The latest incident of fighting in a House of Assembly took place last Monday when Nasarawa State legislators engaged themselves in a free for all fight inside what is often called their ‘Hallowed’ Chambers. According to media reports, the “lawmakers punched each other while glasses were shattered, tables and chairs were also upturned in the violence that engulfed the House for hours. Some legislators sustained injuries during the violence while some had their clothes torn.”
Although a school of thought to which the Nasarawa Deputy Speaker belongs imagines that the trend is a global phenomenon in which legislators often disagree to agree, the development is certainly worrisome and condemnable. Indeed, juveniles are not likely to approve of such a bestial inclination. The House itself showed that it deprecated the despicable act hence it suspended those it felt were involved. How we wish it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, it has always happened everywhere and every year in Nigeria since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. In 2002, for instance, legislators loyal to the multimillionaire businessman and leader of the Anambra Peoples Forum (APF), Emeka Offor, and supporters of the then Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju were on December 24 engaged in a brawl inside the Anambra state House of Assembly. The bone of contention was the presentation of the state appropriation bill. Similar acts of hooliganism prevented the Ogun State House of Assembly from official business for not less than 6 months during the administration of Governor Gbenga Daniel.
As if to establish that it is their area of strength, unruly Ogun lawmakers in March 2013, took the nation back to the dark days of senseless rancour as the constitution of a Tenders Board for a N150 billion bond proposed by the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, ended in fracas. In Edo, lawmakers went physical on each other, in June 2014 as they tried to enforce the suspension of some of their colleagues Benue and Plateau legislators have in recent times showed that they too believe in the culture of fighting.
In June 2015, the defection of a member, Nick Eworo from the PDP to the APC which made the latter claim the leadership of the House triggered the free for all fight in which every type of weapon was in use. One month later, the sitting of the Plateau state House of Assembly was disrupted when lawmakers physically attacked each other before the commencement of the session. Journalists later gathered that the content of the day’s ‘order paper’ was the issue at stake. Painfully, why an issue cannot be discussed for the majority opinion to carry the day without fighting remains a puzzle.
It is indeed heart rendering that even the National Assembly often degenerates into the uncivilized culture of being unruly. When a group led by Dino Melaye, now a senator, called for accountability from the leadership of the House of Representatives in July 2010, he and his team were thoroughly beaten as shown on national television as if it is easier to fight than to account for stewardship. In June 2015, our Representatives once again exchanged blows over leadership tussle leading to the disruption of plenary. This time, the fighting took place in the presence of some secondary school students who were on excursion to the National Assembly. The issue at stake was whether or not to allow Yakubu Dogara to become the Speaker.
Whether fighting is the best way to deal with the subject is a question which cannot be answered simply by looking at the issue at stake. There is the persuasive perception that it is time for Nigeria to take another look at the quality of its legislators.
When in 2012, business mogul, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim lashed out at our lawmakers over the way they handled the investigation of ‘Air Nigeria’, he was not only an angry man but one that was sure “some legislators behave as if they are not educated.” We obviously need to review the provisions of Sections 65 and 106 of our constitution which say any Nigerian citizen who has been educated to “at least school Certificate level or its equivalent” can be a legislator, both federal and state. Which school does the constitution have in mind-could it be primary? What is its equivalent? We imagine that our political elites see this as a loophole to sponsor their cooks, drivers and messengers into our Houses of Assembly. While there, for want of enough intellect to make a point, they spoil for a fight whenever anything against their principal is mentioned! All that the ‘Oga at the top’ needs to do to keep them doing his bidding is to monetize their thoughts.
In Taraba for example, an achievement which Speaker Haruna Gbana of the House of Assembly amplified for 2008 was that state legislators were sponsored to 68 foreign trips in the year.
For the poorly educated, that appears sufficient to blindly fight the cause of the Oga? Last Monday’s barbaric show in Nasarawa is one too many of unacceptable lawmaker behaviour matched only by the fight in the Rivers State legislature in 2013 where it was extremely hard to convince anyone that the dramatis personae were legislators and not hoodlums. That has been the quality of our legislators since 1999.
Even in a state like Enugu regarded as generally enlightened, two legislators were removed from office “over habitual drunkenness, lawlessness and persistent improper dressing to the sittings of the House.” The two legislators from Enugu South who had served as Deputy Speaker and Minority Leader respectively were sent on indefinite suspension according a statement by the then clerk of the House, J. C. Ani.
It is time to address the issue and our well behaved legislators ought to take the lead if they do not want the bad eggs to destroy the legislative arm of government. The nation needs to put in place a system that can remove fighters from our legislature to where they can be useful. From the Rivers and Nasarawa episodes alone, I could see on television excellent long and high jumpers as well as boxers who can, without coaching, win for Nigeria, several Olympic medals. Surely they would do better in sports than lawmaking.
VANGUARD
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