Saturday 8 February 2014

Tambuwal and the burden of proof


Olalekan Adetayo

Many political analysts will not blink an eye before saying that while the body of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, may still be considered to be with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, his soul is with the All Progressives Congress.



In order to erase the perception that he is anti-Jonathan, especially in the way he was missing state functions attended by the President in the past, Tambuwal did not only attend the council’s meeting but also arrived early enough.

The Speaker was however taken aback by a joke cracked by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim. Tambuwal was exchanging pleasantries with his state governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, who recently defected to the APC alongside four other ex-PDP governors when the SGF approached them.

Facing Tambuwal, Anyim said loudly but jokingly, “Honourable Speaker, I will join you in the fight!”

He declared, “Which fight? I don’t know of any fight. There is no fight at all!” The three of them laughed over the matter.

The meeting started at about 10.50am  when Jonathan and five former heads of state arrived at the venue and journalists were excused.

 Less than 20 minutes after, however, Tambuwal emerged from the venue and left for the National Assembly where he presided over a meeting of the House of Representatives.

Trust journalists,the Speaker became a subject of jokes among State House correspondents immediately he left the Villa. They started casting mischievous headlines about him amidst laughter.

Some of the suggested headlines which did not see the light of the day on the pages of any newspaper were: ‘Jonathan orders Tambuwal out of Council of State meeting,’ ‘We can’t trust your loyalty, Council members tell Speaker’ and ‘Tambuwal storms out of Council of State meeting’ among others.

All these are pointers to the fact that many are still seeing the Speaker as only marking time in PDP; it is left for him to prove them wrong or right. The time he will do so may be near of far.

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