No To Imposition Of Speaker

As expected, jostling for the job of Speaker of the House of Representatives in the next National Assembly has gathered steam. With just a few days to the inauguration of a new National Assembly, various individuals and groups have intensified lobbying for their preferred candidates among the incoming members of the House.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has already zoned the position to the Southwest, while the region has also unanimously endorsed Hon. Muraina Ajibola, a member of the party, for the position.

Inasmuch as we believe that the PDP, as the party with majority of legislators in the National Assembly, has the right to use any formula to choose a candidate for the position, we condemn the haste and manner the leadership of the party is going about it.

The position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives is not a party position, it is a national position requiring national consensus and acceptance. What we are saying is that the Speaker so chosen will preside over legislative matters affecting the country and other legislators from other political parties. Therefore, the nomination of a candidate for that exalted office cannot be left to the PDP to decide. Every member of the House should be allowed to have a say in who becomes the Speaker. His emergence should be by national acclamation.

It is our opinion that leaders of the PDP must not do anything to undermine the stability of the House by imposing a Speaker on members. They should learn from experience and remember the rancour the imposition of Hon. Patricia Etteh as the Speaker of the House generated in 2007. They should remember that as a fallout of the inglorious imposition of Etteh and other crises it generated, a member of the House from Katsina lost his life on the floor of the House.

To prevent a recurrence of this, it is our considered opinion that incoming members of the House should be given a free hand to elect their principal officers, including the Speaker. It will serve no purpose at this stage of our democratic experience for some people to sit in Abeokuta or wherever and impose a Speaker on the House.

The position of the Speaker is an important one and everything must be done to preserve the independence of the legislature. The Speaker of the House must be intelligent, nationalistic, experienced, broad-minded and able to aggregate the various tendencies in the House for national development.

The National Assembly is an aggregation of members from various political parties and tendencies. These representatives must be given the opportunity to express themselves in all decisions of the House. We recognise the fact that in a democracy, the majority always have their way but then the minority, too, should be allowed to have their say.

As Nigeria marches forward in its democratic journey, anything likely to cause dissaffection must be avoided. Nigerian politicians must always avoid pitfalls of the past.