Jibrin's suspension, a slap on Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency. By Ope Babs

                             Hon. Jibrin
To have suspended a man who represents a whole federal constituency for a whole legislative year to me is an affront on the Nigeria's constitution and a dirty slap on the entire people of Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State. Would the people of Kiru/Bebeji fold their arms and continue to watch the perpetual humiliation of their son on the alter of political vendetta or they simply would reject the anti-democratic decision which eludes their son of the constitutional responsibility of representing them at the lower chamber for a whole legislative year? It is time for them to rise up and defend Jibrin.

For the house of representatives to have had the audacity to suspend and make redundant a serving lawmaker representing a constituency for a whole legislative year is presumptive of the fact that they all have no business being there. It clearly could be interpreted as an act of lackadaisical disposition to effective representation. What this action literally means is that if a whole lawmaker can be made redundant for a year without being able to table the feelings and needs of his people in a period of a year on the floor of the house, then it opines that there is disconnection between the entire house members and their constituencies and that they are only there to serve themselves and not the people. No house rule should supercede the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If there is any such rule that allows a representative of the people to be suspended from his constitutional mandate of his people for a whole legislative year, then such rule is not only anti-democratic but also anti-people because it is the constituents that suffers the effect. So it is in my candid advice that the people of Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency rise up to the occasion to reject  this hurried decision and ask for the reversal of same from the House of Representatives.

I don't adore Abdulmumin Jibrin or whatever ideology he claims to represent but he had left an unequivocal message that must not be ignored or swept under the carpet by the authorities. The weighty allegations he has made so far are so important. They are one of the reasons Nigeria's economy is in comatose today.

His alleged suspension by the lower chamber is an attestation to an orchestrated end of whistle blowing in the interest of criminally minded majority and not in the interest of Nigerians.

I think it is time for Nigerians to rise up and defend this Mr. Jibrin; though he's not a saint. We should rather not look at the messenger but  the message. What this singular action by his colleagues  imply is that every potential whistle blower in the national assembly has been silenced since the fear of suspension is now the beginning of wisdom. So if we fold our arms and let this fester, then it means pen robbery would now become the order of the day in the national assembly and this might have done a lot of irrecoverable damage to Buhari's government by 2019. It would be in the interest of democracy to safeguard the sanctity of whistle blowing as no nation can grow where there are allegations of corruption without investigation and the whistle blower is being oppressively silenced and intimidated in order to make other potential whistle blowers see such conviction as crime.


The Federal House of Representatives has embroiled in internal crisis and integrity questioning since the sack of Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, the former chairman of Appropriation committee since July 21st, 2016.

In what seemed like a fight back campaign, Jibrin had since explored different means ranging from social media platforms and media houses to accuse the leadership of the House representatives of fraudulent insertion of sham contracts in the 2016 budget to the tune of N180,000,000,000 (One hundred and eighty billion Naira). Those accused are the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker, Hon.Yusuf Lasun, Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor and Chief Whip, Hon. Ado Alhassan. He claimed to have provided the relevant anti-corruption agencies with information regarding his allegations and that new discoveries have even be made by those agencies to his surprise. When asked whether his action was as a result of being phased out in the scheme of things in the house, he simply answered "it has nothing to do with that" and rather said he got irritated by the 'senseless insertions' made into the budget at the time that Nigeria is grappling with recession. Those accused have vehemently denied the allegations and regarded such as scandalous and denigrating. They however vowed to punish Jibrin on resumption for making such falsehood in the public without recourse to exploring internal mechanism of the house rather than inciting the public against the House of representatives thus labelling the members as being corrupt. All of these happened during the NASS recess period. Abdulmumin Jibrin was sacked as appropriation committee chair shortly before the house went on recess.

Upon resumption on September 23rd, 2016 Jibrin's allegations greeted the floor of the house in an excruciating manner. The Speaker had to refer the matter to the Ethics and Privileges Committee headed by Hon. Nicholas Ossai to look into and report back in a week. Jibrin was invited but he vowed he was not going to attend unless the hearing would be aired live which the committee refuted. Jibrin made good of his promise and did not attend the hearing. On Wednesday   September 28th, 2016 Jibrin was suspended for 180 legislative days amounting to a year period and also not to hold any legislative office throughout the 8th assembly term after a motion was moved by Hon. Nicholas Ossai, the Chairman of Ethics and Privileges Committee and was subsequently passed by the Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun. Subsequently, on Thursday  the 29th of September, 2016.   In this case the House of representatives is being seen as Judge in its own case and the matter is said to have been further subjected to litigation processes by Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin.