Chairman, House Committee on Public Service Matters, Hon. Andrew Uchendu, is a ranking member of the House of Representatives who led 37 of his colleagues in the historic defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last year. In this interview with Onwuka Nzeshi, the lawmaker describes the exit of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to the opposition as a major loss to the ruling party. More after the cut...
What’s your reaction to Tambuwal’s defection to All Progressives Congress (APC)?
I want to really congratulate Mr. Speaker, the Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal for a number of reasons. In the first place, he has proved to the world and to us in Nigeria that the key to our problem in this country is leadership. You can lead a people; you can lead a country with multiplicity of ethnic nationalities and still stabilise the ship of the state. Tambuwal was a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from the inception of the 7th Assembly. Majority of the PDP members, former members of the defunct felt he was the one that could lead the House. Against all predictions, against the principles and policies of his party, he was enthroned and sworn in as Speaker. He has managed the House for three and half years with minimal turbulence or no turbulence at all.
He won the admiration of all members. In his home base, the political office holders from the governor down to the councillors fully defected to the APC but he remained in the PDP to stabilise the ship of the state. A good number of us who were then in the PDP defected to the APC and some people went to court to ensure that we were thrown out of the parliament, but Mr. Speaker adhered to the provisions of the constitution and protected each member; friends and foes alike. When it became appropriate and germaine, he took the bull by the horns. He did not only take the bull by the horns, he also fitted the declaration of his defection to an appropriate time when it would be acceptable to all and sundry. Obviously, he read the mood of the nation; he read the mood of his state; he read the mood of the House and then took the decision that majority of us had predicted will come to pass. Like he said, all politics are local. He cannot continue to be an island in the PDP in Sokoto State.
Tambuwal’s membership of the APC been an open secret before his formal defection. So, what is the big issue about the timing of this move?
To me, the timing was most appropriate because he also looked at the programme of all the political parties in the country and very intelligently and in consultation with his colleagues took a decision that we all proceed on recess for one month. This is to enable all the members of the House from the various political parties to go back home to pursue the political aspirations in one form or the other. We all know that the PDP, APC and the rest of the parties are currently in the process of picking nomination forms and getting their candidates through primaries for the next elections. This one month break will enable members to go back to constituencies to see if they will be lucky enough to have their mandates renewed. This was why Mr. Speaker defected to his new party.
But this long adjournment is seen in some circles as a strategy to prevent any swift reaction from the PDP that could lead to a change of leadership in the House. Don’t you see it from that angle?
No. I don’t see it that way. I have earlier told you that the Speaker, Tambuwal, is generally accepted by the various political divides in the House. Well, the public could make such insinuations on his decision to adjourn the House immediately after his defection but the correct thing is that all the political parties have their nomination programmes between now and December and members of the National Assembly whether House or Senate need to go back home to see how their mandates could be renewed. If they don’t do that now, they will definitely lose out. It is in the interest of Mr. Speaker and all the 360 members of the House of Representatives to proceed on recess now.
Are there no fears that the ruling party, the PDP, may want to instigate crisis in the House to get Tambuwal out of the seat?
The House is not going to be in session for the next one month. Moreover, this House has maintained a reasonable level of independence and no matter what the ruling party may think or do, it is not going to affect the political dynamics in the House of Representatives. The only thing that I can imagine is that they ( PDP) will go back to the drawing board. As a ruling party, they’ve lost a big fish. They’ve lost a good leader in Tambuwal. Again it is not just about Tambuwal, the PDP should have done everything to forestall the defection of the five former PDP governors because this is where the whole thing is coming from and I see them losing out in the 2015 general election. The picture is getting clearer by the day that Nigerians desire change. Things must change. We just can’t continue this way. We must get a government that will be selfless. We must get public officers that will think more of the people than themselves.
You were once a member of the PDP before your defection to the APC last year. If you were still part of the PDP, how would you have reacted to this development?
I agree with you that I have been a member of the PDP but remember that things were moving on reasonably well and we were hoping that we would continue to improve on our performance until the last four or five years when the PDP lost control in virtually all sectors of the polity. Why would a party that had genuinely carried out its congresses according to its own rules sit idly by and watch one or two men upturn the structure? You cannot run election without a platform but if you chose to ignore this fact then there is no hope that the good people will be given the opportunity to serve.
People like us must check out of such a system. In all my years in parliament, I have been more concerned with what is there for my people and not what is there for me. I challenge anybody to go and check my records. I have lived a very simple life because I am more for the people than for myself. Now that it is beginning to be the politics of clientelism, some of us can’t just fit in any more. A situation where might is right. No. We want to identify the weak links in the system; we want to identify those who are handicapped and fight for them because they are part of this country. These vulnerable groups must be provided for in our society. I am not speaking for those whose goal is to acquire all the wealth on earth for children of their tenth generation.
Why the persistence of the crisis in Rivers State?
It took my people in Ikwere land almost 40 years to be given opportunity by other tribes in Rivers State to run the affairs of the state in the person of Governor Chibuike Amaechi. By next May, we would have ran government for eight years but because power has slipped into our hands, some people think we should run it for another eight years. Some of us are thinking that an Ikwereman should succeed an Ikwereman. This s what is creating crisis there now. Can you allow other ethnic groups to thrive? I cannot be party to a group that will take decision today that will foreclose the future political ambition of my own people including my children. No. I will not be party to it.
Are you part of those championing the clamour for power shift in Rivers State?
I am not just championing it in Rivers but in the country as a whole because of the political developments in the country. We must take into consideration the pluralism of our society. Anything short of this will be myopic.
In other words, you are in support of the clamour by the riverine groups to rule Rivers State in 2015?
It is not about riverine people; it is about rotation. There is no senatorial district in Rivers State that hasn’t got upland and riverine components. The important thing is the common denominator which is to rotate power among the senatorial districts. I think that the constitution of most of the parties provide for rotation too.
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