The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has warned the Federal Government and security operatives to make sure nothing happens to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.
The warning was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the NLC president, Abdulwahid Omar, a copy obtained the Premium Times.
Below is Omar’s full statement:
We at the Nigeria Labour Congress are appalled by the withdrawal of security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, ostensibly because he had decamped to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The act is shameful, distasteful, unconstitutional and demonstrates our parochial sense of power and very little knowledge of history.
No part of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says the Speaker of the House of Representatives should come from the majority party. Section 50(1)(b) only says, ” There shall be …a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves…”
In the Second Republic, the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, was elected from the ranks of NPP, not just an opposition party but the third strong , after UPN and NPN. We have other precedents across the world.
We find it appropriate to cite the examples of Mimiko and Ali Modu-Sheriff, governor of Ondo State and former governor of Borno State respectively. Their security details were not withdrawn when they decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
It gives us concern that our political leaders are determined to learn very little about democracy and always seem too keen to overheat the polity over things that count for little.
The police and other security agencies complicit in this disgusting conduct should hold their heads in shame. Herein lies the essence of strong institutions which we have always advocated.
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