By Our Correspondent
A member of the House of Representatives from Rivers State, Hon. Dr. Farah Dagogo, has picked holes with moves by the leadership of the House to sanction Rep Kingsley Chinda over his call for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall, Kingsley Chinda, a Lawmaker from Rivers State, had urged the National Assembly to commence impeachment moves against the President over rising cases of insecurity across the country, especially in the North, and the failing state of the Country’s economy.
However, the leadership of the House, through the Majority Leader, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, had threatened to take disciplinary action against Kingsley Chinda, terming his utterances ‘ desecration of the time honoured legislative practice’.
Picking fault with the planned move, Hon. Dagogo, who represents Degema /Bonny Federal Constituency in the House, chided the House Majority Leader for playing to the gallery.
A statement signed by Dagogo and made available to SINL Nigeria Online, in Abuja posited that Ado Doguwa, who cuts his legislative teeth as a member of the Third Republic and still a legislator in the current dispensation, ‘ought to be experienced enough’ to know that Chinda did not commit any ‘legislative infraction with his patriotic call’.
He said claims by the Majority Leader that the President failed to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives because of Kingsley Chinda was not only ludicrous, but has only exposed the leadership of the House to hypocrisy.
“I can’t fathom this kind of authoritarian or autocratic democracy that the Majority Leader of the House, and his supposed colleagues he claimed to be speaking for wants to practice in the House. It is sheer hypocrisy. We are all witnesses to the state of the economy and the perilous security situation, especially in the North, where the Majority Leader comes from.
“As a supposed seasoned legislator, who was in the third republic, will he in all sincerity admit that this 9th Assembly is actually playing its role of checkmating other arms of government, particularly the executive?
“Rather than trying to demonize Kingsley Chinda, I expected the Majority Leader to encourage and thank him for speaking the minds of many Nigerians that cannot find comfort in a country they call their homes, especially in the North. For me, and I believe it to be the position of majority members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the House, Kingsley Chinda did not breach any legislative rules that could warrant any disciplinary action and as such any untoward move geared in that direction will be resisted.
“We are not in a banana Republic, we must imbibe the tenets of democracy and no one member in the House of Representatives will cow the other. We are all equals, as we represent different Constituencies, positions are just privileges.
“Furthermore, it is high time, we, as a House, discountenanced this subtle blackmail of resorting to ‘harmonious working relationships between the executive and legislature to put things in its right perspective. If the President and other members of the executive are getting it wrong, which is happening now, it behoves us representatives of the people to point him or them towards the right direction and if they fail to heed it, we use constitutional means to call whomsoever to order, “he added.
