By Kassim Afegbua
In the midst of a plethora of happenings around the country, one is often at sea as to what should occupy one’s attention. Nigeria is a country that is usually entrenched in fluctuating moments, with palpable fear walking on the streets. Everywhere you turn, the fear of fear grips you with uncultured fervor. Yesterday, it was bomb scare, today it is bomb blast. Only God knows what tomorrow holds for us.

Rather than nurture hope of a more promising tomorrow, we live in apprehension and seeing our yesterday as being better than our today. Every country looks forward to a promising future; ideas competing with ideas to nudge on; initiatives competing with initiatives to create a more meaningful society that will obliterate the pains of yesteryears and make life more rewarding for its inhabitants.

Alas!, we talk about yesteryears in Nigeria as if the future is foreclosed. Today should be better than yesterday, and tomorrow should be better than today. To achieve this paradigm, we must imbibe a conscious attitudinal change mantra, and drive it in a way that will foster unity and stability of the system.

It is on this score that I want to observe something that is rather not familiar in Nigeria; it is about the Honourable Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt.Hon. Aminu Bello Tambuwal.

Last week, the Federal House of Representatives constituted her over 80 Standing Committees comprising members drawn from the 360 representatives in the House. As usual with the boisterous nature of Nigerian politics particularly with the Lower House, Nigerians had expected that the composition of the committees would lead to one crisis after another.

Tongues were wagging about pressures from different quarters, as the nation waited with bated breath to witness the exercise that was to put the leadership capacity of Tambuwal to test. After the announcement of the names at plenary on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, there was a thunderous ovation that tended to suggest that all was well. Of course, there were pockets of murmurs and grumbles, but not loud enough as to undermine the exercise.

The outcome of the distribution of positions was suggestive of the pan-Nigerian feeling of the Speaker. Among those who enjoyed special recognition were those who visibly “fought” against the election of the Speaker. But the Speaker, in his characteristic manner, had told members that it was not possible to have every member concurring or pandering to his election.

Hear him; “people must hold different views when presented with options. I will be missing the point, if I ever imagine that everyone will pull behind me for support. What should drive our aspirations is the love for the country and not love for self. We are representatives of the people; hence we must take their love into account in all that we set out to do”.

I do not think Speaker Tambuwal is a Nigerian politician. I do not also believe that he lives amongst us; this is because of politicians’ inimical attitudes toward opposition. Rather than see opposition politics as an inherent part of the democratic process which is what the Speaker has done, in this clime, opposition politicians are easily treated as enemies in the wheel of progress.

They call them all kinds of names. In fact, opposition within same political party is considered a sacrilege. In Nigeria, whenever anyone is contesting election into any office, he expects 100 percent endorsement. He wouldn’t want to tolerate any voice of dissent from within and outside. Those who are known not to have supported the aspiration of the individual, are easily cut off from the patronages of power.

You hear all kinds of jargons; “do you mean we should patronize that guy, when he fought against us throughout the campaigns for election”? Do you expect us to give appointment to Mr. A, B and C when they are sworn loyalists of godfathers A, B and C? No! we cannot allow that to happen. Let him go and queue up?”

These are the usual refrains in political discourse in Nigeria. Were it to be in Nigeria, it would have been a sacrilege for President Obama to appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State when one understands that they were both aspirants for the job; throwing jibes at each other. It is against this background that one should emulate the sense of nationalism of Speaker Tambuwal in the composition of the standing committees.

Let us take a sampler; Hon. Yakubu Dogara who emerged as the chairman, House Services Committee reportedly filed a suit against Tambuwal when the contest for Speakership was at fever pitch. Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, the Chairman, House Committee on Finance was never in support of Tambuwal during the campaigns, same goes for Hon. Bethel Amadi who was the campaigner-in-chief for Hon.

Ajibola Muraina. Amadi and Muraina are enjoying their new roles as Chairmen, House Committees on National Planning and Petroleum [upstream]. Honourable Jerry Manwe is Chairman, House Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Patrick Ikhariale, a sworn loyalist of Chief Tony Anenih, emerged as House Committee Chairman on Power, while Hon. Andrew Uchendu emerged as House Committee Chairman on Public Services and Establishment.

Others are Hon. Wilson Ogoriba, House chairman on Niger Delta, Hon. Dickson, House Chairman on Special Duties and Hon. Daniel Onejo, House Chairman on Inter-Parliamentary Committee and a host of other members. If we subject the power play within the ACN members to the crucible, the conflict between the Minority Leader Hon. Gbajabiamila and Hon Abike Dabiri, one would understand the reason why the Speaker should be appreciated and commended. If he were to wield his big stick against those who stood against his interest, all the aforementioned names would be put in the cooler.

I share in his pan-Nigerian sentiments and the fact that it is not about individual interests, but national interest. It is not about self but the country. Whatever laws that are enacted in the national assembly would be for the good people of Nigeria both now and in the future. We cannot afford to be championing clannish interest at the expense of national interest.

We should discard this old canard of thinking that if somebody does not support one’s aspiration, then such a person should be treated as enemy. We must understand the underlining principles of democracy which talks about majority and minority rights, and talks about the roles of opposition as an inherent part of the democratic principles.

The country belongs to every one of us; the good, the bad and the ugly. There is no one individual that has the sole proprietary rights over our collective patrimony.

Once we see public service as a function of driving the developmental initiatives and objectives of the country, our crude attitude to grabbing power at all cost and the persisting winners-take-all syndrome would be eliminated. This is a lesson for existing and prospective politicians in Nigeria.