I can't stop PDP members from defecting to APC- Tambuwal

Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal has said that he cannot stop
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members in the
House from defecting to All Progressives Congress,
APC.
Tambuwal spoke as the former Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore said that Nigeria made
a costly mistake by adopting the American
presidential system of government.
Belgore speaks
Belgore who was the Chairman at the 11th Daily
Trust Dialogue yesterday in Abuja in his remarks
also deplored high level of impunity and corruption
in the country.
He said: “We made a great mistake by trying to
copy the United States of America, when culturally
and fundamentally we are different from USA
citizens. A lot of anomalies exist in our constitution.
“Our country is known as Federal Republic of
Nigeria. This is an anomaly. We have Igwes, Obas,
Alafins, and Emirs, who are very relevant to our
peaceful co-existence. We do not need to copy
America to grow as a country.
“Nigeria can have a constitution that can survive, if
we look inwards, culture, manner and way of life.
We must have a re-look at our past, liaise it with
the present so that we can build a powerful future.
Impunity and corruption
“Due to constant changes in governance, Nigeria
has never experienced stability to allow it move
rapidly forward. There is impunity and corruption in
high places, which have led to instability.” He
pointed out that “no two democracies are the same,
whether presidential or parliamentary.’’
Belgore said the problem with Nigeria was
corruption, saying some chief judges were now
romancing with their governors.
*Tambuwal
“Some chief judges don’t even sit at all. They follow
the governors all about. The governor will be
opening a clinic in a village and you will read in the
newspapers the next day that he was ‘accompanied
by the Chief Judge’. These things should not be
happening at all.
“People who should not be lawyers are now made
Senior Advocate, it is disastrous.
“Nigeria is richly blessed with natural resources
and highly populated with very literate people but
are constrained by constant attempts by some
foreign powerful countries to destabilise it and
make it very difficult to govern,” he lamented.
Tambuwal
Also speaking at the Dialogue, Speaker of the House
of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal said he
cannot stop members of the PDP in the House from
defecting to other political parties.
Tambuwal spoke through the deputy spokesperson
of the House, Victor Ogene on the theme,
“Incumbency and impunity in politics-safeguarding
our democracy beyond 2015.”
He faulted those that criticised reading the letter
written by members who defected from the PDP to
the APC that it was an “encouragement of impunity.”
Tambuwal said: “All of us know that no fewer than
four governors had defected from their political
parties and issues were not made out of it. If some
members representing different federal
constituency decide to defect, I don’t think it is right
for anybody to expect Mr. Speaker not to read the
correspondences that comes to his table. He is first
and foremost an embodiment and expression of the
will of all members of the house.”
Other speakers
In their different presentations, former President of
the Civil Liberties Organisation, Ms. Ayo Obe; former
Chairman of the Transition Monitoring group, Festus
Okoye and a senior fellow at Centre for Democracy,
Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim expressed fears over the
success of the 2015 general elections.
Okoye said the present dangers facing the country
ahead of the 2015 general elections were “the
empowering of militant groups and elements, the
influx of small arms, the official backing of oil
thieves, insurgency and the deliberate and
contrived creation of an atmosphere of fear and
insecurity.
“This is self-evident in the acts and utterances of
some incumbents and their cronies suggesting that
they will ‘break the pot’ if they perceive that they
may not win the 2015 elections.
“Conversely, there is the desperation of those that
want to be incumbents in 2015 using desperate
means and measures to get to power and they are
also ready to break the pot if they cannot win.”
With the recent events in the country, Obe warned
that the season of political violence might be lurking
in the corner.
“As we face 2015, it seems as though the Jonathan
presidency has been more engaged in battling local
terrorism gone international in the form of Boko
Haram and the issue of political murder has not
regained the heights it attained in the past; but as
we approach the next round of elections, the early
alarm raised by the Northern
Governors Forum over the Kwankwaso attack
betrays a nervousness that the season of election-
oriented political violence may be stirring again.
“Particularly now, that in some cases, it will be
possible to hide political assassination under cover
of terrorist attack.”
Obe noted that the intervention of Jonathan when
Dokubo was arrested in Benin Republic had further
strengthened the belief that Dokubo was enjoying
the protection of presidency in making inflammatory
remarks.
“When one considers the kind of mild comments for
which the likes of former FCT Minister, Nasir el-
Rufai or Dr. Emmanuel Fashakin have been detained
for questioning by the secuiryt agencies, it is
difficult for ordinary citizens to reach any other
conclusion than that Dokubo is enjoying the kind of
impunity that only the certainty of protection
afforded by the incumbent can provide.
“We do not know at this point, whether President
Jonathan will contest in 2015, or whether the
Nigerian people will vote for him if he emerges as
the presidential candidate of his party in the coming
elections.
“But the impunity enjoyed by Dokubo which cannot
be separated from the powers of the president with
regard to the security agencies leaves little
opportunity for those who might wish to distinguish
the electoral fortunes of the President from
Dokubo’s utterances.”
Obe warned that if nothing was done to address the
ills in Nigeria, they were likely to become worse and
could “create the fertile ground in which a thousand
lesser acts of wrongdoing will flourish”.
“So if we want to secure democracy beyond 2015, I
suggest that we need to take action on these
cancers now”, she added.