Nigerian lawmakers on Wednesday engaged one another in a free-for-all as factions within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battled for relevance when leadership of the faction opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan visited the parliament.
Rival members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, engaged in open brawl.
A delegation of the breakaway faction - chaired by Kawu Baraje - was slated to meet with the leadership of the House and brief its loyalists about the crisis that led to what is now called ‘the new PDP.’
Seven of the ruling party’s 23 governors have formed the new faction, backed by a former vice president, many federal and state lawmakers and influential politicians in Africa’s most populous country.
They are demanding the ouster of the party’s leadership and assurances that the incumbent president will not seek re-election in 2015.
The rebel governors, who attended the meeting, watched in awe as blows flew and clothes were torn.
Members climbed on chairs and jumped on tables. Tempers ran riot as the hall erupted in violence.
Lawmakers from the two factions launched at one another’s throats in an attempt to establish dominance in the hall.
Afees Adelowo, a PDP member from Nigeria’s Southwest Oyo, had his white flowing robe torn into shreds by a former member of the House and Women Leader of the rebels, Binta Masi Garba, as the latter sought to stop Adelowo from his anti-Baraje chants.
On the right side of the packed hall, a group of pro-Baraje lawmakers exchanged blows with Henry Ofongo, a PDP representative from the president’s home state, Bayelsa.
Ofongo, along with some of his colleagues, was alleged to be disrupting the session with his attitude as he shouted “Point of Order! Point of Order!.”
Soon, there were pockets of fights in various parts of the hall.
In a speech calming frayed nerves, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal admitted that the situation in his party puts democracy at risk.
“As politicians and leaders, we’re deeply concerned about developments in the country in recent weeks, especially the face-off within our Party,” he told reporters in Abuja.
“This development, once again, exposed our vulnerability and the status of the culture of inter-party democracy and tolerance.
“Nigerians fought to install this democracy and many paid the supreme price in the process. Therefore, we must not by our actions thwart the supreme sacrifices by our heroes past with levity.”
Prof Auwalu Yadudu, a former legal adviser to the military regime, said the tension in the ruling party puts the country at a great risk.
“The party, its leaders and members, must be called to order before they endanger this democracy. They better put their house in order,” Yadudu, who teaches law at Bayero University in Nigeria’s Northwest Kano state, told Anadolu Agency.
by Rafiu Ajakaye – Anadolu Agency
englishnews@aa.com.tr
