Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the speaker of the federal House of
Representatives and his deputy Mr. Emeka Ihedioha are two names that will
surely enjoy generous mention when the elaborate history of the current
democratic dispensation would be written.
They would be mentioned not because they hold some of the highest
political offices in the nation but for a different but salient reason
entirely.
Put simply, the duo are democratic rebels who rode on the popular
will of the majority against the formidable odds erected by the tiny partisan
clique to emerge as speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of
Representatives.
They rode on the popular acclaim of the majority through a bipartisan
measure unprecedented in the political annals of Nigeria to jettison and
defeat the nocturnal partisan configuration of political offices erected by the
tiny clique that controls the national machinery of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) -the political party in power at the national level, to assume
the mantle of leadership in response to the popular cross-party or multiparty
mandate bestowed on them by their colleagues in the federal House of
Representatives who collectively rebelled for a just cause so as to try to
build an independent legislature in compliance strictly to the principles of
the constitutionally enshrined provision that guarantees separation of powers.
Specifically, ever since emerging as speaker of the federal House
of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the young but eminently respected
legal luminary from Sokoto State has so far proven his leadership qualities as
a real democratic rebel who is devoted to rendering selfless services to
humanity and the entire Nigerian citizenry.
A year and half ago, when he emerged as the Speaker, he
demonstrated to Nigerians that he is one political leader who came with
prepared objectives on how best to truly transform Nigeria from a nation
riddled with mass poverty, unemployment and insecurity to that polity whereby
the human rights of all citizens are promoted, protected and ensured through
qualitative legislative activities and other pro-democracy advocacy activities.
Tambuwal’s first action as the speaker truly and graphically
revealed a democratic rebel who in the words of the great philosopher Mr.
Albert Camus, has decided to say 'NO' to the business- as -usual tendency
of politics but to lead by the power of personal example and patriotism.
In his widely acclaimed book ‘The Rebel’, Mr.
Albert Camus asked the basic philosophical question of who is indeed a rebel
and responded thus; “A man who says no: whose refusal does not imply a
renunciation. A rebel is also a man [woman]who says yes as soon
as he [she] begins to think for himself [herself]”.
Tambuwal, realizing the enormity of the expectations of Nigerians
from such high profile political office holder, had set out a workable agenda
on the best ways to legislate for public good.
In the legislative blueprint widely published by speaker Tambuwal’s
leadership of the Federal House of Representatives, Nigerians were told in
black and white that the views of the ordinary people of Nigeria would no
longer be sidelined by the National Assembly since the people are the real
owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria from where public office holders derive
legitimacy and authority.
His words; “The Seventh Session of the House of Representatives
(HoR) (2011-2015) is committed to honouring the faith and trust reposed in it
by the Nigerian people and we are determined to chart a new course of
legislative business for the benefit of our people".
Tambuwal who has shown himself as a man at home with the rural
people stated that the legislative agenda being published on assumption of
office seeks to reform the in-house legislative processes in
the House, identify key legislative priorities and outline a programme of
action to achieve the goals that the current Federal House
of Representatives members have set for themselves.
He assured generality of Nigerians that over the next four
years, the House of Representatives will pursue an aggressive legislative
agenda to reposition itself as a key branch of government able and determined
to deliver on the key elements of governance.
His words; “We acknowledge that the House has had to navigate the
difficult terrain of winning public trust and confidence and even of being the
champion of the peoples’ cause. Years of struggling to establish adequate
legislative mores and practices, especially upon the return to democratic rule
in May 1999, has meant that some of the things we have done may not have met
public expectation”.
He admitted that the legislators have a lot of times not
communicated enough, their legislative intentions or priorities just as he
stated that the effort to establish the House as a major institution of
democracy in service of the Nigerian people has proved to be a slow and
difficult one.
In a solemn tone he pledged thus; “Today, and with the
inauguration of the Seventh Session of the House of Representatives, we make
bold to state and with great assurance to the Nigerian people that the
legislature has come of age. It is a new day-a new House of Representatives,
and we are prepared to meet and surpass the expectations of the Nigerian people
to represent their best interest”.
If question is to be asked if the Speaker has kept to his own side
of the bargain to the Nigerian people, the popular acclaim of the majority of
Nigerians is that so far so good and the opinion of the majority of Nigerians
is that the social contract between the Federal House of Representatives
and the Nigerian People is a work in steady progress.
Before millions of Nigerians came out on the streets of major
cities and towns to protest the increment in the pump price of petroleum
products in January 2012 by the Federal government, the speaker of the Federal
House of Representatives did the unthinkable which till today sets his
leadership apart from all others as pro-democracy and pro-people.
The Federal House for the first time in over fifty years of
Nigeria’s existence sat on a Sunday to intervene on the side of the popular
masses urging the Federal government to reverse the ill -informed decision to
hike the pump price of petroleum products.
Against all odds, the Federal House at that time under the
competent leadership of speaker Tambuwal stood on the side of truth which
tremendously put political pressure of the powers-that- be to reverse the evil
policy of extreme hike in the purchasing price of petroleum products which had
already generated large scale poverty and excruciating cost of living for
millions of Nigerians.
Speaker Tambuwal by his action of convening the Federal House of
Representatives demonstrated that politics is all about public good and doing
everything to reduce the rate of poverty which in any case has skyrocketed even
by the estimation given by a former vice president of the World Bank Mrs. Oby
Ezekwesili.
The erstwhile World Bank chief also authoritatively revealed that
the Yar’adua/Jonathan Federal administration squandered over $67 billion of
Nigeria’s money handed over to them by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
administration.
To show why most young Nigerians are happy so long as speaker
Tambuwal remains a democratic rebel to fight the evils of corruption and lack
of good governance, the recent public lecture delivered by the former World
Bank vice President and one time Education minister under the Obasanjo-led
government revealed that the vicious circle of poverty has become suffocating
even when Nigeria has enjoyed five phenomenal circle of oil boom with much of
the revenue generated stolen by government officials.
Her words; “The present cycle of boom of the 2010s is, however,
much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s and
2000s. This is because we are still caught up in it and it is more egregious
than the other periods in revealing that we learned absolutely nothing from the
previous massive failures”.
She continued: “The squandering of the significant sum of $45
billion in foreign reserve account and another $22 billion in Excess Crude
Account...”.
Ezekwesili said that it was up to the younger generation to
restore the dignity of Nigeria by making the right choices to lift the nation
out of poverty.
According to her, the figures of the poor in Nigeria grew from
17.1 million in 1980, 34.5 million in 1985, 39.2 million in 1992, 67.1 million
in 1996, to 68.7 million in 2004 and 112.47 million in 2010.
What the above explosive revelation by Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili showed
is that Nigerians collectively have no choice but to sustain the tempo of
pressure on the National Assembly and especially the Federal House of
Representatives under the leadership of a young Nigerians to put the central
government on its toes so long as the principle of transparency and
accountability of public resources are basterdized as is currently the case.
Do you wonder why I believe the Sun now shines on the young Mr.
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to use his political power to serve public good? Wonder
no more because Mr. Tambuwal who was born on January 10th, 1966 is still far
too young a man that he is one of the right persons in
whom millions of young Nigerians look up to show the light through
pragmatic display of power of personal example and the genuine love of the
mother land-Nigeria.
So when in 2012, two critical and well respected national
Newspapers-leadership and Sun Newspaper group decided to celebrate his public
leadership qualities, some of us who know the speaker were not shocked because
he truly deserves all the positive reinforcement and support that the civil
society and the mass media can offer so that he will consistently carry the
public good of the largest percentage of Nigerians at heart.
Lastly, Tambuwal should open up channels for constant engagement
with the leadership of the credible civil society groups so to consistently get
qualitative feed-back information on the yearnings, aspirations and dreams of
the people of Nigeria. Recently at a national dialogue session by Trust Group
of Newspapers, Tambuwal admitted that politicians abandon the electorate soon
after elections. This is a statement of fact from a man who is actually serving
the interest of Nigerians.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko;
Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA
blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
28/1/2012
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