Tambuwal(Speaker house of rep.) under pressure to reject national honour

The Speaker of the House of Representatives,Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, is under pressure toreject the national honour of Commander of theFederal Republic bestowed on him by PresidentGoodluck Jonathan.THE PUNCHgathered in Abuja on Thursday thatthe development followed protests by manylawmakers, who allegedly described the title as“belittling” the position of the Speaker.Findings showed that the protesting lawmakershad asked Tambuwal to turn down the award.“They believe that it is belittling the office of theSpeaker to group him with serving ministers andother officials of the government who areordinarily answerable to the Speaker.“This is happening at a time when a contentiousaward of Grand Commander of Order of theNiger, has been given to a particularbusinessman.“That is the crux of the protest and the Speakerhas been under pressure from his colleagues toreject this title,” a National Assembly officialdisclosed to THE PUNCH.It was learnt that lawmakers were planning tomove a motion on the floor of the Houserejecting the honour but for the Sallah vacation,which prevented their sitting.Jonathan will present medals to the awardees onMonday, November 14, a day before thescheduled November 15 reconvening of theHouse.The Chairman of an influential committeeconfided in our correspondent that manylawmakers were unhappy with what they called“apparent lack of respect for the position of theSpeaker; the number four citizen of thiscountry.”The lawmaker added, “We are not happy; we areasking Mr. Speaker to reject this award; it isbelittling.”The Chairman of the House Committee on Mediaand Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed,though denied knowledge of the protest,admitted that his colleagues were free to hold“divergent views.”Mohammed told our correspondent that in aHouse of 360 members, it was expected thatpeople would feel differently about issues.He said, “Our reactions are not expected to bethe same; it is a very large House and the beautyof democracy is that it admits divergent views.So, I am not aware of the protest.”The spokesman said the “official position” of theHouse was that it welcomed the honourbestowed on the Speaker.