I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh as I listened to the tantrums thrown by the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila to the effect that he would report the Service Chiefs to President Muhammadu Buhari over their refusal to obey the summons of the green chambers.
The House of Representatives taking itself too seriously had summoned all security Chiefs to a session over the rising insecurity in the country only for the heads of Navy, Air Force, Army and the Chief of Defense Staff to stay away. The Speaker was angry and did not hide his disdain but unwittingly ridiculed the House in the tantrums contained in his reaction:
“Let me say, as a House, as an institution, I cannot understate my disappointment or our disappointment that the rest of the Service Chiefs are not here. Again, like I said, we called this meeting because it was inevitable. It was important. You can see members from Borno State here. There is a crisis in Borno State right now.
“We wanted to hear from the Service Chiefs to know what was going on, how the House can help and what the problems are as well as what are the challenges; to talk about strategy, to talk about what we need to do.
“I’m sure you really didn’t expect the House to fold its arms while people in Maiduguri and other parts are being killed. There’s migration now from local governments in Borno State to Maiduguri.
“Here we are; we call the Armed Forces coordinated by the CDS, who’s not here, with Service Chiefs being represented. I’m actually at a loss. For me, I believe my colleagues are in tandem with this. In the absence of the Service Chiefs, the CDS, the COAS, the CNS and the CAS are not represented as far as we’re concerned.
“I can almost say it shows a disdain for this institution. The budget is on its way. Yes, we need to talk about that. What do you need? What is required? I’m almost embarrassed. To tell you the truth, I’m almost embarrassed,” Speaker Gbajabiamila who was angry said.
The Speaker added that “There was no call placed to my office to explain why. I’m just seeing accountants and representatives. So I’m not sure how to handle this, because I don’t think this is happening anywhere in any Parliament that I know of in the world, where the head of parliament will call the Service Chiefs for a nagging problem, how to resolve it and you have what we have here as representations.
“So, I think it’s important that we might need to postpone this meeting to Monday morning. I will personally see the President myself. We’re supposed to work together as a body, but it shows lack of seriousness apart from the disdain on Parliament. It shows that this is not as serious to the level that we believe it is. Unfortunately, this meeting can no longer hold.”
The Speaker should never have mentioned that the only recourse for the House was to go and report the Service Chiefs to the President like a child whose biscuit was snatched by a bully brother will run to the father. It gives the impression we now have an imperial president at whose pleasure things can run.
END
Be the first to comment