of the House.  Getting that number would be difficult but not impossible.

But unfortunately, with this shambling and shambolic response from otherwise responsible people, getting that number, especially with the public angst against this affront, would be impossible.