Kano born lawmaker Abdulmumin Jibrin has spent all of two months hurling insults the way of Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, House Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor over what has made its way into our political lexicon as "Budget Padding".
House reconvenes this week, we'll be here for the drama with some popcorn
Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Abdulmumin face-off again this week after two months of electronic shades
Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Abdulmumin Jibrin
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![Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke [Twitter:@AAdeleke_01]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke [Twitter:@AAdeleke_01]")
He's done all of that from the comfort of his electronic gadgets. This week, he can actually go one better.
With the House set to reconvene, Jibrin has stepped up his attacks, calling on the "budget padding quartet" to resign.
On Wednesday, July 20, 2016, Jibrin was relieved of his duties as Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations. He denied he was sacked, opting to use the word 'resign' to describe his predicament.
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Jibrin hasn't quite forgiven Dogara since he made his way out of the Appropriations office, insisting he wasn't sacked.
"The Speaker in Plenary announced that despite the fact that I approached him and notified him of my decision to resign as Chairman Appropriation Committee of the House, they had already taken a decision to relieve me of the appointment. He went further to add that it was in line with his promise to sanitize the budget process of the House", said Jibrin.
"That clearly implied that I was relieved for budget offense, and by inference the only culprit in the 360-member House! The Speaker was economical with the truth and was trying to suppress the biggest corruption, fraud and gross abuse of office in the history of the House perpetrated by himself and a few others. Speaker Dogara's statement was a complete misrepresentation of the facts, tissues of lies, wilful mischief and calculated attempt to bring my name to disrepute and lower my estimation in the eyes of the public. The whole drama was largely a red herring to divert public attention from the actual “goats” and go for a scapegoat".
"A day after Speaker Dogara’s statement, the media was awash with the story that I was sacked for “budget padding” and related allegations. The Speaker maintained a silent approval. Even before then, it was a public knowledge in the House that I was accused of all manner of budget offenses that I knew nothing about.
"As I noted earlier, they were all lies, figment of the authors’ imagination and an attempt to use me as a scapegoat to cover up the monumental fraud committed by the quartet of Speaker Dogara, Lasun, Doguwa and Ogor in the 2016 budget. It is this QUARTET that launched the spread of falsehood against me in the House and effectively blocked me from briefing members and craftily ensured I did not attend the last executive session".
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It is against this backdrop that the House reconvenes on Tuesday, September 20, 2016.
Dogara has maintained a stoic silence through it all, in a manner suggesting he's got another plan to deal with Jibrin, up his sleeves. Media reports were rife, weekend, that Jibrin runs an account with ING Bank UK with Essex address and a balance of £1.3m--allegations that already look straight outta the Dogara playbook.
There are insinuations that Jibrin will be suspended once plenary resumes. The garrulous lawmaker knows he's been boxed into a corner and was already on the defensive on Monday.
"The document is FAKE, I DO NOT own such account or balance neither do I have anything whatsoever to do with the said address at Essex.
"This blackmail is part of a wider propaganda arranged by the desperate Speaker Dogara through his Deputy Chief of Staff Hon CID Maduebum.
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"Hon Maduebum recruited and paid 20million naira to one Ifeanyi Okonkwo and Ikenga Ugochinyere of a shadow youth organisation to do the hatchet jobs. You will recall that the same group went to town with the allegations of 17 billion and 418 million naira which all turned out a fluke.
"Ahead of resumption of the House,they are back at work to divert attention from allegations of budget fraud and corruption against Mr Speaker.
"The plan is to create credibility problem for me as I release more revelations on Mr. Speaker that will send shock down the spines of Nigerians".
Nigeria's national assembly has been the theater of fisticuffs and throwing of chairs since the country's return to democracy in 1999. The smart money will be on rowdy sessions gracing our TV screens in the next couple of weeks; with Dogara fighting to keep his position and "lonely" Jibrin throwing up more allegations.
And trust us, we won't be complaining that much. A few more drama sessions during a recession never hurt anyone.
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