Comical video recordings and photographs showing well-fed federal lawmakers and political aides climbing the National Assembly gate have thrilled many.
“Right there, we had to contend with the threat of being bludgeoned and pepper sprayed to death. Nobody wants to be a dead hero,” a lawmaker, Victor Afam Ogene, who successfully climbed over the gate, stated a day after the attack on the National Assembly by the police and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
A major fallout of the fracas are heightened moves and counter moves by the camps of the speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and that of President Goodluck Jonathan to impeach each other.
Still managing to catch his breath after teargas canisters were fired at Tambuwal and his supporters, Hon. Sumaila Kawu (Kano/APC), charged angrily at the House deputy speaker, Hon Emeka Ihedioha inside the House chamber, “Let me see you move any motion for impeachment (on Tambuwal) here”.
At another corner inside the chambers, APC House members hurriedly gathered signatures to impeach Jonathan after the police and DSS blockade of the National Assembly aimed at fencing out Tambuwal failed.
A different plot to impeach Tambuwal using a few PDP members who were at the chambers at the time was later made public that day.
For now, not fewer than 200 House members have endorsed the motion to impeach Jonathan, according to the House minority whip, Hon. Samson Osagie.
Osagie (Edo/APC) stated in a monitored report that the 200 signatures far exceeds the number required by the constitution to serve president Jonathan an impeachment notice.
He said there are over 20 impeachable offences against the president which include: “Gross incompetence in the administration of the nation, mismanagement of the nation’s resources resulting in untold hardship on the citizens and inability to recover stolen funds from various ministries and agencies”.
Other offences, according to Osagie, are: “unconstitutional use of security agencies against perceived opponents, non-implementation of the budget, entrenchment of corruption and defiling of the institution of the legislature, among others.
“The constitution says we need only one third of members of the National Assembly to serve the president an impeachment motion and I can confirm that we have surpassed that number”, he stated.
Traditionally, the House minority leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos/APC) is expected to lead the plot to impeach the president. In the past, Gbajabiamila has not shied away from calling for Jonathan’s impeachment.
Tambuwal also has a staunch ally in Hon Aliyu Gebi (Bauchi/APC).
Of course, Jonathan’s supporters in the House, backed by the federal security apparatus, are poised to counter impeachment moves against the president. Some of Jonathan’s House loyalists stand out.
The President’s Men
Deputy House leader, Hon Leonard Okuweh Ogor.
Tagged the ‘real’ House majority leader, the Delta lawmaker has been a veritable bridge between the House and the presidency in times of crises involving the two asrms. Ogor said on Thursday that any move to move against the president is “totally inconsequential” and that he president should be isolated from the turmoil that engulfed the House on Thursday.
He added that, “If for any reason anybody wants to talk about impeachment, that person should come out and address the issue. But I can tell you categorically that an attempt to raise the issue of impeachment in respect of the House, it’s going be a very difficult one because the president has not committed any offence against anybody in that House, neither has he violated any constitutional provision.
“The issue of impeachment is inconsequential because he who is alleging must be ready to prove. You can’t just come and say you want to impeach without having anything to prove against the president.”
Chairman, Niger Delta Affairs Committee, Hon Warman Ogoriba Weri.
He represents Yenagoa/Kolokuna/Opokuma federal constuency in Bayelsa State, Jonathan’s home state. They are of the same Ijaw ethnicity. Ogoriba, who chairs the South-South caucus in the House of Representatives, is visible in the circles of the special adviser to the president on Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku and the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, known as Jonathan’s henchmen.
Reps Chief Whip, Hon Isiaka Bawa
Bawa chairs the House ad-hoc committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a position that brings him in close quarters with powerful interests, many of them Jonathan’s backers. A major power broker in his home state, Taraba, and the House of Representatives, it is learnt that he has already been pencilled by Jonathan’s camp as an influential stakeholder expected to attract audience and subsequently swing support for a Jonathan candidacy in 2015.
Hon Kyari Gujbawu
In the North-East, Jonathan has a staunch ally in Gujbawu, a Borno lawmaker. He has faced stiff criticism from his home state over his support for Jonathan. A group, Maiduguri Patriotic Front (MPC), has in the past, cautioned Gujbawu to focus on legislation and desist from “selling out his constituency of Borno” to please the presidency for his selfish interests.
Chairperson, House Committee On Environment, Uche Ekwunife
Regarded in the president’s camp as a “friend of the house”, the Anambra lawmaker who chairs the House Committee on Environment is known to junket regularly with President Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience.
The others
Two Rivers lawmakers, Hon. Kingsley Chinda and Betty Jocelyne Okagua-Apiafi have taken the side of Jonathan over governor Rotimi Amaechi in the political crisis that engulfed Rivers. Other supporters include Hon Ralph Igokwe (Imo), hon Tajudeen Yusuf (Kogi) and Hon Sunday Karimi (Kogi).
Number Games
As the House inches close to its December 3 resumption date, the situation in House is still fluid. The gale of lawmaker’s defection, which has tossed majority status between the PDP and APC in the House, remains a reference point as far as the impeachment threats are concerned.
For now, Tambuwal’s defection to the APC puts the opposition in the leadership of the House over a PDP dominated House (in term of numbers), a first since 1999. PDP lawmakers have a majority with 189 members to APC’s 159. The remaining 12 lawmakers are from other parties.
Source: Leadership
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