Melaye and Tinubu in a Week of Spats

Omololu Ogunmade looks at how the battle of wits between Senators Dino Melaye and Oluremi Tinubu unfolded and deteriorated last week

Throughout the week the country was entertained with the ugly scene playing out in the Senate between Senators Dino Melaye (Kogi West) and Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central). Both senators had for almost two weeks been locked in a battle for supremacy following a sharp disagreement between them at the Senate’s executive session of July 12.

How it Began

The executive session had been called by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to deliberate on the forgery suit filed by some aggrieved senators, notably Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North), Kabir Marafa (Zamfara Central) and Ajayi Borrofice (Ondo North) against their presiding officers.

However, trouble started when Melaye stood up at the meeting with his loud voice, and in a seeming commanding tone, asked the plaintiffs to proceed to the court and withdraw their suit, failing which he called for their immediate suspension.

No senator was bothered by Melaye’s threat except Tinubu who appeared to have an axe to grind with the trouble pulling Kogi senator. Tinubu was said to have been angered by Melaye’s threat as she described the comment as childish and warned against allowing Melaye to reduce the apex legislative institution to a body of the kindergartens. Not done yet, Mrs. Tinubu was said to have accused Melaye of cultivating the habit of always harassing her.

The matter however, climaxed when Mrs. Tinubu allegedly described Melaye as “a dog” and “thug,” which the Kogi senator said was unacceptable to him and thus prompting him to pour venom on her, saying she was “stupid.” The matter therefore degenerated into a shouting match between both senators as Melaye further threatened to beat her up while Mrs. Tinubu poked her hands towards him as both of them became more aggressive.

Melaye was alleged to have at the height of his provocation said “I will fuck you up,” a seeming uncultured language used by trouble makers to imply they would deal with their opponents ruthlessly. But this statement was interpreted by Mrs. Tinubu to imply Melaye threatening to rape her. Some online newspapers also interpreted the expression to mean a threat by Melaye to impregnate the wife of a former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu.

It was however, learnt that when Mrs. Tinubu seemed to have emphatically insinuated a threat of rape against her by his colleague, Melaye was said to have dismissed such claim as needless.

Melaye while further dismissing the allegation of his threat to impregnate Tinubu at a press briefing 48 hours after the altercation, said the allegation was misplaced because the female senator had already “arrived at her menopause.”

Melaye’s Account

At the briefing, Melaye said the executive session was meant to deliberate on the forgery case instituted by some of their colleagues. He said he only stood up to talk with the intention to pacify his colleagues who had initiated suits in the court on the forgery allegation to withdraw their suits.

He also claimed that when he made his submission at the session, he didn’t use any rude or uncomplimentary expression neither did he mention anyone’s name when Tinubu suddenly stood up and alleged that she was being harassed by him.

Melaye said he first exercised restraint when she made the allegation but his patience was exhausted when she described him as a “dog” and “thug” who must be “tamed.”

He said it was at this level that he stood up and said, “she was stupid.”

Melaye who said Tinubu kept shouting “dog, thug” repeatedly, described as untrue reports that some senators shielded her from his assault, saying he never made any attempt to come close to her neither did any senator interfere in the shouting match between them. He added that no senator attempted to caution him during the shouting match because everyone was irritated by Tinubu’s action and utterances.

He alleged further that his trouble with the senator and her husband started after they called him several times and asked him to withdraw his support for Saraki during the struggle for Senate presidency last year, a demand which he said he rejected.

He also denied the allegation that he threatened to impregnate Mrs. Tinubu, arguing that such insinuation was unnecessary because Tinubu could no longer be impregnated because she had “already arrived at her menopause.”

Tinubu’s Account

Mrs. Tinubu last week narrated her story in separate letters she wrote to constituted authorities. First, she wrote the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, urging him to provide her with police officers for protection against imminent assault from Melaye.

In the letter dated July 18, 2016 which she personally signed, Tinubu explained that the request had become imperative in view of Melaye’s threat to assault her during the Senate’s executive session of Tuesday July 12, 2016.

According to her, Melaye resorted to vulgar abuse against her personality and would have assault her but for the timely intervention of her colleagues which she said shielded her from Melaye’s onslaught.

Not done by the letter to the IGP, Mrs. Tinubu addressed another letter to the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on July 19, calling for a sanction against Melaye by the party. She accused him of threatening to rape her while describing her ordeal in the hands of Melaye as unfortunate, noting that they are both members of the same party.

“I am both a ranking senator and a woman. But Senator Melaye took neither into consideration as he issued threats of rape and assault, whiIe boasting that he would face no consequence even if he fulfilled these criminal threats,” she wrote.

Again, Mrs. Tinubu petitioned the Senate President, Saraki, alleging that Melaye’s attempted assault against her on July 12 constituted a gross misconduct.

She said her letter to Saraki was meant to seek his protection against a criminal assault from him adding that the Senate must take disciplinary actions against the vocal senator.

“ln summation, unless Senator Melaye is appropriately disciplined, he remains a danger to me and to the Senate at large. He has promised twice within one week to attack me,” she said.

Saraki Wades in

During the week, Saraki made certain moves to reconcile the feuding senators as he met separately with them in his office on Tuesday, imploring them to sheathe their swords in the spirit of reconciliation.

Tinubu was said to have spent over an hour in Saraki’s office in his bid to placate her to put the matter behind her and let the sleeping dog lie. It was also learnt that Mrs. Tinubu had hardly gone out of Saraki’s office when Melaye also walked in as the senate president continued with his fence mending crusade.

Protests and Counter-protests

All through the week, from Lagos to Kogi and Kogi to Abuja, there were protests and counter-protests by both pro-Tinubu and pro-Melaye agitators, who resorted to name calling in favour of their benefactors. The height of the protests was the visit by members of Lagos State House of Assembly led by Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sani to both the APC secretariat in Abuja and National Assembly to protest the alleged attack of Melaye on the wife of their benefactor, Tinubu.

They were accompanied by some leaders of APC in Lagos State including a former senator, Muniru Muse. They condemned Melaye’s utterances and encouraged Mrs. Tinubu not to be discouraged by the trend in her pursuit of “qualitative legislation for the development of the country.”

Another protest was led to the National Assembly by a former Commissioner for Women Affairs in Lagos State, Mrs. Kemi Nelson.

However, some Nigerians had described the protesters as a bunch of unserious persons who did not raise their voices against serious issues such as the brutal killings of two innocent Nigerians, Mrs. Bridget Agbahime and Mrs. Eunice Olawale, in Lagos and Abuja respectively without committing any offence only to find trivial issues such as a mere quarrel between two senators as the reasons to lead protests from Lagos to Abuja.

Like Melaye, Like Mrs. Tinubu

However, a number of persons had taken the feud between both Melaye and Tinubu with a pinch of salt as a result of the antecedents of both senators. Throughout the week, there were comments that both senators had not conducted themselves well as representatives of people who ought to be statesmen in their own rights. For instance, many were swift to upload the photograph of Melaye with his torn attire while engaging in a physical combat in his days in the House of Representatives.

Therefore, they asked protesters to spare them a breathing space, saying they could not be surprised if Melaye opted to repeat what he once did in the lower chamber. Others were also quick to describe him as one man whose life has never ceased from controversies for once.

On the other hand, records of Mrs. Tinubu’s ugly scenes since her first advent in the Senate were itemised during the week. Some workers in the National Assembly had lamented that of all female senators in the upper chamber, she has been the only one conducting herself in manners not befitting for a woman of her status.

For instance, they recalled how Mrs. Tinubu was pouring venom on Senator Musiliu Obanikoro without any provocation at the lobby of the National Assembly when the latter visited the Senate for confirmation as a ministerial nominee last year. Some persons noted that if Obanikoro were to be an impatient person like Melaye, both of them might have assaulted each other that day. But Obanikoro was calm.

Besides, it was the same Tinubu who rose from her seat to take over the seat of Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, last year in a manner which her colleagues decried as unparliamentary. Mrs. Tinubu defied calls by her colleagues to leave Ekweremadu’s seat until the action became headlines in a newspaper, a manner said to be unbecoming of a woman who ought to be a role model in the chamber.

Also, it was only Mrs. Tinubu among all the senators sworn in by Saraki who rejected an offer of handshake from him in June last year. Not even Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) who was aggrieved for losing the seat of Senate president to Saraki and other aggrieved senators such as Marafa and Hunkuyi rejected Saraki’s offer of handshake like Tinubu while being sworn in.

It was also Madam Tinubu who surprisingly accused Saraki of demoting her during one of the recent Senate’s plenaries this year because he had asked her to second a motion for adoption of votes and proceedings moved by Senator Andy Uba (Anambra South).

Mrs. Tinubu had protested, claiming that she was superior to Uba and should not have been called for such an assignment, despite both of them being ranking senators who were elected into the parliament same time in the seventh Senate. This protest by Tinubu was found to be bizarre to her colleagues as no senator had ever claimed to be too big to second a motion. But her colleagues including Uba ignored such protest, perceiving that it was exclusive to her.

It is against this background that some persons were irritated by persistent media reports of the quarrel between both senators, saying the polity should have been fed with more important issues that could be beneficial to them especially this period when Nigeria is faced with acute economic crisis.

Saraki Pacifies Marafa, Tinubu with ‘Grade A’ Committees

In another development, before the Senate proceeded on its annual long vacation, Saraki inched towards total reconciliation with aggrieved senators as she named combatant Senator Kabir Marafa (Zamfara Central) as the new Chairman of Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream).

Marafa who was last year appointed as the Chairman of the Committee on National Identity had rejected the office, saying the composition of new committees by Saraki was illegal. Saraki had raised the number of the committees from 56 to 65.

Marafa also proceeded to the court to contest the new committees constituted by Saraki, asking the court to declare them illegal. But Marafa did not reject his new appointment yesterday as he did last year.

She also acceded to the demand of Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) by crowning her as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and replaced her in the Women Affairs Committee with Senator Binta Garba Mashi (Adamawa North). Until her new appointment, Mashi was the Senate Committee Chairman on Tertiary Education.

The Senate president also named Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North), another feuding senator as the Chairman, Senate Committee on National Identity.

Saraki also moved Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abi South) from the Committee on Information and National Orientation to Power Committee hitherto headed by Senator James Manager (Delta South). Manager now chairs the Committee on Solid Minerals.

He also moved Senator Hope Uzodinma (Imo West) from Aviation Committee to Nigeria Customs, Excise and Tarriff hitherto headed by Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) and redeployed Aliero to Aviation.

However, Saraki tactically dropped Senator Babajide Omoworare (Osun East) as the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business as he replaced him with Senator Baba Kaka Garbai (Borno Central) and redeployed Omoworare to yet to be constituted Committee on Legislative Compliance.

Others who were made committee chairmen were Tijani Kaura (Federal Character); Suleiman Adokwe (Information and National Orientation) and Barau Jibril (Tertiary Institutions).

Also announced as vice committee chairmen were Ahmed Ogembe (Marine Transport); Ovie Omo-Agege (Land Transport) and Philip Aduda (Downstream Petroleum).

The Senate will resume in September.