APC will cure Nigeria’s headache –Lalong
Honourable Simon Lalong, Speaker, Plateau State House of Assembly
during the tenure of former Governor Joshua Dariye, was impeached by
five out of 24 lawmakers in the Assembly, who also eventually impeached
the then governor. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, he speaks on
the crisis in Rivers State and sundry issues. Excerpts:
What is your impression of the recent developments in Rivers State?
It is an unfortunate situation, especially for me, because we have made sacrifices to keep the constitution, trying to put a stop to minority members impeaching the speaker of a House of Assembly or minority members removing a governor through unconstitutional means. Until these things are addressed, we may not move forward in Nigeria.
How similar are the happenings in Rivers to the experience you had when you were the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly?
We faced a similar situation here on the Plateau when I was the speaker. We fought here and people thought we were being rude to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They didn’t understand that once you are elected, you have sworn to uphold the constitution. We did that, we made a lot of sacrifices and a lot of people benefitted from it. Recently in this state, the governor was shouting that he would not want a situation where minority members would even intend to impeach him. If we did not fight it, minority members will impeach a governor. So, I was surprised that minority members in Rivers attempted to impeach the Speaker. Eventually, they might go ahead to impeach the governor to show the level of impunity.
How can this impunity be arrested in our body politic?
You see, in all places where you have such cases, it is the presidency against the sitting governor. In most cases, it happens when the sitting governor does not support the presidency. Here, it happened to us because Dariye did not want to support the former president. He refused to support third term.
Dariye was a friend of the former president. They had a smooth relationship until the issue of third term came up and we said we were not going to support it. That was the beginning of the impeachment move. Today again, you have a similar situation because if you read from the newspapers, the reasons are that the presidency allegedly has an assumption that Governor Rotimi Amaechi wants to become the vice president under another political party but the vice presidency is usually not a position you contest for. It is usually by nomination and this is basically the reason for the fight between the presidency and the governor.
The Supreme Court had given several judgments, including the verdicts on Plateau and Oyo State Houses assembly, namely that two-thirds is not two-thirds of the number of the people present in the chamber but of the number of elected people in the assembly. So, assuming 11 members went there, that was not two-thirds. They couldn’t have impeached the speaker.
What is the way out?
I know the way out will be to stop the ambition of our president and other office holders because what I have seen is that each time the people of Nigeria are complaining, that is when the president will begin to use the machinery of his office to begin to harass and force people to let him to come back. I think that the way out is doing justice, doing fairness. If the president is good, you don’t need to coerce people to come back for a second term or to dictate to them. And secondly, leaders should learn to respect the provisions of the Constitution. The Constitution says that you cannot impeach by less than two thirds, don’t go and use the Constitution upside down.
Do you support establishment of state police?
That will not be a solution because the attitude of governors themselves is the attitude of the Nigerian leadership. We have seen a situation whereby some states use police or government machinery to harass opponents.
Are you still in PDP?
I have indicated my interest in the new mega party. First of all, I will say it is very unfortunate when you have a house and somebody is driving you from that house to another house. You will be very sad because you want to remain there but unfortunately, the tenants are driving you from that house. Some people will advise you to leave that house and go and build a new one if you have the means, particularly if it is leaking and it is so dangerous. It is better for you to go and build a new house where you can stay comfortably. PDP is maintaining the structures that I created in my local government. I moved for the creation of additional wards in my area that they are benefitting from now. When we were forcefully driven away from PDP, we had to go to the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) because we were denied registration. We did the registration, they said that was not the proper registration, they ran away with our registration and then we were not registered members of the party until after elections.
So, because a lot of people wanted to contest elections, they went to different political parties and after that, we came back again to PDP and we were accepted to come back. That was when you had PDP I and PDP II in Plateau and within that PDP, the governor won a second term and said and he did not want people to come back. It was unfortunate because at one time when we made the move to accommodate people who had grievances, the party created a platform for a committee to address their grievances. The governor, I want you to put it on record, went to the national secretariat and addressed the current chairman, Bamanga Tukur, saying that he did not want anybody to come back to PDP, that those who left should form a credible opposition. If I can quote him very well, he said that would bring peace to the state. So, this is an opportunity we have been praying for and we will go for it. Let them have a credible opposition so that there will be peace in Plateau. Today by God’s grace, APC has come as a credible opposition.
Do you see APC making an impact in the state?
Plateau is not different from Nassarawa State. Today, Nassarawa is governed by CPC and it is doing very well. In the South-West, at a point it was AD, then PDP and now APC. We want to change the government by constitutional means. I will not see APC as an opposition; we are a moving party just like the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP). The governor was the one that predicted that peace would come to Plateau when we have a credible opposition. So, there is an alternative now, some of us are moving out for robust and credible opposition. If you are doubting the credibility of the APC, you will soon know that it is very credible. By the time we take off, people will soon see the credibility of this party.
When I was young and you had headache, the first thing your father would tell you was to go and buy APC. In Hausa, they call it APC mai kararawa and we would make fun, saying “when somebody has malaria and he takes APC, it has cured the headache.’’ Secondly, we are talking about security in the nation. When you see people coming to kill you, if you have armoured personnel carrier, the enemy will run away. It is God that is bringing succour to the people of Nigeria; we are going to have APC to cure our headache and all the illness that we have in this country. Since we have a common enemy, the APC will be the armoured car that will drive away everything that could frustrate the development of this country.
What is your impression of the recent developments in Rivers State?
It is an unfortunate situation, especially for me, because we have made sacrifices to keep the constitution, trying to put a stop to minority members impeaching the speaker of a House of Assembly or minority members removing a governor through unconstitutional means. Until these things are addressed, we may not move forward in Nigeria.
How similar are the happenings in Rivers to the experience you had when you were the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly?
We faced a similar situation here on the Plateau when I was the speaker. We fought here and people thought we were being rude to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They didn’t understand that once you are elected, you have sworn to uphold the constitution. We did that, we made a lot of sacrifices and a lot of people benefitted from it. Recently in this state, the governor was shouting that he would not want a situation where minority members would even intend to impeach him. If we did not fight it, minority members will impeach a governor. So, I was surprised that minority members in Rivers attempted to impeach the Speaker. Eventually, they might go ahead to impeach the governor to show the level of impunity.
How can this impunity be arrested in our body politic?
You see, in all places where you have such cases, it is the presidency against the sitting governor. In most cases, it happens when the sitting governor does not support the presidency. Here, it happened to us because Dariye did not want to support the former president. He refused to support third term.
Dariye was a friend of the former president. They had a smooth relationship until the issue of third term came up and we said we were not going to support it. That was the beginning of the impeachment move. Today again, you have a similar situation because if you read from the newspapers, the reasons are that the presidency allegedly has an assumption that Governor Rotimi Amaechi wants to become the vice president under another political party but the vice presidency is usually not a position you contest for. It is usually by nomination and this is basically the reason for the fight between the presidency and the governor.
The Supreme Court had given several judgments, including the verdicts on Plateau and Oyo State Houses assembly, namely that two-thirds is not two-thirds of the number of the people present in the chamber but of the number of elected people in the assembly. So, assuming 11 members went there, that was not two-thirds. They couldn’t have impeached the speaker.
What is the way out?
I know the way out will be to stop the ambition of our president and other office holders because what I have seen is that each time the people of Nigeria are complaining, that is when the president will begin to use the machinery of his office to begin to harass and force people to let him to come back. I think that the way out is doing justice, doing fairness. If the president is good, you don’t need to coerce people to come back for a second term or to dictate to them. And secondly, leaders should learn to respect the provisions of the Constitution. The Constitution says that you cannot impeach by less than two thirds, don’t go and use the Constitution upside down.
Do you support establishment of state police?
That will not be a solution because the attitude of governors themselves is the attitude of the Nigerian leadership. We have seen a situation whereby some states use police or government machinery to harass opponents.
Are you still in PDP?
I have indicated my interest in the new mega party. First of all, I will say it is very unfortunate when you have a house and somebody is driving you from that house to another house. You will be very sad because you want to remain there but unfortunately, the tenants are driving you from that house. Some people will advise you to leave that house and go and build a new one if you have the means, particularly if it is leaking and it is so dangerous. It is better for you to go and build a new house where you can stay comfortably. PDP is maintaining the structures that I created in my local government. I moved for the creation of additional wards in my area that they are benefitting from now. When we were forcefully driven away from PDP, we had to go to the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) because we were denied registration. We did the registration, they said that was not the proper registration, they ran away with our registration and then we were not registered members of the party until after elections.
So, because a lot of people wanted to contest elections, they went to different political parties and after that, we came back again to PDP and we were accepted to come back. That was when you had PDP I and PDP II in Plateau and within that PDP, the governor won a second term and said and he did not want people to come back. It was unfortunate because at one time when we made the move to accommodate people who had grievances, the party created a platform for a committee to address their grievances. The governor, I want you to put it on record, went to the national secretariat and addressed the current chairman, Bamanga Tukur, saying that he did not want anybody to come back to PDP, that those who left should form a credible opposition. If I can quote him very well, he said that would bring peace to the state. So, this is an opportunity we have been praying for and we will go for it. Let them have a credible opposition so that there will be peace in Plateau. Today by God’s grace, APC has come as a credible opposition.
Do you see APC making an impact in the state?
Plateau is not different from Nassarawa State. Today, Nassarawa is governed by CPC and it is doing very well. In the South-West, at a point it was AD, then PDP and now APC. We want to change the government by constitutional means. I will not see APC as an opposition; we are a moving party just like the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP). The governor was the one that predicted that peace would come to Plateau when we have a credible opposition. So, there is an alternative now, some of us are moving out for robust and credible opposition. If you are doubting the credibility of the APC, you will soon know that it is very credible. By the time we take off, people will soon see the credibility of this party.
When I was young and you had headache, the first thing your father would tell you was to go and buy APC. In Hausa, they call it APC mai kararawa and we would make fun, saying “when somebody has malaria and he takes APC, it has cured the headache.’’ Secondly, we are talking about security in the nation. When you see people coming to kill you, if you have armoured personnel carrier, the enemy will run away. It is God that is bringing succour to the people of Nigeria; we are going to have APC to cure our headache and all the illness that we have in this country. Since we have a common enemy, the APC will be the armoured car that will drive away everything that could frustrate the development of this country.
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