There is penchant for top Principal Officers of the National Assembly to be removed or suspended each time they tongue lash the nation’s sitting President or their colleagues as a way of punishment, particularly, if it is perceived that the erring principal officers’ incessant complaints and utterances were becoming unfavorable to the government of the day.
Some National Assembly leaders, particularly in the Senate, notably Senator Ali Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South and former Senator Adolphus Wabara who represented Abia South Senatorial District are among a few others who have suffered this fate.
For the second time as one of the principal officers in the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), was again removed as Chief Whip over ‘complaints about President Bola Tinubu- led All Progressives Congress (APC) government on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, similar to the fate he suffered in January 2017, when he was removed as Leader of the 8th Senate ,over what they described as embarrassing the then Senate President, Bukola Saraki .
In his latest ordeal, the NWC of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had written the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, asking for the immediate sack of Ndume as Senate Chief Whip.
This was basically because Ndume had accused Tinubu’ presidency of running a solo government despite hunger across the land, just as he had alleged in an interview that President Bola Ahmed had been fenced off and caged by certain forces and expressed concerns over the lack of appreciable action by Mr. President in tackling poverty, insecurity, hunger, and other pressing issues.
The APC, in the letter read by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio July 17, 2024, asked Ndume to resign from the party and join either the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or any of the opposition party.
Responding swiftly, the Senate sacked Ndume as the Whip and replaced him with the chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno, (APC) Borno North.
With this development, Ndume as a Principal officer who was made the vice chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations was also dropped and replaced immediately with Monguno to be the vice chairman
Ndume’s replacement by the Senate was sequel to a directive issued to that effect in a letter written and jointly signed by the national chairman of the party, Umar Ganduje and the national secretary, Senator Basiru Ajibola.
In a voice vote, the upper chamber took the unanimous resolution to effect the replacement, after the letter of complaint against the unbecoming utterances of the former chief whip, Sen. Ali Ndume was read by the President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.
The partly reads: “We write on behalf of the National Working Committee of our great party to express our displeasure, our outrage and our deep disappointment at the unbecoming, unfounded and baseless criticism of the government and the party, the APC by your majority whip of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume as a member of the ruling party.
“We expected a much more responsible and decorous behaviour from him. But this has not been the case. His uncouth and rabid outbursts against the governments, before the international and before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone but also undermines the party’s unity and cohesion and in addition, undermines the government’s effort to bring in foreign direct investments to Nigeria. As he is a ranking member of our party, his actions are unbecoming of a senior member of the Senate and sets a very poor example for others in future to follow.
“His latest tirade on air, during a programme on Arise Television where he referred to the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, commander-in-chief as being run by thieves, portrays Ali Ndume as a person who is bent on running the country down and running the party aground through incitements and chief propaganda.
“We have reviewed that Sen. Ali Ndume should honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally instead of hiding behind the veil of crass activism to decimate the hard-earned cohesion and goodwill that our party, the APC, is enjoying within and outside the country.
“His utterances which are sheer propaganda are not based on verifiable facts are unbecoming of member of the APC caucus of the Senate of the National Assembly. And it therefore behooves on the APC caucus to bring this to the attention of its members for necessary actions to curtail his deliberate mission to undermine the government and the party and the progress of Nigerians particularly those appointed by Mr President to work against his administration.
Consequently, Akpabio whose campaign for Senate Presidency was anchored by Ndume implemented the APC directives and announced Ndume as chair of the senate committee on tourism.
Seven years ago, in January 2017 to be precise, the APC Caucus in the 8th Senate replaced Ndume with Ahmed Lawan (APC, Borno).
Ndume’s predicament was then linked to the rejection by the Senate of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Ndume had claimed the Senate did not reject the official, prompting a counter reaction by Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi.
Two months later, in March 2017, the Senate suspended Ndume, for six months sequel to the recommendation of its committee on ethics and privileges.
The committee recommended the suspension of Ndume for “deliberately” bringing up an issue that painted the red chamber in a bad light.
It cleared Senate President Bukola Saraki of the allegation of taking vengeance on Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), for seizing a vehicle purportedly belonging to him.
It also cleared Dino Melaye, a senator from Kogi state, of the allegation of forging his degree certificate. Ndume had asked the Senate to investigate the allegation that it was exacting vengeance on Ali because the agency had seized a vehicle of Saraki. He also asked the senate to investigate the allegation against Melaye.
Another victim was former Senate President, Wabara, under whose leadership, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his first appearance before the National Assembly after his inauguration in 2003, warned that he would not tolerate what he described as the excesses that characterised his dealings with the National Assembly
His ordeal started when Senators from the South-East allegedly lured him into aspiring for the presidency during a meeting, he hosted in his Ohambele country home in in Abia State in February 2005.
At the end of the reception for the Senators, the Igbo Senators were said to have agreed that there was nobody better positioned than Wabara in the South-East to aspire for the presidency in 2007.
However, that got to Obasanjo, who was working on a third agenda and got enraged and quickly moved against Wabara with the live television broadcast of the N55 million education bribe for budget scam.
Wabara had in an interview disclosed that he rejected the sum of N250 million bribe offered to him to support the third-term agenda during former President Obasanjo’s administration.
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