After 20 years of democracy in Nigeria, the era of executive impunity and legislative rascality is evidently not over as minority law makers in Bauchi and Edo Houses of Assembly seize leadership

At the Bauchi and Edo State Houses of Assembly, confusion reigns, and the business of law-making is in abeyance. It had been so since the inception of the current legislative calendar which was supposed to have taken effect immediately after the inauguration of new governors on May 29, 2019. The tenure of the previous Assemblies expired June 7. But in both legislatures that should be the symbol of rule of law and bulwark of democracy, democracy is being redefined. The emerging scenario of the warped leadership structure in the two houses is such that democracy has assumed a different meaning – a system whereby the minorities have their way, and the majority not even allowed having their say. And this has been the bone of contention in the crises that had engulfed both houses since this new political dispensation, which interestingly have the imprimaturs of the governors of both states whose desperation to seize control of that arm of government had been fanning the embers of disunity amongst the members. Though belonging to different parties, the governors of both states employed similar tactics which smacked of executive lawlessness and impunity to achieve their sinister objectives.

In Bauchi State where the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, succeeded in sacking the then incumbent governor and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, at the polls, the desperation to seize control of the house was borne out of the fear of the unknown. Bala Mohammed, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, felt insecure with an APC-dominated house and therefore decided to resort to self-help by installing a speaker that would be loyal to him and his government in spite of not having the numbers. Employing the Machiavellian principle of the end justifying the means, and in connivance with two APC members, and the only member of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPN, he plotted the ambush of majority of the APC lawmakers to produce his own speaker. Eleven out of the 31 elected members of the Assembly were said to have sat as early as 7:00 am as against the 10 o’clock scheduled time for the inauguration of the house, to elect Abubakar Suleiman, a member of the APC representing Ningi Central Constituency as the Speaker of the House. The Bauchi State House of Assembly comprised 22 APC members-elect as against PDP’S eight, and one NNPN. In keeping with the conspiratorial power-sharing agreement, PDP’s Danlami Kawule, representing Zungur/Galambi emerged the deputy speaker.

From all indications,the legislative coup was well-hatched with the erstwhile Clerk of the Houseremoved by the governor ahead of the controversial inauguration. He had alsocuriously postponed the inauguration even after the mandatory proclamation hadbeen issued for “logistic inadequacies”. The new Clerk, Yusuf Gital, thuspresided over the sitting of the House, with only 11 members-elect inattendance, and amidst water-tight security protection for them.
More drama was to unfold as the remaining 18 members-elect of the APC arrived around 8 am when the minority members had executed their plot. But for the intervention of the sergeant-at-arms and security personnel present, there would have been a break-down of law and order as the angry members-elect attempted to snatch the mace. In their frustration, they assembled outside the Assembly complex under the statue of a mace, to hold a parallel election in which Kawuwa Damina and Tukur Ibrahim were elected speaker and deputy speaker respectively. Damina was the speaker in the eighth house of assembly and had been tipped by the out-gone governor to continue in that position in the ninth Assembly.
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