By: Uchenna Awom, George Agba, Chibuzo Ukaibe, Abubakar Salihi President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday sacked Senator Joy Emordi as his special adviser on National Assembly matters.
Jonathan also terminated the appointment of Dr Tunji Olagunju as his special adviser on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
In a terse statement, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, said the sack of the two aides took immediate effect.
“President Jonathan thanks Mrs Emordi and Dr Olagunju for their services and wishes them success in their future endeavours,” Abati said.
Although Abati did give reasons for their sack, LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that Senator Emordi’s removal may not be unconnected with what a presidency source described as her poor handling of the relationship between the president and members of the National Assembly.
According to the source, “the president is not happy that his relationship with the federal lawmakers, especially those of the green chamber, had continually remained frosty, which was manifested in the visit of the Abubakar Baraje-led new Peoples Democratic Party (new PDP) this week”.
“The president has directed his men to shop for a politician with political clout and sagacity to effectively take charge of the liaison between the presidency and the National Assembly. That person is also expected to be able to quickly detect and avert situations like the brawl in the House of Representatives this week which culminated in a free for all at the green chamber,” the source added.
Also yesterday, there were strong indications that the plot to impeach the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, is not only real but is thickening.
But Tambuwal is allegedly not sleeping over the development as he had purportedly deployed his foot soldiers to move in and nip the plot in the bud. The first indication to this was the sudden adjournment of the session on Thursday, barely two days after the House resumed from its two-month-old holidays. They are billed to resume plenary after the October 1 independence anniversary celebration.
Though the speaker premised the reason for the adjournment on the fact that members would have time to scrutinise the 2013 budget and undertake oversight trips, sources in the House said it was a move to create room for manoeuvre and troubleshooting.
A top member of the House confirmed to LEADERSHIP Weekend that, indeed, a handful of lawmakers, particularly those in the mainstream PDP, are enlisting in droves, while some elements in the opposition said to be disenchanted with the speaker are showing interest but playing hide-and-seek game for now. As it stands, the source added, there is a sharp division in the opposition that used to be the power base of the speaker.
It was learnt that some top goons in the presidency are channelling resources to effect the change through a governor from one of the north-central states.
The governor, it was alleged, began deploying the funds in dollars and in some other strong foreign currencies about two weeks ago. The strategy, it was further learnt, was three-pronged: one is to thwart the speaker’s alleged sympathy for the splinter PDP by making the House ungovernable whenever he attempts to bring their matter to the House; the second is to push for outright impeachment after weakening his political base, which is the opposition; and, lastly, to cause mayhem in the event of anybody introducing any motion to impeach President Jonathan.
A source said the speaker’s men uncovered the plot to destabilise the House but failed to factor in the possibility of the “new PDP” as the immediate springboard to kick-start the process.
A member of the House who pleaded anonymity disclosed that, indeed, money was flying around, but doubted that the ultimate aim was to impeach the speaker. “The fear is not to impeach the speaker because that will be pretty hard; but the major fear is the groundswell plot to make the House ungovernable as was the case during the former speaker Mrs Patricia Etteh’s saga.”
The plot, a source said, is scary because of the dimension it may assume on the floor. The plotters know very well that it is a futile mission to impeach Tambuwal or even Jonathan, but the approach of igniting crisis on the floor could polarise the members along different cleavages that could lead to a prolonged stalemate, the source added.
It was this fear, according to a source, that made the minority whip, Samaila Kawu (APC, Kano), raise the alarm penultimate week, alleging there was a plot to destabilise the House and cause mayhem using the raging conflict in the ruling PDP. He cautioned that what was happening in the PDP was an internal party matter that should be better settled at the party level and should have nothing to do with the House of Representatives.
An opposition member of the House who would not want his name in print said they were put aback when Tambuwal failed to heed Hon. Kawu’s submission and decided to introduce the issue of the visit of the Baraje faction of the PDP to the floor. “We considered it a tactical error and we openly objected to it on the floor when he read the letter.,” he said. “Party crisis should not be introduced in a House populated by people from different political parties and that, indeed, armed his party members whom, we learnt, are being positioned to thwart any plot to impeach the president as being speculated in the media. The speaker got that signal and backtracked. I can assure you that nobody can impeach the speaker. He is loved. In the same way, no plot to impeach the president.”
The House, apparently to maintain its usual cohesiveness, denied the plot. Its spokesman, Zakary Mohammed, said the House was not aware of the speculations, but added that it was not disturbed because the power to remove the speaker rests with all members of the House and not just a few lawmakers.
The House, he said, was not contemplating taking any action against its leadership because it had no cause to do so. Notwithstanding, Zakari admitted reports of financial inducement of members to destabilise the leadership, but insisted that the House had no hand in the said plot.
‘New PDP’ alleges bribery of National Assembly
The Abubakar Baraje-led PDP yesterday said it had uncovered a plot by the presidency and the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led PDP to bribe National Assembly members to pass a vote of confidence on President Jonathan and impeach Tambuwal and other principal officers for allegedly identifying with the group.
The splinter party alleged that each member co-opted into the plot is expected to receive $25,000 (about N4.2 million) to sign an advertorial in some national dailies endorsing the president.
The party further disclosed that part of their strategy is to place advertisements in major national newspapers in the country, starting from next week, praising “a non-performing presidency to the high heavens so as to water the ground for President Jonathan’s expected declaration for the 2015 presidential contest”.
A statement by the national publicity secretary of the splinter PDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, however, asked Jonathan to call his men to order so that they do not plunge the country into avoidable chaos.
The statement continued: “The advice had become necessary following the uncovering of a plot to massively bribe House of Representatives members with a view to getting them to pass a vote of confidence on President Jonathan and then quickly follow it up with the impeachment of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and some other principal officers for their alleged sympathy for the Baraje-led PDP National Executive.”
We’ll use National Assembly to oust Jonathan - Danpass
One of the leaders of the “new PDP”, Alhaji Gambo Muhammad Danpass, has vowed that the group would not bow to pressure including the planned move to use force against its members to submit to the whims and caprices of the Tukur-Jonathan PDP
Danpass said that they were ready to use the National Assembly to remove the president from office because “our members now constitute the majority in the two legislative chambers”.
- See more at: http://leadership.ng/news/210913/jonathan-fires-emordi-plot-impeach-tambuwal-thickens#sthash.XAAHPu1N.dpuf
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