Gibbers

The God of heaven rules in Nasarawa

Last Tuesday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja sent Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, until then, the Speaker of the Nasarawa House of Assembly, packing. He was judicially replaced by Sa’ad Ibrahim, now-member representing Umaisha/Ugya state constituency, who is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It was a dizzying fall for the wannabe third term speaker. Since the leadership of the intermediate court moved the determination of judicial challenges mounted against suspected stolen mandates in the 19 Northern States, to Abuja, dozens of state and federal lawmakers have metaphorically bitten the dust. Being the final court in all election matters, save governorship and presidential, the court literally cleansed Plateau State of the ballot-victorious Peoples Democratic Party, reminiscent of APC’s Zamfara fate in 2019.

While parties in the Plateau drama, must as of necessity, abide by the controversial sweeping out, for the sake of national security, societal sanity and preservation of the civil rule, it is pertinent for the judiciary to have a standardized stance on judicial incursion into party affairs.

In its July 28, 2021 judgement in Akeredolu of APC v PDP’s Eyitayo Jegede, Supreme Court, in a narrow majority decision, held that political parties can’t be queried in how they conduct their internal matters, and wait for this, even when they are wrong in the applications of their own regulating codes!

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, of APC strain, told me that the Justice Mary Odili-led majority team, told someone in confidence that the controversial ruling was meant to push the troubles of politicians and their trade away from the judiciary, considering the conclusion that the system gets majorly drenched by the spills and buckets of intra-party politicking mess. Hopefully, the Plateau governor will bring the Akeredolu/Jegede ruling up at the Supreme Court, since it supersedes the Zamfara ruling, though redemption of any kind, may be thin, for the legislative clear-out, conducted by the Court of Appeal, being the final court.

Like the Nasarawa sacked Speaker, a couple of other assembly leaders, including Bauchi’s Speaker, also had the parliamentary gavel snatched from them, by judicial gavel. Power truly pass power. Elewon loga (prisoners have bosses;their warders). Gavel pass gavel. The parliamentary gavel is only superior when a superior judge is to be invested with the power of life and death that the law, confers on them. The moment the judicial gavel is handed to a judge, the fate of the political class is in his or her hand and woe betide that parliamentarian who can’t convince Me Lord, his mandate, is sacrosanct.

I have no joy in the fall of any man, because I desire higher heights too. But the fall of Balarabe-Abdullahi is a lesson in what Yoruba will call, gba folorun (be content). With the ruling party muscle and Governor Abdullahi Sule’s fiat, the sacked Speaker, wanted to do a brace against karma. No, it doesn’t work that way, because there is an all-powerful God who can handle powerful men, who go about snatching mandates.

Even when it was yet revealed that the March 18 mandate Balarabe-Abdullahi was parading was from ballot robbery, he, backed by Sule, grabbed another mandate on June 6, 2023, to force himself on the state assembly as its re-elected Speaker, when it was obvious a majority of the assembly wanted and voted Daniel Ogazi, his fellow party man, as the state number three.

For 45 days, Sule and Balarabe-Abdullahi threw the state into a tailspin, with the emergence of two Speakers, despite 13 lawmakers, queuing behind Ogazi of Kokona East state constituency, and the disgraced Speaker, having just nine lawmakers by his side, in the 24-man assembly. While media reports established that the Ogazi group elected him on the floor of the assembly, despite police harassment orchestrated by Sule, Balarabe-Abdullahi and his group had to retreat to the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, to conduct their unholy affair.

But Governor Sule insisted the illegal coronation must stand, deploying the state and party machinery against the Ogazi group. I have an older friend, a prominent Nasarawa/APC leader, in the mix. His mind, body and soul, was Ogazi, but he eventually yielded to Sule’s subtle threat, persuasion and pacification. He however, kept saying Sule can’t be trusted, explaining that he didn’t really ask his “boys” in the state assembly who were solidly Ogazi, to flip, which they eventually did, for Sule’s sake, but to get the state moving, despite the governor allegedly doing him in, substantially, like twice, in the recent election cycle. My friend’s heart is large. What the governor did to him, with abundant evidence, is almost unpardonable. But he got his lawmaker “boys” to rescue the governor, from a staring humiliating take-down as the leader of the party in the state, even when many in the state and party, felt and justifiably so, that Sule, Balarabe-Abdullahi’s godfather, deserved to be politically dragged.

In opposing Ogazi, Sule and the ruling party in the state, accused him of working with the opposition; elected opposition lawmakers, particularly those of PDP, which was a fact. But isn’t politics and particularly, leadership, about building alliances, consensus and bridging bridges? Is Sule saying he doesn’t have his moles inside opposition parties, just like they do, in his? If we accept that building a winning inter-party coalition is anti-party, will that make it illegal or unconstitutional? Yes, party leadership can and should ordinarily have a say in who it wants for a particular office, but its position can’t be a fait accompli.

I don’t fancy Philip Shuaibu as governor of any state in Nigeria, but certainly he can’t be the most undesirable seeking the office and it is gratifying that his principal, Godwin Obaseki has assured his deputy’s hand won’t be forced off PDP’s ticket, though he, as the leader of the party in the state, minded Shuaibu having it. As long as every interested person isn’t forced off the ballot, politicians can play their usual games with one another and losers won’t have sympathetic shoulders and tears, because they are all vultures, seeking carrion.

But the Nasarawa men of power were becoming too brazen, conducting daylight jagba (electoral robbery) everywhere.

After snatching Sa’ad Ibrahim’s mandate in the March 18 poll for the now-deposed Speaker, the Sule gang also forced Ogazi to renounce his, on July 21, with the governor grinning while inaugurating the assembly for his anointed.

But God’s judgement came swiftly on November 28, after Balarabe-Abdullahi’s four months possession of stolen mandates, to be number three for the third time. He wasn’t only thrown off the seat, he was thrown out of the assembly like a fevered phlegm.

Last Friday, Danladi Jatau, another Kokona representative like Ogazi, took over as Speaker, with Mohammed Oyanki of PDP as deputy.

What Sule feared most, has eventually come upon him. Something worse however appears to be in the horizon for him, even if the Supreme Court saves his seat. The apex court may be the final court of human justice, but there is God of rounded justice and He can show up from any angle. His ways and thoughts aren’t ours (Isaiah 55:8-9).

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE