It was perhaps on account of his positive landmarks as speaker of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 that Alhaji Ghali Umar Na‘Abba has been accredited with some political accomplishments that were outside his purview.
One of those egregious feats as asserted by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC was the claim that Na‘Abba was pivotal to derailing the Third Term constitutional amendment.
The third-term constitutional amendment proposal was defeated by the coalition of political forces that was weaved around the likes of Presidents Bola Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, all of whom had personal animosities against the principal beneficiary, President Olusegun Obasanjo.
By the time the third term plot unfolded in 2004/5 Na‘Abba’s influence in the polity had considerably diminished.
However, there is no doubt that his political tenacity while he was speaker was an enabler to the political leaders and their troops in the audacious fight against the proposal.
Na‘Abba became the speaker of the House of Representatives by the accident of the foolery of his predecessor, Salisu Buhari who was helped to office by the executive branch. Once Buhari was forced out by the fact of his educational delinquency, the House in near unanimity elected Na‘Abba.
Na‘Abba actually came prepared for the job with a political science degree and a background in talakawa politics, having been a member of the mass-oriented Peoples Redemption Party, PRP in the Second Republic.
The cockiness in his deportment and the bluntness he conveyed his words, however, tempted to blur the good-natured intentions of his politics.
He was especially fierce for the independence of the legislature and was particularly jealous of the House of Representatives as the house of the people.
When Vanguard interviewed him while he was speaker and asked a question as to the relationship between the House and the ‘Upper Chamber,’ that is the Senate, Na`Abba, immediately changed his visage and took the interviewers on a lecture on the superiority of the House over the Senate. He then went on to refer to the upper and lower chambers as representative of the positions of the chambers of the two houses. It is also not lost that the House of Representatives in the United States has some powers that are unique to it like electing a president in the event of a tie in the Electoral College.
It was perhaps with this mind in seeing house members as equal to senators that at the peak of the crisis in the Senate in the Year 2000 that Na‘Abba led some house members into the Senate chambers to express solidarity with Senate President Chuba Okadigbo.
There is no doubt that there is no speaker in the Fourth Republic who was faced with as much intrigue as Na‘Abba. Conspiracies were fanned by disenchanted House members and egoistic members of the executive branch who held regular sessions on how to solve the Na‘Abba problem.
His survival of the several impeachment plots was not just on account of the constitutional hurdle in pulling off the difficult-to-attain 240 votes required to remove a presiding officer, but also on account of the ingenuity of some of his team members.
One of the most controversial issues during his time as speaker was the placement of bundles of naira on the table of the House allegedly surrendered by some members as gifts from the presidency to impeach Na‘Abba.
Your correspondent has since confirmed that that drama was actually one of the propaganda plots from Na‘Abba’s men staged to douse the trenchant moves against the speaker.
Na‘Abba was not involved as that drama was plotted by a principal officer of the House. That principal officer only confided in Na‘Abba at about 2.00 a.m. of the day to ensure he entered the House early enough for the drama that was planned.
Indeed, unlike some of his successors and many other members, Na‘Abba appeared not to have been compromised by filthy lucre. That is why until he died, he lived in a rented apartment in Abuja unlike many members today who through deals with MDAs buy up houses in several areas of Abuja.
Asked to compare the situation of today when lawmakers shout over one another to sing the personal anthem of President Bola Tinubu, one of his strong associates told this correspondent that in Na‘Abba’s time that presidency aides took weeks to lobby the lawmakers not to embarrass the president ahead of a presidential visit.
Beyond the fact of his integrity, Na‘Abba was also a strong nationalist. He presided over the override of the veto on the NDDC bill. It was that feat that led to the establishment of the NDDC, a move that inevitably denied the North at the expense of the oil-producing states.
However, the death of Na‘Abba leaves a burden on Atiku Abubakar who was vice-president at the time.
Shortly after the House commenced the move to impeach Obasanjo in 2001, a number of statesmen including General Yakubu Gowon intervened. One of those who also intervened was Atiku who visited the House and met with Na‘Abba and some of his henchmen.
During that discussion, Atiku was said to have pleaded for reconciliation between the two chambers. After that general discussion, the principal officers and other Na‘Abba henchmen were excused as the speaker and Atiku alone sat down for a private meeting. What happened in that their private meeting has remained the subject of conspiracy theories.
It is alleged among others that rather than pleading for reconciliation that the two men consolidated on the plot to remove Obasanjo. But there is no evidence to this as it remains a matter of conjecture that some Na‘Abba associates have refused to discuss.
It is one mystery that Na‘Abba has taken to the grave and Atiku now remains the only person on earth with the correct version of what happened on that day.
