Between December 29 and 30, 2016, the Abia State House of Assembly was the centre of intrigues as the legislators first impeached their speaker of 18 months, Mr. Martins Azubuike and elected Mr. Kennedy Njoku in his stead. But within 24 hours, Njoku himself resigned paving the way for the election of Mr. Chikwendu Kalu as his replacement. Interestingly, the change occurred on a day the State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu presented the 2017 budget estimates to the Assembly. Vanguard sought explanations on the developments from a key player in the drama, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Cosmos Ndukwe. Excerpts:

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

MANY Abians and  indeed, Nigerians would want to know what led to the impeachment of former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Martins Azubuike

The real reason members moved against the leadership of Hon. Martins Azubuike was loss of confidence in his ability to continue as Speaker of the House of Assembly in Abia State.

You see, his rejection cuts across both parties. We have two parties in the House: the APGA and PDP. So, members individually and collectively expressed concerns relating to his style of leadership and they explained that his style of leadership was annihilating more than it united members. And the truth again is that the impeachment of December 29 was not the first, the second or the third attempt at removing him.

Cosmos Ndukwe

Legislative  demands

Many people who were trying to paint it or embellish it to look, with a whole lot of sentiments that the governor is to be removed next as being brandished by Ukwa/Ngwa bloc; are just far from the truth.

Some allege Governor Okezie Ikpeazu masterminded the impeachment. Is it true?

It is important to know that we have 24 members in the House of Assembly. And all of us are qualified to be Speaker. At any time, the members of the House would prefer to entrust the leadership in the person who they think would eschew arrogance, autocracy and demonstrate inclusiveness in his approaches of welfare and other legislative demands. The governor is totally and completely out what happened in the House of Assembly. If the governor was involved  one way or the other, it would have been 24 over 24 because all of us love the governor and we would do his bidding any time.

The new speaker elected from Osisioma Ngwa constituency barely 24 hours after his election also resigned. Was that a matter of choice or was there some kind of pressure on him to resign?

Hon. Kennedy Njoku who replaced Martins resigned and said it was for personal reasons. But to tell you the truth, his resignation may have been in line with PDP’s respect for equitable sharing of power. Njoku remains committed to the development of the House and he said so even on the floor of the plenary, showing that he was not cowed.

So, what really happened, to tell you the truth, was that Njoku comes from the same federal constituency with the governor and senator Abaribe. That’s Obingwa, Ugwunagbo and Osisioma federal constituency. So, from the PDP laid down procedure for the equitable sharing of power as arranged, we realise that we conducted it in a hurry. It would have meant that the whole bloc of Isiala Ngwa North and South would be totally out of position in the state and that’s not too good.

You were part of the Martins Azubuike’s leadership as Deputy Speaker and within 24 hours deputized three Speakers. Now you are accusing Azubuike of arrogance and all that. Would you say there was no love lost between both of you?

Well, it is not a personal thing. There may be peace between me and him. But what of other members? We are 24 members, the butter must go round the bread.

Complaints and  accusations

If your love is centered within a particular person and then others were left in the dark, they will continue to trouble you with complaints and accusations.

You were alleged to have received N10 million each to carry out the impeachment. How would you react to that?

Do you know the position of finance in Nigeria and Abia State today?

I know but I also do know that Nigerian politicians are desperate.

Maybe, you don’t have complete history of those in that House. May be, you need to do profiling of the members in that House and you will see that these are people who are outstanding in the society; people who have already made it in life.

There is also speculation that the whole saga is to facilitate the appointment of the son of the immediate past governor, Chinedu Orji as speaker?

The son of the former governor has stated it unequivocally that he has no interest in becoming the Speaker of the House of Assembly. Not that he’s not qualified but as a matter of interest. Unlike myself as Deputy, my area cannot be made Speaker at this hour because of the zoning formula in the state. It is not that I am not qualified but the zoning formula did not favour me because the Deputy Governor is from my area.

And I told you that Martins Azubuike’s removal was predicated on irredeemnable loss of confidence in his ability to continue leading the people that voted him ab initio. It has nothing do to with any external influence. I don’t know how many times I will say this. And I want to assure you that none of those members collected a dime before signing that paper. I cross my heart to say it. None collected one kobo. You see, had it been we collected money, we wouldn’t have made the mistakes that we made because it was those from the governor’s area that said you people have made a mistake. Why would you vote somebody from the same federal constituency with the governor and Senator Abaribe?

Do you not think that the developments can ignite unhealthy relationship between the members from now on, make the House become rancorous and even give a wrong impression about the entire legislature?

No, no, no. You see, these members’ expression of rage is being heightened by media people unnecessarily. This is supposed to be an in-house exchange of baton. In fact, on December 29, we were with the Speaker in the hallowed chamber, all of us. We pleaded with him to step aside or resign. All of us were with him. All that he did was to walk away on us and that’s why we conducted the impeachment. He walked away. If you talk about competence, he’s erudite, full of knowledge, very brilliant, highly conscientious, always apt in doing things and his dexterity on Bills cannot be matched.

Sharing of  committees

But the problem the members have which they wanted him to eschew is arrogance, autocracy and they were talking about his non demonstration of inclusiveness in his approaches to financial matters.

Are you saying he wasn’t sharing money to members?

Yes, we talked about arrogance. We talked about autocracy and non demonstration of inclusiveness in his approaches either in sharing of committees or in taking members along. And we talked about maturity in financial matters. Are we going to run the House without money? So, money comes into the House, members would want to know. If there is none, members want to know there is no money and not tell them that there is no money all the time and they will be seeing you eating good food, drinking good wine and enjoying yourself whereas you keep on  telling them that there is no money. So, these are the things.