VC Aluko:
Your postings have been so lucid and helpful that anyone pretending not to hear you needs three human ears to correct any hearing defect the person has! For example, I was glad to learn from your posting about the sad" party defections" that, indeed, the Nigerian constitution has something serious and admirable: thus, if one is elected to parliament on the ticket of political party "A", if one wants to defect to party "B", one must vacate the seat when doing so. This, then, means one can go back to the voters to seek re-election on the ticket of the new party he or she has defected to. It will then be the prerogative of the voters to re-elect the person on the ticket of party "B" that one has defected to. Is that not the case, VC Aluko? If it is so, then that is very great, as it provides checks and balances right there!
If that is also, then it means that Nigeria has some admirable stipulations from the national constitution.
And there, we have it!
A.B. Assensoh.
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Mobolaji Aluko [alukome@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:56 PM
To: Ikhide
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On this Matter of Party Defections in Nigeria's National and State Assemblies {Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2014 5:56 PM
To: Ikhide
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On this Matter of Party Defections in Nigeria's National and State Assemblies {Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
Ikhide:
You still not do not seem to have read me or heard me right: the Law PRESCRIBES how a defecting member's removal should be done - and so far, outside of the
illegal and hasty removal of his security aides - Tambuwal is still regarded as the Speaker by his peers, and actually presided over the brief meeting the other day at
which Senate President David Mark met him on his seat, that is after being roughed up, or was it before sef?
So we have to learn to be patient with democracy - like Obama.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 7:22 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Prof,
I hear you; the law does not prescribe how it should be done. The yeye man is no longer speaker and I am comfortable with the actions taken so far. Let him go to court jor!
Sent via smoke signals
- Ikhide
-------- Original message --------From: Mobolaji AlukoDate:11/22/2014 1:17 PM (GMT-05:00)To: Ikhide , USAAfrica DialogueSubject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On this Matter of Party Defections in Nigeria's National and State Assemblies {Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
Ikhide:
I am CERTAIN that you can read, even the Law.
The sections below indicate that the loss of seat is NOT AUTOMATIC; even after a defection, the Speaker or a House member must TRIGGER the initiation ofinvestigation of action, subject to verification.
Consequently, Tambuwal is still member of the House; is still Speaker until such a prescribed action is taken.
Why is it so difficult to follow the Constitution?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Bolaji Aluko
On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 6:57 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Professor Aluko,
Many thanks for sharing the relevant portions of the law and proving conclusively that it is open to interpretation. He is no longer speaker of the house. If he is not happy with this action, he should go to court. How difficult is that? Why are our lawbreakers like this?
- Ikhide
Sent via smoke signals!
-------- Original message --------From: Mobolaji AlukoDate:11/22/2014 10:39 AM (GMT-05:00)To: USAAfrica Dialogue , NaijaPolitics e-Group , naijaintellects , OmoOdua , ekiti ekitigroups , NiDAN , Ra'ayi , Yan Arewa , "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" , Ayo Obe , ogunlakaiye@hotmail.comSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On this Matter of Party Defections in Nigeria's National and State Assemblies {Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
--
Dear Ayo Obe, Salimonu Kadiri and All:
We should all hold our horses and read the relevant sections of the Constitution very well well. They are Sections 68 and 109 of the 1999 Constitution, viz
-----------
QUOTE
68. (1) A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if -
(a) he becomes a member of another legislative house.
(b) any other circumstances arise that, if he were not a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives, would cause him to be disqualified for election as a member;
(c) he ceases to be a citizen of Nigeria;
(d) he becomes President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor or a Minister of the Government of the Federation or a Commissioner of the Government of a State or a Special Adviser.
(e) save as otherwise prescribed by this Constitution, he becomes a member of a commission or other body established by this Constitution or by any other law.
(f) without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House of which he is a member for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House meets in any one year;
(g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected;
Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or
(h) the President of the Senate or, as the case may be, the Speaker of the House of Representatives receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 69 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of that member.
(2) The President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, shall give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, so however that the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House concerned that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of that member.
(3) A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall be deemed to be absent without just cause from a meeting of the House of which he is a member, unless the person presiding certifies in writing that he is satisfied that the absence of the member from the meeting was for a just cause.
----------------
109. (1) A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if -
(a) he becomes a member of another legislative house;
(b) any other circumstances arise that, if he were not a member of that House, would cause him to be disqualified for election as such a member;
(c) he ceases to be a citizen of Nigeria;
(d) he becomes President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor or a Minister of the Government of the Federation or a Commissioner of the Government of a State or a Special Adviser;
(e) save as otherwise prescribed by this Constitution, he becomes a member of a commission or other body established by this Constitution or by any other law;
(f) without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House of Assembly for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House meets in any one year;
(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:
Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or
(h) the Speaker of the House of Assembly receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 110 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of the member.
(2) The Speaker of the House of Assembly shall give effect to subsection (1) of this section, so however that the Speaker or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of the member.
(3) A member of a House of Assembly shall be deemed to be absent without just cause from a meeting of the House of Assembly unless the person presiding certifies in writing that he is satisfied that the absence of the member from the meeting was for a just cause.
UNQUOTE
Notice the sections highlighted in red.
Point #1: We must notice that upon defection, even where certain qualifications for loss of position of membership of the relevant House has been satisfied, the loss is NOT AUTOMATIC: either the Senate President, or the Speaker of the House, or a member of relevant body SHALL FIRST PRESENT SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE about the infraction.
So it is NOT the duty of the Inspector-General, or the Presidency, or ANYBODY outside the relevant House to point this infraction out. [INEC initiates action ONLY on the issue of RECALLS, but even then, the House has to act on it..]
Pesumably after that, there must be a vote in the House about being SATISFIED with said evidence.
Point #2 is more serious: how to PROVE the defection SATISFACTORILY?
For starters, one presumes that
(1) you must have a PARTY MEMBERSHIP CARD to be a member of a Party; (2) you have PAID RELEVANT DUES, AND(3) you have ATTENDED party meetings to be a member.(4) hence you were ORIGINALLY sponsored by that party.
Clearly, merely SAYING SO ON TV or RADIO or in the NEWSPAPERS that you are a member of Party A does not count for membership. Even VOTING on issues with PARTY A in the House does not make you a member of PARTY A; you may merely be a rebel member of Party B.
On the contrary, therefore, to QUIT a party and DEFECT to another, one presumes that
(1) you have TURNED IN the membership card of the old party and(2) taken that of the new one;(3) you have STOPPED attending the meetings of the old one, and(4) have started to attend those of the new one.
Are you with me?
Now, if a person whose party expects him VOLUNTARY to resign does not do so, or there are some circumstances in the House which do not permit the errant Member to be kicked out, the party can be sufficiently UPSET to arrange a RECALL, upon which if successful, INEC is REQUIRED to issue a Certificate to that effect.
My point is that we should learn to do things in an orderly fashion in this our democracy, and not resort to jankara "self-help". As it is, the Constitution is ENFORCEABLE, but ONLY by members of the relevant House, and NOT by any one else.
The Constitution anticipates that the Senate President or the Speaker may defect, hence a member can bring up the issue, and present evidence to sack either of them from the relevant House for defection. The Constitution even allows recall.
So my point is that according to the Constitution that we currently operate, Tambuwal, despite his odious defection to many, remains first a Member of the House, and secondly Speaker, until someone brings up a point of order which must be heard, and evidence is entered and positively voted for.
Elementary, my dear compatriots.
And there you have it, as I rest my case.
Bolaji AlukoEsquare, SAM
PS1: This also applies to Ekiti State House of Assembly....for the defections there.
PS2: If the House votes to kick you out without sufficient evidence adduced, the Courts are there to RESTORE your position.
On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thank you for your Constitutional reference of which I am already aware. I am certain that you also know that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Tambuwal, is not the first person to defect from the political party on which platform he was elected. Mark you, the Constitution refers to *A LEGISLATURE THAT CHANGES PARTY* and not LEGISLATORS CHANGING PARTY. As we have seen more than 40 PDP legislators have crossed over to APC. In that wise, what more evidence does one need to establish that there is division in the PDP. When Mimiko changed to PDP, the majority of the State's House of Assembly followed him to join the PDP without forfeiting their seats. At moment cases of carpet crossing, including that of Tambuwal, are pending in the Courts for decision and it has never happened that the police mounted a siege at each Assembly to prevent carpet crossers from gaining entrance. Rather, in Ekiti, the Police protected six carpet crossers from the APC who joined the only PDP to make seven out of twenty-six members of the State's Assembly. Furthermore, the police prevented the nineteen members of the APC from entering Ekiti State's House of Assembly, where the seven PDP now usurp the right of the majority to make laws and approve Bills.
What the Constitution says about a legislator that changes party is not in dispute but who should declare the seat of the carpet crosser vacant. Is it the COURTS, the POLICE, the PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, the SPEAKER, or majority MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL or STATE'S ASSEMBLY? If the Police has the Power to decide that Tambuwal is no longer the Speaker of the House or its member, why did the Police not arrest and arraign him before a court of law for impersonation and false acquisition of Power of authority?
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
From: ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 21:58:58 +0000
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Under the Constitution (section 68(1)(g) in the case of the National Assembly and 109(1)(g) in th case of State Houses of Assembly), it is only when a legislator changes party that he or she loses their seat (unless the change is the result of a division in or merger of the party on whose platform he or she was originally elected). There are no similar provisions in respect of elected executive officers, i.e. President, Vice, Governor and Deputy.
AyoI invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijamaA while ago the Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, deflected from the Labour Party to the Peoples' Decocratic Party (PDP) and carried with him his Governorship attire. The Nigerian Police did not withdraw his police protection. When the Speaker of the House of Representatives deflected from PDP to APC, the Police immediately withdrew Aminu Tambuwal's security details. Thus, we do not have NIGERIAN POLICE but POLITICALLY DIRECTED POLICE - another dangerous PDP.
The House was re-convened on the request of the Speaker to debate and take decision on the request of President Jonathan to extend the state of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa State for further three months. It would appear from what has happened now that the request for the extension of emergency rule was just a pretext to lure the deflected Speaker to convene the House meeting so that he could be arm-twisted into resigning as the Speaker. I have read in other Nigerian on-line news media that the Police has explained that their invasion of the National Assembly was based on security information that hoodlums and thugs were to invade the Assembly. Evidently, the prevention of hoodlums and thugs to invade the National Assembly by the Police includes stopping Tambuwal and other members of the House of entering the Assembly. The Police just wanted to replicate what it has done in Ekiti where 19 APC members of the State's House of Assembly were prevented from entering the House in favour of 7 PDP members. If the Police under the command of Jonathan can tear-gass National Assembly's members, he should not need the approval of the National Assembly to deploy armed forces to any part of the federation.
I have always regarded Fredrick Lugard as a damned racist since I read his 643 pages book, published in 1922, and titled, THE DUAL MANDATE. Unfortunately, Jonathan has confirmed to be true what I consider to be racial prejudice against Black Africa by Lugard. Hear him, "The African Negro is not naturally cruel, though his own insensibility to pain and his disregard for life - whether his own or another's - cause him to appear callous to suffering. ...He (the African Negro) lacks Power of organisation, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or of business. He loves the display of Power, but fails to realise its responsibility. ... He has the courage of the fighting animal - an instinct rather than a moral virtue. In brief, the virtues and the defects of this race-type (African) are those of attractive children... Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and inability to visualise the future." As if Lugard knew that Jonathan would be dancing *AZONTO* the following day 300 school Girls were abducted by Boko Haram and allmost, and foresight, natural hundred lives were smashed to Death at Nyanya, a surburb to Abuja, he wrote, "In character and temperament the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight,... full of personal Vanity, with Little sense of veracity, fond of Music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry. His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers Little from apprehension for the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal World, and he exhibits something of the animal's placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the state he has reached." Ironically, Jonathan is said to be a Phd holder in ZOOLOGY!
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:31:35 +0100
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [Naijaintellects] Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown
From: alukome@gmail.com
To: naijaintellects@googlegroups.com
CC: ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com; OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com; YanArewa@yahoogroups.com; nigerianID@yahoogroups.com; USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com; Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com; NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com
My People:
This is more than serious.....why must everything from federal to state be so much brigandage?
Lord have mercy!
Bolaji AlukoShaking his head
2014-11-20 11:57:44
Bedlam broke out this morning at the National Assembly complex as the police barricaded the House of Representatives preventing Speaker Aminu Tambuwal from entering the complex. Latest reports reaching Elombah.com says the Senate President, David Mark, has ordered that the National Assembly complex be shut down till next week Tuesday, 25th November, 2014.
The Reps had been summoned by the Speaker to discuss President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for a further three-month extension of the emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
But Security operatives, Thursday, stopped the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal from entering the National Assembly Complex.
Lawmakers who accompanied the speaker had to climb the second entry point gate as some who could not climb sustained injuries while trying to scale over.
At about 10.54am after much entreaties the speaker was allowed entry but other lawmakers were denied entry.
The speaker’s official car was detained but after his entry into the outer space of the complex, Security men barricaded him and shot tear gas carnisters into the air to scare him but the speaker stood his ground. .
The speaker who got to NASS at about 10.38am was accompanied by a long convoy of cars and was allowed to pass through the outer gate entry point.
The Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha arrived earlier at about 10.35am and was given a presidential passage into the complex.
Reports from Abuja say the police responded with a hail of tear gas as APC lawmakers resorted to scaling the fence to enter the premises.
Tambuwal was later allowed to enter the chambers and was reported to be meeting with APC lawmakers as at the time of filing this report. The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is insisting that Tambuwal steps down as Speaker following his recent defection from the party. The police has since withdrawn Tambuwal’s security.
Senate President David Mark hurriedly announced the suspension of sitting as the tear gas fired by the police took its toll.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:02 PM, Elombah Elsdan <elombahperspective@gmail.com> wrote:
Chaos at National Assembly: Tambuwal Stopped, David Mark Orders shutdown Bedlam broke out this morning at the National Assembly complex as�the police barricaded the House of Representatives pre...
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