Barring a last-minute intervention, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, will on Tuesday sign a warrant to compel Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to make an appearance before an Ad-hoc Committee of the House constituted to interface with the apex Bank and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Commercial Banks on the January 31 deadline for the swap of old Naira notes.
My regular readers would recall that I offered a perspective on the imbroglio, particularly the manner in which the House was handling the matter. However, the new twist required that I further register my thoughts on the same subject matter.
In The Focus on the Green Chamber edition of December 11, 2022, I had opined that the resolution of the House controlled by the same political party in government was unnecessary and an affront to the powers of the President. I also advised Gbajabimila to tread with caution and apply wisdom when government decisions do not favour his political interest. I added that the speaker should remember his common saying – “There are many ways to skin a cat.”
Premised on the above, some of my readers may think that the position I canvassed tacitly supports executive arbitrariness, which offends the spirit and letters of the principle of separation of power. But I would only be guilty of the allegation if the Parliament had from inception portrayed and conducted itself as an upright Legislative arm of government. Here’s is my argument, the Speaker and the House cannot on one hand claim to be an understanding parliament or a ready-tool in the hands of the President only when it’s convenient and turn around to want to exercise its powers when the atmosphere is no longer conducive for ‘jaw-jaw’.
President Muhammadu Buhari had a running battle with the 8th Assembly so much that his supporters blamed the immediate-past President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and the immediate-past Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, for the low achievement recorded in the president’s first tenure.
When the 9th Assembly came on board, and perhaps until recently, both President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and Gbajabimila took a pride in what they describe as ‘cordial relationship’ between the president/executive arm of government and the parliament. But now that the monster of executive rascality has been bred, nurtured and deeply rooted, Gbajabimila suddenly remember to wear the garment of a populist speaker. That is impossible, a slave cannot satisfactorily serve two masters.
Shall we remind the Speaker how he employed unusual tact and deftly sidestepped a motion to discuss President Buhari’s volte-face on the parliament’s invitation to brief it on the escalating security situation in the country?
The invitation was expressly occasioned by the gruesome killing of over 43 rice farmers in Zabarmari village of Borno State in November 2020. While he initially agreed to honour the invitation after Speaker Gbajabiamila conveyed the resolution of the House to him and date for the appearance had been slated Thursday, December 10, 2020, the President turned around to call the bluff of the House.
Spokesman of the House, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, while confirming the President’s willingness to appear before the House to journalists, had gleefully said President Buhari would not have honour such invitation from previous 8th Assembly as they once withheld the budget of the President.
Eventually, the president refused to appear and when the matter was brought before the House, Gbajabimila brushed it aside, saying “Hon; your point of Privilege is well noted. We wait for official communications from Mr. President as opposed to newspaper publications.”
He swiftly ruled out the member, who brought up the matter of President’s disdain for the House and moved on with the House proceedings for the day.
Time and space would not allow me to narrate how the House under Gbajabimila’s watch treated a motion to investigate the alleged link between the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, to extremist groups like al-Qaeda, Taliban and Boko Haram sects and other sensitive motions including a statement credited to the Attorney-general of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubarkar Malami, where he compared open grazing to selling of spare parts by southerners in the North.
These interventions by the House are still fresh in our collective memory and Gbajabimila’s House having compromised the standard on many fronts, cannot turn to the same people they have betrayed to save their relationship with the President.
The worse of all the insults was when Gbajabimila openly said that “The President will agree to whatever he was told.” So, at what point did Gbajabimila realise that we have a push and start President now?
Here is another advice to the Mr Speaker, you cannot behave like an opposition in the government you have protected with the larger part of your tenure. Every Nigerian knows that these are not the best of times for the speaker and his political mentor, but this is not enough to offend the sensibilities of Nigerians by acting like an outsider. The speaker should thread with caution and not behave like a stubborn fly that accompanies the corpse to the grave.
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