In a sober reflection, I wish to offer my heartfelt condolences to the family of late Isma’ila Yushua Maihanchi, member-elect from Jalingo/Yorro/ Zing Federal Constituency of Taraba State who gave up the ghost yesterday. Maihanchi would have been another young and vibrant lawmaker with huge expectations in his legislative career.
May his immediate constituency, Taraba State PDP, the entire PDP family and Nigerians in general be consoled in this moment of grief.
Just as I was trying to conclude my thoughts on the above topic which touches on the numerical strength and threats of minority political parties that won election into the 10th House of Representatives, news filtered in that that the ranks of the opposition lawmakers has been depleted by natural circumstance. This reduces the number from the 182 that the ‘greater majority’ claims to have recorded following last Saturdays complementary election to 181, the minimum number required to produce a speaker or deputy speaker of the House.
Having said that, there were reports that lawmakers from the minority political parties have formed and alliance and that they are plotting to produce a speaker from their ranks. Giving the figures above, the plot looks theoretically possible if every single vote from the minority caucuses count for a common candidate. However, it is practically impossible, because natural mathematical calculation cannot be applied to politics.
Although INEC is yet to publicly declare publish the list of winners from the rerun election and the figures above can not be taken as official position of things. Nevertheless, should the numbers be correct, it is theoretically possible that a coalition of minority political parties can produce speaker of the 10th Assembly without any encumbrance.
Section 3 of the Standing Order, the rule book guiding the conduct of lawmakers did not make reference to whether or not a speaker should be nominated from the party which produces majority or minority, therefore, a lawmaker from any political party can be so nominated.
Section 3(a) reads “A member-elect addressing the House shall propose another member-elect with legislative experience as member of the National Assembly to be the speaker and shall move that such member-elect “Do take the chair as speaker of the House of Representatives.
“(b) Member-elect when nominated and seconded shall inform the House whether he accepts or declines the nomination.
“(c) The member-elect so nominated may address the House for a maximum period of 5 minutes for the purpose of (b) above.
“(d) The Clerk shall, where the nominee accepts, then ask ‘Are there further nominations?’ and if there are no further nominations, the clerk shall say “I declare the nominations closed. The Clerk shall then declare the member-elect so proposed and seconded elected as speaker. Such member-elect shall be conducted to the chair by the proposer and the seconder of the motion and shall take the Chair of the House as Speaker.
“(e) If more than one member-elect is proposed as speaker, the Clerk shall after the second nomination and after each subsequent nomination, if any is made and seconded and accepted or declined ask “ Are there further nominations?” and if there are no further nominations the Clerk shall say “I declare nominations closed.
I am persuaded by the argument that since there was no mention that the party that has the highest number of lawmakers must produce the speaker from the above provisions, any ranking member can be nominated.
Meanwhile, I can assure Nigerians that the declaration by a minority coalition to produce the speaker of the 10th Assembly is not worth more than a smokescreen. The speaker would certainly be produced from the ranks of the APC and the best this coalition would achieve is to support a choice candidate.
Needn’t I say that just like the ranking lawmakers in the APC, the ranking lawmakers from other political parties, particularly the opposition PDP are not united. I don’t want to mention names, but all those rallying the minority caucuses for a common front are looking after individual interests and the coalition would collapse soon like a pack of cards.
Maybe I should hint further, that the PDP faction that lost out in the scheme of things in 2019 may have their fingers burnt the second time. Their leader who is remotely controlling them is in bed with the ruling party, this automatically means that the other faction would work with the opposing side. My drift would be clearly understood when a speaker emerges!
