One sore aspect of Nigeria’s democratic experience is the impunity with which serving politicians remain in their positions while contesting for new ones. This has been happening in flagrant abuse of the Constitution, with the excuse that it is only an attempt to serve the people on other grounds.
This practice is common with lawmakers at the National Assembly, who abandon their responsibilities at either the House of Representatives or the Senate, to contest the governorship of their respective states.
While running around to contest as governorship candidate, they skip so many sitting sessions at the chambers, missing committee meetings and other oversight functions, apparently to the detriment of their constituencies that voted them in as representatives.
Instead of staying in Abuja to diligently serve out their tenure as the people’s representatives, whenever elections are about a year away, they go back to their states to create undue tension among the locals.
For instance, if the state where a serving senator or House of Reps member intends to rule has a sitting governor who is gunning for second term, there is always a troublous scenario.
The senator is thus seen as the governor’s albatross among the latter’s critics or detractors. And in no long a time, the situation soon dissolves into hostilities, culminating in bloody acts of political thuggery, assassination and, in some cases, arson.
Curiously, however, the 1999 Constitution shows that only unelected public officials are affected by the resign-to-run law, which stipulates that such a person must resign 30 days before the date of election.
It states, inter-alia, in Section 6, regarding qualification to contest for president, membership of the National Assembly and governor that, you are not qualified to contest, “being a person employed in the civil or public service of the Federation or of any State, who has not resigned, withdrawn or retired from the employment at least 30 days before the date of the election.”
As for those serving in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Constitution seems to be silent on whether or not they can remain as legislators, and still skip their duties at the National Assembly, while preparing and campaigning for elections.
This, perhaps, explains why observers have suggested that there is the need for the Supreme Court to give interpretation of the intendment of the Constitution regarding this practice, so there could be sanity in the electoral
system.
For instance, not many knew that James Faleke, from Kogi State, was a member of the House of Representatives, representing Lagos State, when he contested the deputy governorship seat in his home-state without resigning as a federal legislator. It was when his principal, the governorship candidate, former Governor Audu Abubakar, died shortly before the election was to be concluded, that stories began to unfold.
Then, Faleke felt that as running mate to the late Abubakar, he should have been allowed to succeed him at a time the Independent National Electoral Commission averred that the election was inconclusive.
Curiously, with the total votes cast, the All Progressives Congress, Faleke’s party, was already leading. In the long run, Yahaya Bello, who placed second to the late Abubakar at the party’s governorship primary, and who had foundered from the party, was called upon to come and inherit the party’s fortune. Today, he is the Governor of Kogi State. But the ripples generated by the scenario are still very much alive.
Elsewhere, the political misnomer of having serving lawmakers as governorship contestants, turning them to absentees at their duty posts, has been walking on all fours.
Recall Aisha Al-Hassan, the Women Affairs Minister who was a serving senator, went to contest the governorship position of Taraba State, and nearly got it until the ambition crashed at the Supreme Court. But before that, not a few riotous moments were witnessed while her duties as Senator representing Taraba North Constituency at the Senate were reportedly left to
suffer.
In the same way, while still being the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the current Sokoto State governor first hit the roads contesting for President, before he eventually ran home to Sokoto, to pick his party’s governorship ticket. Today, he is the governor of that state.
The Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, was also in the House of Reps at the time he chose to relocate home to contest for governor. The examples are almost
endless.
Already, the rumour mill is thick that the Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps, APC’s Sulaimon Lasun, is gunning for the governorship of Osun, slated to hold next year.
Also in Kogi, Senator Dino Melaye is now having a running battle with the incumbent governor, Bello. Melaye allegedly has his eyes on a governorship contest that is still three years away.
Considering the frictions this unhealthy practice has caused in the polity as well as the losses in man-hour in terms of the productivity of elected officials, it has indeed become expedient that the aspect of the Constitution that touches on this aspect of our national life be re-examined.
As long-term calls for constitutional amendment on a reasonable number of issues are now being heeded or getting the attention of the National Assembly, it is important that the much-needed amendment be effected to checkmate this gale of ill-wind.
In the same vein, while this much is expected from the National Assembly, a judicial pronouncement by the third arm of government, the judiciary, will also have a far-reaching effect in correcting the perceived
anomalies.
