The controversies over the status of the 16 All Progressive Congress (APC) members affirmed by the Court of Appeal as members of the Plateau House of Assembly have refused to simmer as a result of litigation and injunctions surrounding the saga. The 16 APC members have accused the Speaker of the State Assembly, RT. Hon. Gabriel Dewan, of acting on the script of the State Governor, Caleb Muftwang, by refusing to swear them in. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, a veteran journalist and former member of the State Assembly and House of Representatives who is presently the Special Adviser Strategic Communications to Governor Caleb Muftwang of Plateau State, Dr. Timothy Golu, speaks on the circumstances surrounding the political umbriligio and the government perspective, among other issues. Excerpt:
The embattled APC members, affirmed by the Court of Appeal as members of the Plateau State House of Assembly, have alleged delibrate refusal to swear them in. They also accused the Speaker of the House of acting on the script of Governor Caleb Muftwang. What is the government›s position on this?
This is just their imaginations to weep up sentiment; they just want to say something to get people›s sympathy; this is nothing but sheer sentiment. They have abandoned the law; they are just trying to help themselves achieve whatever they feel they want to achieve, forcefully or otherwise. It is so unfortunate that they are threatening the whole state; they are threatening everybody. I read their press statement yesterday, and they also said they are going to move from the doors to the steps of people who they believe are against their inauguration. They are calling on people, including the United Nations, the President of this country, and the leadership of the National Assembly, to help them out of the predicament they found themselves in. The choice of words they are using is not democratic at all; it doesn›t portray them as perceived Democrats. If you are doing things in a democratic environment, you must mind your language, no matter the level of provocation or how you feel about it. They said they were losing patience; you cannot lose patience in a democracy, and they were threatening to take the law into their own hands. To us, they are trying to create chaos and insecurity, or probably to intimidate and cow the government into doing what they want to be done. Unfortunately, it is not about the government; it is about the law. The Court has given its own instructions and judgment through a restraining order. It is for them to either comply or go back to court; there is nothing anybody can do about it. They are the beneficiaries of the Court of Appeal, and yet they don›t want others to explore the same legal process they are enjoying. The matter on the ground is between them and the Labour Party, not the PDP. When the State House of Assembly resumed from its recess, the Speaker was about to reconvene the House. He showed them the court injunction restraining him from swearing in the APC members to all of them. It is expected that if they are not satisfied with the court order, they can go back to court and challenge it. The order is from the court of law, not the state government. The 16 PDP lawmakers that were sacked went back to the same court that sacked them. We democracts sometimes always believe that we have other stories to tell, and our lawmakers believe that the Court has not seen the other aspects they might have seen because the Supreme Court of the land gave a clerical understanding of the whole issue that started here in Plateau State when a judgment in a matter that they lack jurisdiction on. It also means that other processes were followed in error, and that is what informed the PDP to go back to the Appeal Court. They are referring to themselves as elected lawmakers, but looking at it critically, were they elected? certainly no, but legally speaking, they might be referred to as elected if they follow that kind of way and begin to use any other language, and they encourage people to begin to use any other language. They shouldn›t be angry when people don›t recognize them as elected lawmakers because they are a product of technicality from the court. They were not elected, but by the technicality of the process. We do not want to be provoked, but they are provoking us. We have swallowed our pain of losing our seats to these people that were not elected, but instead of them keeping quiet and facing the legal processes ahead of them with integrity, they are trying to provoke us as a government. We are not part of the legal brouhaha, but we are in charge of the government in Plateau State, so we would not fold our hands when somebody decided to take the law into his or her hands. The matter is in the court of law; they should go there and pursue their case.
At what point did the Labour Party come into this issue?
It is about the 13 Labour Party candidates for the State Assembly election who went to court and got an injunction restraining the Speaker from swearing them in. It is not about the PDP; the PDP is also affected by the restraining order; they only came to the House following the judgment of the Supreme Court.
But the 16 APC lawmakers claimed that those who elected them were disturbed by their non-swearing in and claiming that they have been appealing to the people of their various constituencies to remain calm; otherwise, they would have taken the law into their hands (cut-in).
They should not provoke us to say something; nobody elected them. Who are the people? Is it the court that is putting pressure on them to be sworn in, and the court is not doing anything like that? Even before the election, the 13 Labour Party candidates whose party and logo were omitted from the ballots went to court, and the court directed INEC to include them in the election, but INEC went ahead with the election without them; it ignored the court directives on this issue.
They were not concerned about that; they were only concerned about their own at the Appeal Court, and suddenly the Labour Party got its judgment. Are they not supposed to comply with it? If you are in the shoes of the Labour Party, will you not insist that elections should be conducted because their logo was omitted? The Labour Party is not talking about technicalities; the LP is talking about the omission of its logo, which is fundamental. The injunction stopped the 16 APC members from swearing in, so they should abide by it. It is all about what the law says; instead of going to court, they want to hold the Speaker to ransom.
As a former state and federal lawmaker, I want to believe that you are quite aware that there are certain things that the executive branch cannot do with the present composition of the State Assembly, which has just eight members. How has the state government been transacting government business without the 2/3 members of the House in place?
There is no decision that the eight members cannot take; they have been working together with the state government, and there has never been any complaint from the executive that the House is limited in taking decisions on how to unite bills or motions.
You can see how partisan they are. That is why, in the last eight years under the APC, no one has been involved in governance. As you can see, the governor inaugurated four committees yesterday. Some of the APC members are on the committees because we believe that anyone in the state who has something to offer should be given the opportunity to serve.
The impression out there is that the state government is involved in all this for fear of impeachment if these 16 APC members eventually take their seats.
Impeachment for what? If this is their mindset, they must be joking and deceiving themselves. I don›t want to comment on things like this; it shows the kind of mindset they have.
As a veteran journalist, how will the PDP-led government in the state justify the appointment of over 200 media aides?
It is the people that refer to them as media aides; they are communication change agents, depending on how you see it. The purpose of engaging these young people is to pass information to all the nooks and crannies of the state. The last administration appointed over 400 of these people. It would have been wonderful if the government of Simon Lalong had utilized them the way it should, but many of them are just media commentators attacking anyone who has a contrary opinion to whatever the government was doing then, even if the criticism was constructive. This time around, we want to change the narrative, but the ones appointed by this administration are not to repeat the negative responsibility of the past administration. In our own section, the strategic communication unit, we have some of these people attached to key areas, especially the MDAs, including newly established committees, so that they can feed the government and the people information about what is happening there. We want the state to be fully informed of whatever is happening. If you are doing something, you must be proud that people know what you are doing. I want to say that we are not recruiting attack dogs or media commentators. We are recruiting communication change agents so that Muftwang gospel will get down to the people at the grassroots.
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