In the harshest words deployed yet in the course of the ongoing political crisis in Edo State, Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, on Friday described Godwin Obaseki, governor of the state, as a coward, dictator and a reminder of Nigeria’s repressive military rule.
In a statement titled ‘In Defence of Constitutional Democracy’ on Friday, Tinubu took a swipe at Obaseki, for blocking majority members of the house from performing their duties, and allegedly sponsoring hoodlums to invade the State House of Assembly Complex.
“The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern. Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators,” Tinubu said.
“Governor Obaseki’s governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson,” Tinubu, a two-term governor of Lagos State, declared.
Edo State, scheduled to hold an election on September 19, is currently engulfed in a political crisis arising from the quest by both the APC and the People’s Democratic Party to clinch the coveted governorship post.
The State is currently engulfed by an escalating political crisis that is rooted in the fight for the governorship of the state, which will be decided via the September 19 election. On Thursday, security agents besieged the State House Assembly building in Benin City, the capital following a crisis in the legislature. There are currently two factions in the State House of Assembly, each with its own Speaker and Deputy Speaker. One camp has its allegiance to the governor, who is seeking reelection on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, having dumped the All Progressives Congress.
The other camp is loyal to former National Chairman of the APC, who is bent on securing a win for Osagie Ize-Iyamu, his party’s candidate for the election.
There were allegations that hoodlums sponsored by the state government invaded the Assembly Complex and removed the roof, under the impression that the building was being renovated. Heaps of sand and gravel were also brought into the Assembly Complex to block access to the place, ostensibly on the orders of the government.
“First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words,” Tinubu said.
He described as “perverse” Obaseki’s refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function. It is a “cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the state’s budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons”.
Tinubu asserts that the legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. He cited the example of the UK, where the Parliament was famously said to be “that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government”. Arguing further, he said that in most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the people’s representatives in government.
“As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distil their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live.”
Tinubu declared further that in the context of a constitutional democracy such as Nigeria’s, the legislature’s authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is therefore not to be toyed with as “a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy”.
He further argued that it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states, he said, adding that the Constitution makes clear that a Governor’s role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his state’s legislature.
“In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above the nation’s constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment.
Although Governor Obaseki’s conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offence? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt,” he said.
He noted that in his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. He observed, however, the governor has become blinded by his personal ambition, that he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the state’s only legislative chamber.
“Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time.
“The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one man’s ambition. Governor Obaseki’s woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the state’s democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired,” Tinubu concluded.
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