2015: Tambuwal talks tough

AS political gladiators and political parties scheme for relevance ahead of 2015 elections, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, on Tuesday, descended heavily on people he claimed are fanning embers of war in the polity. The speaker, who was speaking while giving his remarks on the occasion of the opening of the third session of the seventh assembly, entitled: “In togetherness we deliver on our mandate” said that “preparatory to 2015, many have started introducing political doctrines that are alien to democracy and destructive to peaceful social coexistence in a civilised society, they are busy fanning the embers of partisan hate and strife.” According to him, “ in this new doctrine, it is a political offence for a member of one political party to exchange greetings with someone in another political party, it is indeed a heinous crime for one to visit, attend the burial, birthday, coronation wedding or any such ceremony of someone in an opposing political party. “The proponents of this shameful doctrine not only offend our sensibilities, they constitute an affront on the whole essence of democracy and civilised coexistence and must be halted before they do incalculable damage to our polity. My dear colleagues, we refuse to be students of this school of thought,” he noted. Honourable Tambuwal equally maintained that, “I am strongly persuaded to state once again that from the little that we know, there is dichotomy between politics and governance. Thus, there is a difference between a candidate in electoral contest on the platform of a political party and an elected official who has assumed a non partisan responsibility and taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution, to serve the people and the nation. While the former is not merely at liberty but under a duty to be partisan, the latter must conduct himself in a manner worthy of the call to non partisanship in governance. “Needless to say that generally, whenever partisan interest conflict with national interest, it is partisan interest that must be sacrificed in the preservation of the national interest. The oath we take is that of constitutionalism and national service and not of suffocating partisanship,” he stated. Culled from Tribune newspaper