A Stranger And Stalker On The Plateau

The political farce of the purported removal of the Rt. Hon. Abok Ayuba as Speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly surely underlines the unsteady hold of Governor Simon Lalong over the political dynamics of the state.

If the farce is formalized it would again project the unsteadiness that has shadowed political developments in the state. For one, no Speaker of the House of Assembly on the plateau has served out a full four-year term.

Plateau is also perhaps the only state in the country that has not seen a governor successfully handover to an anointed successor since the advent of the Fourth Republic.

We also remember that the first time a governor was removed (suspended) from office vide a State of Emergency proclamation was in Plateau State when Joshua Dariye was suspended for six months effective May 18, 2004.

Now, if the farce organized from Government House last Thursday morning with seven or eight members of the legislature is formalized, it would also highlight the historic reckoning of Jos in some of the country’s most memorable democratic enterprises, positively and negatively.

Yes, we remember Jos as the staging post for the party primaries that led to the emergence of Moshood Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo as candidates on the way to sweeping presidential victories in 1993 and 1999. We also are not unmindful of the city’s opposite symbolism in the erosion of democratic values.

Jos was the epicentre of the resistance and intrigues that snowballed into the crisis that collapsed the First Republic with the rebuff of Sardauna  Ahmadu Bello to the creation of a Middle Belt region.

Sardauna’s Northern Peoples Congress, NPC and the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC who were at alliance at the federal level were satisfied to decimate Obafemi Awolowo’s hold on the West by creating the Mid-West Region. They, however, rebuffed entreaties to create the Cross River/Ogoja Region out of the Southeast where the NCNC held sway. Despite the strident calls for autonomy in the Middle Belt by Joseph Tarka’s United Middle Belt Congress, UMBC, the Federal Government refused to yield ground as Sardauna thought it an affront to divide his kingdom in the North.

That agitation for Middle Belt identity which found resonance with Awolowo’s Action Group, AG was partly responsible for the conflict that led to the demise of the First Republic.

Almost fifty years after, the same agitation for Middle Belt identity has yet to be resolved especially on the Plateau.

Those agitations appeared to have taken a new shape with the recent killings in the state. Governor Lalong’s approach, initially hailed in some quarters, was to appease some of those that were seen to have been marginalized by ethnic champions on the plateau. It is as such to his credit that under his administration that the Hausa/Fulani community has grown in influence across the state with a community once restricted now in full dominance on the plateau.

It is perhaps that atmosphere that has cultured the controversial anti-democratic nuances of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase who is an ally of Governor Lalong.

However, when few months ago the rage on the plateau against violent killings  intensified, the Plateau House of Assembly took a stance with a directive to the governor to put a halt to the killings within two weeks.

Since that resolution, the relationship between the legislature and the executive branch has continued to deteriorate.

When Ayuba emerged in 2019 as Speaker of the House of Assembly at the age of 33, it was hailed everywhere as an endorsement of the ideals of the Not Too Young To Run movement.

His courage in standing with his people against the culture of appeasement as evinced by Governor Lalong has won him plaudits.

It goes a long way to show the political tardiness of Governor Lalong that he or those who created the farce in the impeachment of the Speaker could really not get their acts well.

There were many errors in the whole arrangement. Your correspondent has learnt that one of the House rules is that a two-week notice be given to any Speaker or deputy Speaker to be impeached. This was not met.

The Supreme Court ruling that affirms the membership of the House to be that of all those inaugurated was not satisfied. So cowardly were the executors of the plot that they had to smuggle themselves, huddled in between security men from Government House, in the wee hours of the day to carry out their farce.

That is despite House rules that set the time of sitting for daytime.

Section 92 (1) gives guidelines on the creation of the office of the Speaker and deputy Speaker and the process for their removal. All these were violated.

What is shocking is the silence of the presidency which acted as facilitator by providing the security men that locked out majority members of the House opposed to the action of the gang of eight.

Just as President Muhammadu Buhari kept quiet when the majority of the members of the Edo State House of Assembly were locked out during inauguration in June 2019, he has also kept quiet in this case.

These violations of the Constitution do not signpost signs of democratic progress and the president must nudge those who take his powers to violate the constitution to order.

We hear that following the purported impeachment that the eight legislators who carried out the infamous act proceeded to Abuja to “inform” the governor of their decision. The gist is that Abuja is his base, reflecting the fact that only a stranger could have allowed the happenings on the Plateau that Speaker Ayuba stood up against.

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