Tambuwal must go – Babatope

Former Minister and member, Board of Trustees, BoT, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has insist­ed that the embattled Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, should quit office if he wants Nigerians to see him as a man of honour.

While react­ing to Tambuwal’s defection to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Babatope described the development as very unfortunate, adding that Tambuwal through his action has betrayed the ruling PDP.


“The best thing for Tambuwal to do now is to resign as the Speaker, House of Representatives. He has betrayed PDP. If he is a man of honour, he should hon­ourably resign his position. PDP will not miss him. The party is even going to wax stronger following his departure. But he should resign as the speaker,” he declared in this interview with TUNDE THOMAS.
The PDP chieftain also talks on Presi­dent Jonathan’s re-election, PDP’s chanc­es in Lagos State in 2015 and a host of others. Below is an excerpt:
What is your reaction to the defec­tion of the Speaker, House of Repre­sentatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party, to the All Progressives Congress?
Tambuwal, through his action, has em­barked on a wild goose chase, and in the end will regret his action. What he did is a strange development for Nigeria’s democra­cy, for somebody in his position as number four citizen to abandon the political party on which platform he became speaker to join another party.
Although as an individual, he is entitled to freedom of association and speech, be­lieve me, he has laid a very bad precedent which historians will find condemnable for years to come. But I wish him the best of luck and I can assure him that PDP will not be worse off by his action. His defection will become a source of strength to PDP.
Some members of your party, PDP, have been insisting that Tam­buwal should vacate his position as the Speaker of House of Represen­tatives since he was elected on the platform of the party, but Nigerians have also insisted that Tambuwal should retain his position citing cas­es of other politicians who have de­fected from other parties to join PDP and still retain their offices, what is your reaction to this?
PDP asked Tambuwal to resign his posi­tion purely on the basis of honour. Tambu­wal should resign his position on honour as the Speaker of the Lower House having left PDP. Even there is honour among animals, not to talk of human beings. He got to the post of speaker in a manner not approved by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
If you can still remember very well, PDP leaders sat down after the last general elec­tion in 2011 to determine who will hold what position, and the position of the Speak­er of House of Representatives was zoned to the South Western part of the country. But Tambuwal went out to lobby some PDP members, and members from other political parties to become speaker. Right from 2011, Tambuwal assumed position not given to him by PDP. It is a mark of honour for him to resign. But for him to remain in that posi­tion without being a PDP member is unac­ceptable. It is unfair. If Tambuwal is a man of honour, he should throw in the towel as speaker.
Why did the PDP refuse to sanc­tion Tambuwal when he went against the party’s directive to contest the post of speaker?
When we talk about legal aspect regard­ing Tambuwal’s action, the courts are per­mitted by convention and practice not to give rulings that will compound the prob­lems of the society, as doing so will throw the country into chaos, and that is why the judiciary at times are cautious on certain is­sues.
PDP was very cautious over this issue when Tambuwal violated the party’s princi­ple. What do we do? We need to handle the issue very carefully because if we fail to do so, it could trigger a number of events with­in PDP which may have negative effect not only on the party, but the country as a whole.
Mulikat Adeola-Akande from the South- West geo-political zone should have been the speaker, but Tambuwal came from no­where to hijack the position of speaker. Even when PDP leaders were looking for him with the aim of persuading him not to go ahead with his plan to become speaker, he made himself inaccessible. Nobody saw him, but he got some rebellious members of PDP in the House to back him, and with the support of APC lawmakers, he became the speaker.
Again, people don’t know this, the Board of Trustees of PDP considered the matter, and felt that they should really set up a com­mittee to examine the whole issue and rec­ommend to BOT what BOT should recom­mend to PDP about what the party should do on the issue, and this led to the setting up of Onyeabor Obi Committee, and I was a mem­ber of that committee, Sule Lamido, gover­nor of Jigawa State, was also a member.
After our meeting, members of the com­mittee felt that the only thing we can do to assuage the feelings of the South West and therefore recommend that somebody from the South-West should be appointed as chairman of party’s BOT. Obasanjo, who was then the party’s chairman, BOT, didn’t allow the recommendation to work for what­ever reason known to him.
President Jonathan now has to do several things to assuage the feelings of the people from the South-West by giving the zone sev­eral other appointments.
Eventualy, if Tambuwal has the courage to resign, then for goodness sake, the posi­tion of speaker should be given to Mulikat Adeola-Akande in line with the party’s deci­sion.
Why is PDP insisting that Tambuw­al should resign since defection has become a common feature among Nigerian politicians?
People can move from one party to anoth­er because we have not got law that regulates this. Having said that, as regarding Tambu­wal’s position as speaker of the House of Representatives, he got there by the virtue of being an elected PDP member, and PDP won majority in the House. What Tambuwal has done amounts to total betrayal of the party. Imagine Tambuwal leaving the party when we are all busy preparing for election in 2015. What can amount to betrayal more than that? Tambuwal has compromised his position, he has compromised his party, and he has thrown confusion into the country’s politics. But Tambuwal is a young man, I wish him the best of luck, but I hope he re­traces his step.
Tambuwal and members of APC are taking measures to ensure that he retains the office of speaker, they have gone to the courts, how do you see this development?
Let’s wait and see what will come out of all these. Tambuwal can’t eat his cake and at the same time have it, he should be a man of honour. He is no longer in PDP, he should leave what belongs to PDP for the party. If I were Tambuwal, and I did what he did, as speaker of the House of Representa­tives.
Some members of PDP have instituted court cases against President Goodluck Jonathan, they are asking the court to de­clare the president as being inel­igible to seek re-election, claim­ing that the President had taken oath of office twice, what is your position on this?
Those PDP members that have gone to court are only exercising their con­stitutional rights. It is a pity they have not come to hire me as their lawyer, I will collect their money and go to court on their behalf. But what I know is that PDP has decided that President Good­luck Jonathan should seek re-election. No court of law can administer the PDP. The courts will never do that. What courts can only do is to give guidelines to interpreting party’s policies, but the courts can never dictate to PDP on what to do.
As far as we in PDP are concerned, we are focused, and we have chosen President Goodluck Jonathan as our flagbearer for 2015 presidential elec­tions.
How do you see the letter writ­ten to President Jonathan by a popular Islamic cleric in Kaduna, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, pleading with the President not to seek re-election, but rather any other member of PDP can run for the election?
I would advise that nobody should take the letter to the president seriously. Nigerians should discountenance the letter. It is God that decides the fate of nations and individuals. Why should he say that Jonathan and Buhari should not contest? Why should he say that he sees danger ahead if Jonathan and Bu­hari contest? If Gumi is an astrologer, he should be able to see things that are positive. But again, as a Nigerian, Gumi is free to say whatever he wants to say but for us in PDP, we will not allow President Jonathan to take that kind of advice.
Lagos State has always been difficult for your party, PDP, to win and as 2015 is fast approach­ing, APC leaders have vowed to humiliate PDP again, what do you say to that?
For 2015, APC is in trouble in Lagos State. But APC has been able to sustain itself, because it has been using propa­ganda to hoodwink people. PDP is do­ing everything possible to defeat APC in 2015.
Are you saying that APC’s days in Lagos State are numbered, and the era of Tinubu’s influence is gradually coming to an end in Lagos politics?
Tinubu is a very difficult person to understand. We are watching Tinubu 100 per cent. To us in PDP, Lagos State is important to us in 2015. Honestly speaking, I think some elements believe that they have to push out from APC the Tinubu phenomenon, and it has got to a stage where those of us in PDP will benefit from that kind of thing.