(Personal Opinion)
By
Anas Sani Anka
When I heard the news of the suspension of the two state legislators over an act of aiding armed banditry I said to myself, may be that would be the excellent beginning of ending the social conflict that ravaged the state for years because the political dimension of the problem is now facing the needed attention.
I again said to myself for members of the state house of assembly to accuse their colleagues of aiding and abetting banditry it is no doubt a big blow to the government itself because the development is an indicator that the government is run by people who are lacking in trust.
But as a journalist who is trained to put meaning to every critical decision of political concern, I took time to engage many members of the state house of assembly with a view to ascertaining the extent of their facts.
I had discussed thoroughly with the mover of the motion Yusuf Kanoma and from his submissions to me the allegation is raised based on some invisible actions and behaviors of the two legislators which may presume to be right or wrong.
Specifically Kanoma said, “when the father of Zamfara Speaker was abducted the lawmakers were seen jubilating and when they were asked to come and take the new “oath of self distancing” they disappeared to the shadow Skye”.
I now asked myself, are these two points enough to link someone who is representative of the people with serious crime like banditry? But again I said, hence Hon. Kanoma is urging the house to order for investigation let’s await the outcome and see what the findings may look like may be the allegations may sound weak by way of rational reasoning but facts that may appear from the investigation may be shocking.
But what surprised me more was what the lawmaker representing Anka Hon. Yusuf Muhammad told me, especially his alleged conversation with the Governor.
He told me that one day Speaker Magarya called him and intimidated him over his plan impeachment move, and he promised him that he would pay for his deeds as Chairman of the movement.
As if that was the end, Yusuf said “one day the Governor of Zamfara State Bello Matawalle called him after early morning prayer and started rendering abusive words on him threatening that he would deal with him and those other members trying to perfect the impeachment move against the speaker.
He said the Governor had threatened to drag them to EFCC and also forced them to retire all the money they have collected from him since their inception.
He added that the Governor promised to tell the whole world that they are the one responsible for the abduction and murder of father of Zamfara Speaker.
After we concluded I said to myself, there is more to politics than what ordinary person would understand about the new political crises rocking the government of Matawalle. Meaning “politics given birth to banditry”!!!!!.
Now the point of contention is examining the extent of the connection of these legislators with “banditry” as alleged by Hon. Yusuf Alhassan Kanoma and I think in my opinion with the recent steps taken by the two lawmakers of swearing with the holy Quran the investigation by the house committee is needless.
Again even for morality, I would have advised Yusuf Alhassan Kanoma to either swear with the holy Quran even though he said it is an “allegation” or he advises the Speaker to call off the investigation by the house committee on ethics and allow the anger of God almighty to befall anyone of them who is not sincere in the whole drama.
Now back to my other point of my argument, why are these (18) members of ZMHA planning to impeach Speaker Magarya? Yusuf Anka said because of his leadership in incapacitation and his inability to secure what is legitimately meant for the members of the state house of assembly.
I, personally, share his sentiment even though I may be wrong in my conclusion about the speaker and the way he run the affairs of the house for two years but as observer of the political development in Zamfara no one can argue against the simple fact that Speaker Nasiru Magarya has sold away the “house supremacy” to the executive arm the “Governor” specifically.
Someone may not be surprised because from day one the Governor and his political advisers may opt to fixed Magarya for that heavy job of Speaker knowing fully he does not have the capacity and requisite experience to handle the job of speakership.
If the Governor meant well from inception, he should have allowed the members to follow their house standing rule and elect their head because it is completely their business but for reason of “intended marginalization” he makes sure that he fixed the Speaker against the interest of almost all of them. We are living witness to what has transpired in 2019.
I am not saying someone who does not have experience or capacity cannot deliver but only, if that person understands his limitations and engage the competent hands to assist him with advice interms of decision-making the much anticipated gap may not be noticed at the end of the journey.
Regarding the current speaker Nasiru Magarya, he has developed new political attitudes since his emergence as Speaker, especially by distancing himself with the public as politician he knew fully that may be dangerous.
He has for instance made himself inaccessible to the people, he has also become incommunicado even to us media people who wanted to engage him from time to time on matters of legislative concern. His phone is always on “call forwarding mood” and many people said he is only accessible via WhatsApp call”.
When this incident happened for instance, I tried calling him no way, chat him on whatsapp even though he read the message but he refused to even sent acknowledgement and I wanted to hear his side of the story regarding what Yusuf Anka said about him. Many people including politicians raised same complaint against the Hon. Speaker.
This is added with the fact that his information managers are the worst in terms of killing his job. They think the only thing they should do as information managers to the number (3) man in the state is to be writing meaningless press statements that speak bad about the image of the house.
I expected the Speaker to be a good student of history by agreeing that “loyalty does not pay for successful legislation” and if anyone is in doubt of this my hypothesis he shall ask former Speaker of Zamfara Sanusi Garba Rikiji where has loyalty dragged him with former Governor Yari?.
Now the battle is brought to public limelight and with the manner at which these members were dragged to allegedly having connection with bandits if at the end of the day, the allegation has not been substantiated it would surely be the beginning of the end of peace in the Zamfara state house of assembly.
Yusuf Anka has already declared his intentions of dragging the state house of assembly to court at the end of the investigation, and that would be another dimension to the crises.
And again, what is left for Speaker Magarya is to seat up and carried his members along, fight for their legitimate entitlements and as much as possible ensure clear separation of power between the executive and legislatures.
It is good he tight his political destiny to “God almighty” not “Governor Bello Matawalle” because even the Governor cannot say clearly what his political fate may look like in 2023, and I don’t need to elaborate further on my argument in this paragraph since the crisis in the APC Zamfara are almost looking as unsurmountable.
A clear example of the weakness in the leadership of Nasiru Magarya as Speaker is the manner in which the newly local government Sole Administrators were screened and confirmed by the house on Tuesday, no thorough examination of their strengths and weaknesses and no assessment of their previous records of achievements, they were only asked to drop their CV take a vow and leave.
It is time for Zamfara legislators to act as “the watchdog” and do what the constitution empowers them to do. The issue of cordial working relationship between executive and legislators is not borne out of Speaker’s loyalty to the Governor but by putting eyes on the executive arm to do the right thing in the overall interest of the system.
As for Governor Bello Matawalle he needs to learn from the experience of his predecessor Abdulazeez Yari Abubakar, especially the heavy blow he suffered when Rikiji led state assembly attempted to begin impeachment process against him.
It is on record, there was no prominent politician in Nigeria Abdulaziz Yari has not reached out for intervention during his ordeal with the state house of assembly members and I think Governor Bello Matawalle should not take chance because there is no “certainty in politics”.
If what Yusuf Anka has said about his alleged conversation with the Governor is true then, Governor Matawalle should play with caution because by the time these legislators are pushed to the wall the story would be different couple with the fire he is playing with, especially “his face-off with General Aliyu Gusau political empire” and Abdulazeez Yari Abubakara led APC faction the battle ahead may likely be politically injurious.
God bless Zamfara State.
Anas Sani Anka is a journalist based in Gusau, Zamfara State.
