Tony Manuaka
In the last 20 years, Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented determination on the part of the political class to sustain democracy. To a large extent, the legislative arm of government has lived up to expectation, not just by making laws but also by putting in check, other arms of government and performing its statutory role of carrying out oversight functions.
As we step into the third decade of Nigeria’s return to democracy, The Sun Newspaper has, as part of its role in monitoring governance, commenced a process of highlighting the achievements of some Speakers of State Houses of Assembly that have distinguished themselves in the art of law making. It is an exercise that is aimed at profiling speakers and assemblies that have impacted the lives of their people through legislation and oversight functions.
The Speakers who will be featured in this series are those that have gone through a special selection process by our Board of Editors and who have been adjudged as outstanding on the basis of their accomplishments as individual politicians and their contributions to the development of their states.
Special feature on each of the speakers and their House will chronicle the Bills they passed into law to illustrate how the state has benefited from the activities of the House under the leadership of the Speaker. Where the Executive arm of the state government and the judiciary have contributed to the effective and smooth running of the state House of Assembly, the facts will also be highlighted.
As the country’s democracy progresses, there are states where the legislative houses have faced crisis that threatened their existence. Edo State is one of such states. Since June 2019, the Edo State House of Assembly has been going through one of the most challenging times ever witnessed by any assembly in the country since the return to democratic rule.
As a result of a raging battle for the control of the House – between the state governor, Godwin Obaseki and his predecessor who was at that time, the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, only 10 out of the 24-members elect were inaugurated. The battle was tied to who emerges as the Speaker of the state House of Assembly.
To ensure that he didn’t lose control of the state, the governor issued a proclamation for the inauguration of the House at a time some people in the opposition considered odd. The inauguration was believed to have been carried out in a clandestine manner but those who benefited from it said it was their strategy to take control of the House.
As the crisis continues to fester, more than half of the constituencies are not represented in the Edo State House of Assembly. No doubt, the state has had more than enough of strife in its House of Assembly resulting in many people not enjoying what is generally regarded as dividends of democracy.
In December 2019, the House declared the seats of 12 of its members who had not been inaugurated vacant. That pronouncement was viewed as a step towards deepening the crisis in the state House of Assembly. All the 24 politicians elected into the Edo State House of Assembly belonged to the APC. The violence that preceded the inauguration of the 10 members elect was unprecedented.
Edo is not the only state that has been engulfed in crisis in recent times. In March this year, the Lagos State House of Assembly removed two of its principal officers from office and suspended two others. This followed allegations of insubordination, gross misconduct and actions capable of destabilising the House leveled against the members.
Although the disagreement between those members and the leadership of the House was resolved within a short time as the suspended members were recalled, allegations of mismanagement of public funds against the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudasiru Obasa began to circulate in the media shortly afterwards. Despite that the allegations were unsubstantiated, what seemed to be an internal matter for the House soon began to attract the attention of political forces.
Political blocks and pressure groups began to call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Speaker. However, the House, through its internal structures resolved the matter and absolved the Speaker of the allegations. The Speaker was emphatic on his defence: “All these allegations are deliberate actions of my enemies to achieve their aims that they could not achieve in the House to remove me as the Speaker of the House, which was why they came up with such reports.”
One of the most recent cases is the turmoil in the Imo State House of Assembly. Just a few weeks after the Supreme Court upturned the election of Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP as governor of the state in favour of Hope Uzodinma of the APC, Speaker of the House, Chiji Collins led seven other members of the House to defect to the APC. That carpet crossing gave the governor’s party majority seats in the House that was initially controlled by the PDP. However, less than six months after that intrigue, some members of the House began to call for the resignation of the Speaker.
The Speaker was accused of highhandedness and pursuit of personal interests. But as the plot to remove him from office thickened, the Speaker expressed the view that some members of the opposition PDP in the House were conniving with a former governor of the state to remove him from office. Accusing fingers were pointed in the direction of Emeka Ihedioha.
Last month, violence broke-out in the Kaduna State House of Assembly where allegation of a plot to impeach the Speaker was leveled against a group to which the Deputy Speaker belonged. In the fracas that ensued, the Deputy Speaker was impeached. Some member of the House disclosed that external forces were at work. The crisis, they said, was fueled by the ambition of some prominent politicians in the state who were strategizing for the 2023 election. They explained that the plot was aimed at taking control of the House ahead of the elections.
Despite the challenges faced by some of these state legislative houses, some of the Speakers have continued to provide able leadership. Some of the Speakers have shown good leadership qualities for which the electorate can entrust higher responsibilities on them as they move up on the political ladder.
In Abia State for instance where we begin this series, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji has shown uncommon leadership qualities. Under his leadership, the Abia State House of Assembly has witnessed tremendous changes in terms of making laws that benefit the people. Within the first one year of his becoming the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Orji has brought remarkable changes ranging from the provision of a conducive work environment for the legislators and other assembly complex workers to making of laws that affect the lives of all and sundry in the state.