7th December, 2020
Michael Adeshina
The House of Representatives has distanced itself from the call for President Muhammadu Buhari’s impeachment by one of its members Hon. Kingsley Chinda.
Hon. Kingsley Chinda, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency in Rivers State at the House of Representatives had on Sunday, in a press release, called on Nigerians to compel their representatives to commence the impeachment process against the president.
Hon. Kingsley hinged his call on rising cases of insecurity being witnessed across the country and added that Buhari’s impeachment must be accepted by all Nigerians irrespective of political party, tribe, or religion.
However, House spokesman Hon. Benjamin Kalu rubbished Chinda’s call and described it as the “opinion of a single member of the opposition party in the house.”
Kanu, in his response, noted that the calls for impeachment were not logical as the President has been invited and is yet to appear before the House to explain what his administration is doing to address the security issue.
“If this call came post-President’s visit for the failure to dialogue well enough in securing solutions or due to his inability to put our positions to use, it would appear logical,” Kalu said.
“Unfortunately, this call is not only illogical, it appears as a tool mischievously thrown up to disrupt the agenda of the coming visit with all it sets out to achieve in the spirit of nation-building which remains the mantra of the 9th Assembly and is considered a joint task.”
READ KALU’s FULL STATEMENT:
RE: “Nigeria saddled with the circus” – Hon Kingsley Chinda and his lone voyage of impeachment call.
The attention of the House of Representatives and her leadership has been drawn to the press release by Hon Kingsley Chinda, titled “Nigeria saddled with the circus” circulated over most dailies on the 6th of December, 2020, where he called on constituents irrespective of political party, tribe or religion to compel their representatives to commence impeachment process against the president.
This opinion of a single member of the opposition party in the house has been misinterpreted by journalists as the voice of the entire House of Representatives when it does not represent the weakest opinion of the minority-caucus of the 9th House. Even among the minority caucus, Hon Kingsley Chinda lost the opportunity to speak for the entire minority when he lost the minority leadership election to Hon Ndudi Elumelu the minority leader of the 9th Assembly, a wound that has refused to heal.
It is the structure of the minority caucus leadership and majority caucus leadership that is recognized by the house as any statement not emanating from these and the spokesperson of the House does not in any way reflect either the minority, majority or general position of the 9th House of Representatives and should be disregarded like his other divisive, distracting, destabilizing and destructive positions. Just last week the speaker warned the media to desist from ascribing to the House the opinion of a single member, since we have a spokesperson.
The motive behind this press release as well as the timing leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of most progressives who were instructed by their constituents to request for an interaction with the president, a task many thought was not possible seeing that in the history of our Modern democracy none of the past presidents obliged the parliamentary request for an interactive session and none of the past leaderships of the assembly was able to use parliamentary back channel diplomacy, adopted and applied by the current leadership to secure the acceptance of Mr. President to this invitation; an outing that has strengthened our democratic principles.
If this call came post-President’s visit for the failure to dialogue well enough in securing solutions or due to his inability to put our positions to use, it would appear logical. Unfortunately, this call is not only illogical, it appears as a tool mischievously thrown up to disrupt the agenda of the coming visit with all it sets out to achieve in the spirit of nation building which remains the mantra of the 9th Assembly and is considered a joint task.
In the view of the 9th Assembly, it would remain a call made wrongfully to distract the members whose minds are set on the visit and the expected achievements. It is surprising, that Hon Kingsley Chinda, was among those who insisted on the invitation of the president, probably expecting a gross disregard from the president who surprisingly broke the jinx and kindly obliged our request. Is it not obvious that apparently shocked by the acceptance of Mr. President, he is on a new lonely voyage of personal agenda strange to the legislative agenda of the House and leadership? Where was his constitutional impeachment voice when his previous presidents of PDP extractions were invited but ignored the House? One wonders why he is just remembering his constitution now that a president is coming to accept our inputs to the solutions he is seeking.
Nigerians are therefore encouraged, having asked us to invite Mr. President, which we have done, to be patient and wait for the outcome of our meeting, before being misled by a lone voice on a frolic of his own, whose private opinion in no way represents the position of the House of Representatives.
We have only invited Mr. President for an interactive session and cannot be distracted by those with other-self, not House, motivated agenda.
Signed
Rep. Benjamin O. Kalu
Spokesperson
House of Representatives