The Majority Leader, Plateau State House of Assembly, Daniel Naanlong, who represents Mikang state constituency, tells JAMES ABRAHAM his thoughts on the purported removal of the Speaker from office

You were one of those present when the Speaker of the Assembly, Ayuba Nuhu Abok, was purportedly removed from office, what happened?

Any Plateau man who genuinely loves the state should be celebrating what happened. The removal of the former Speaker was long overdue because we made a mistake to choose a leader who is not in touch with leadership principles that would help drive a focused institution. His removal will put Plateau State in the right direction towards achieving its developmental goals.

The constitution says only two-thirds of the House, which should be 16 in your case, can remove the Speaker but we learnt only eight of you signed for his impeachment, and your colleagues said you didn’t even form a quorum. Was that not an aberration?

That’s not true. All the 14 All Progressives Congress members in the Assembly signed for the impeachment. When we discovered the 14 of us did not form the two-thirds majority constitutionally required to remove the Speaker, we lobbied those in the opposition and we got two from the Peoples Democratic Party. That was how we got 16 members to remove the Speaker. I challenge any APC lawmaker in the House who says he did not sign the Speaker’s removal to come forward. It’s not the convention to publish the names of people who signed for impeachment. The House rule prescribes that if you have two-thirds of members, you can remove the Speaker. We have told them that if you take us to court for impeaching the Speaker, we will provide the identity of those PDP members. We went to the House by 8am to carry out the act and if they said we went there by 6am, what were they doing there at 6am, because the opposition members were also there. I think they are giving us a bad name unjustly for carrying out a patriotic action.

The Speaker and other lawmakers loyal to him held a meeting where they passed a vote of confidence on him and said he remained the Speaker. Aren’t you concerned you have two Speakers now?

First, where they met cannot qualify as plenary as some people describe it. The legislature is an honourable institution that deserves some respect. You cannot meet with a committee of friends in a hotel and call it plenary, because they had a mace hung on wood and you have a former Speaker on sneakers and sitting on a plastic chair presiding. When we wanted to remove him as Speaker, we went to the Chamber and the Clerk and the Sergeant-at-Arms were there, and even though they made an attempt to run away with the Mace, the Sergeant-at-Arms resisted that. I think the former Speaker made a mistake and brought the impeachment upon himself.

How did you mean?

When the local government election was conducted recently, particularly the APC primaries, the Speaker’s candidate lost out in the primaries and he was putting undue pressure on the party and the government insisting on his candidate, who is a civil servant and former Secretary to Jos East Local Government. The party told him he could not be the candidate because of his record. Since then, coupled with other grudges he had against the governor (Simon Lalong), the Speaker found a new home in the opposition PDP by having an unholy alliance with them to undermine the efforts of the government to move the state forward. For example, since August, the Assembly has not met to hold a plenary.

Why was that?

We asked the Speaker to account for his stewardship. Since he became the Speaker, he never called a meeting of the principal officers even when that is the norm as stated in our guiding rules, which also stipulates how the House should spend her money. As I speak to you, the former Speaker cannot stand clean before the people of Plateau State and render an account of his stewardship for the money the House received. Do you know that it was when we raised the question of accountability that the Speaker became afraid and shut down the Assembly because he knew members would ask more questions? We also know that he has used his newly found relationship with the PDP to ensure that Plateau State does not move forward. During the recent crisis in Yelwa Zangam community in Jos North LGA, which prompted powerful delegations from other states, the Federal Government and others to visit, the Speaker was not available. Instead, he went about trying to create a narrative that the governor was supporting Muslims against the Christian community. Who gave him that script? When you tell people the governor is against the Christians, some people won’t ask questions. Such an attitude was unbecoming of a leader.

There are allegations that you purportedly removed him for standing with the people.

When a leader lacks the capacity to govern, he will try to survive by creating certain narratives to divert attention. He came in as a naïve legislator but was highly privileged and favoured even against high-ranking members. The governor pleaded that he should be given the privilege to be the speaker and we agreed. The legislature must work in synergy with the executive in order to bring development to the people. Was that the situation with the former Speaker? No. Instead, he assumed the role of a dictator. Is that how to run an institution like the legislature where there is a collection of intellectuals in various fields? It’s unfortunate he is creating a scenario that never existed. The truth is that Abok is incompetent to be a Speaker and he cannot account for his stewardship in respect of his financial engagements because he violated certain laws by spending outside the approved budget to buy vehicles for his use.

Were these what prompted his purported removal?

What eventually prompted us to remove him without delay was that when the governor wrote to the Assembly that he wanted to present the 2022 budget proposal, the Speaker refused to attend to the letter. The governor wrote again and we had to prevail on him to attend to the letter and he finally agreed. After the presentation, there was the need for us to sit and discuss the provisions of the budget so it could be sent to the committees to work on it. We asked the Speaker to release funds for work to start and he said there was no money. That seemed like his calculated attempt to undermine the government. Then, we said things must not continue that way. He failed to separate politics from governance. He can choose to align with anybody but he has no right to frustrate the budget meant to improve the lives of the people. So, his exit is for the good of Plateau people.