It all started like a child’s play, which was intended to be another laughing matter since we are all already aware that the issue of impeachment processes had long become a classic dramatic Nollywood script inside the hallowed chambers of the Kogi State House of Assembly in recent history. As a good student of political history in Kogi state since the creation of this state in 1991, I have quality knowledge of the worrisome and unwholesome pattern of impeachments in that assembly.
I am also fully aware that the misuse and abuse of impeachment processes had become a national stamp that could enrich the financially strapped NIPOST offices in Kogi state.
Since the return to civil rule, particularly under this democratic dispensation, Kogi state House of Assembly had taken a comfortable position in the Guiness Book of Records as the most impeachment prone legislature in sub-Saharan Africa. This feat was achievable because that place had been turned into a breeding ground and safe sanctuary for half-baked, quassi, demi and poorly educated, morally depraved politicians in recent time.
If you take a cursory perusal of the profile of most members of that institution, you would go into prolong coma out of sheer shock and disbelief. I continue to wonder how a supposed lawmaker who cannot speak or properly read a two-page paragraph written address found their ways into that important and sensitive arm of government in this age and time.
The question I have always asked myself is that what went wrong with the democratic mechanism for choosing our representatives into the parliament at both state and national levels that we have always ended up with the worst caliber of legislatures in the history of this country. Why is it that our first eleven politicians are finding it extremely difficult and impossible to win elections in this God forsaken part of the world?
I wonder why is it that Kogi’s worst examples keep representing various constituencies across the 21 Local Governments at both state and national assemblies as our lawmakers? How long would it take us to individually and collectively break this ancestral jinx in Kogi politics under this democratic dispensation?
It has become very pertinent to ask that what parameters and institutionalized fundamentals are we going to put in place that would quarantine social misfits, nonentities, drug addicts, academically challenged and political charlatans from seeking elective offices in the state in all future elections, now that we are in a new era of change under our purpose-driven Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
The point must be made that the foregoing unpleasant scenarios are at the core of the lingering crisis of confidence rocking the state House of Assembly in the last couple of months that had brought untold embarrassment and odium to the rest of us who are not even politicians for crying out loud.
Who would help me tell the two feuding gladiators in the troubled assembly that enough is enough in their unending legislative rascality that had become a source of irritation and distraction to the good people of Kogi state who yearn for a renewal of hope and new vision at a time like this for the rapid development and growth of our much battered and backward state recently adjudged as one of the poorest and insolvent states in the country.
It is pertinent to advise them if the two factional groups have nothing more meaningful and worthwhile on their poorly articulated legislative agenda to address, the leadership of the house should initiate an indefinite recess until such a time when common sense and patriotic fervor would have prevailed under the subsisting dangerous and worrisome circumstances that we have on our hands.
When the ongoing unnecessary grandstanding and senseless posturing being exhibited by all concerned is tantamount to open display of nuisance currency carried too far in this era of change mantra that dictates that every organ of government must embrace a new culture of decorum and decency in the affairs of our dear country. We are sick and tired of their collective show of shame in the name of impeachment process, that should have been resolved long go by relevant authorities in the state before it was turned into another political weapon by certain hawks, predators, and other agents of darkness in the state and in diaspora, who have sworn to distract and discredit this Alhaji Yahaya Bello led administration by all means possible in their own selfish and narrow interest that is invariant with the interest of Kogi state.
When the national assembly and judiciary were dragged into the fray, I rightly predicted that the stage was set for the first ever marathon impeachment saga in the history of the state since it was created in 1991. Ugly events unfolding before our very eyes have proved me right. My instincts told me that a veritable crack on the political architecture in the state had been opened for the baying opponents of Governor Yahaya Bello to launch a misguided, ferocious and insidious attack in their mindless mission to settle personal scores. With the benefit of hindsight, that unsettling scenario is what exactly is playing out presently.
Can somebody clear me, what was the driven force behind this uncommon naked desperation and overzealousness being displayed by a section of the national assembly over their misguided indulgence to take over the functions of the state assembly against all quality legal advice offered by the minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the federation on this lingering Kogi assembly crisis.
There deep rooted and mindless desperation became very glaring when you juxtapose the acts of legislative terrorism on Kogi state against the fact that it is already in public domain that the crisis had become a matter of multiple litigations in various competent courts in the land. Even my last born in primary six is sufficiently schooled on the legal implication of any matter that is before a court of law. Honestly, I am finding it very difficult to come to terms that the likes of Femi Gbajabiamila and other legal luminaries are actually making valid claims to possessing recognized law certificates.
Now that we are at the crossroad on this impeachment quagmire, my candid advice remains that Momohjimoh Lawal should be persuaded to return to the assembly with his group from wherever they are camping to come and embrace dialogue and amicable resolution of this vexed issue. One of the possible options on the table is to give him a deserved soft and comfortable landing by allowing him to honourably resign his position as Speaker and take his seat as an ordinary member representing Okene 2 constituency, so that he can continue the excellent work he was doing for his constituents before this assembly brouhaha that has kept him away from duty all this while.
If you ask him in all honesty and sincerity, the principal reason why he is running from pillar to post in his present predicament is because of the unpleasant and traumatic conditions associated with the gavel and sword of impeachment on any speaker in this part of the world. Expectedly, the embattled speaker would do anything humanly possible to avoid this fatal calamity in the hands of his colleagues who had indicated severally that they have had enough of his original sins of “incompetence and gross misconduct” in the discharge of his official duties since he became speaker in 2012, under controversial and unwholesome circumstances initiated and executed by the immediate past governor, Captain Idris Wada.
Recall that Momohjimoh Lawal first became speaker at the peak of the 2012 devastating flood that swept through over 9 local government areas in the state, at a time of the tenure of the former speaker, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello, who was wrongly impeached by a group of 12 out of 25 members of the house at the prompting of the then occupant of Lugard House. It is noteworthy, that Alhaji Abdullahi Bello and his group also took their complaint to multiple official quarters in the national assembly, and the presidency under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in a bid to save his head, all to no avail. When he had exhausted all sympathetic ears without success, he swallowed his humongous pride and arrogance and quietly submitted his voluntary letter of resignation and the rest as they say, became history.
Viewed against this backdrop therefore, it has become imperative for Momohjimoh Lawal to suffer the same fate so that another ugly chapter can be opened in the unfortunate political history of this state. It does not matter whether 5 or 2 members are behind his impeachment, given that what you sow is what you reap in these days that the law of Karma is now in our pockets.
In the same vein, let the present speaker, Rt. Hon Imam Umar continue the excellent job he is doing since he officially resumed duty. For the first time since the glorious and golden days of Chief Clarence Olafemi, the former indomitable speaker, the Kogi state House of Assembly has found a highly resourceful, humble, versatile, experienced, innovative, competent, highly educated, idea-driven lawmaker who is imbued with the right head and heart that are urgently required to provide the much desired quality leadership to forge a synergy with the judiciary and the executive arms to move Kogi forward in the right direction.
Let’s end this unending impeachment saga in the overall interest of all Kogites.
– Otori Ozigi, a veteran Journalist and concerned senior citizen writes from Lokoja.
