When he arrived at the National Assembly complex in Abuja yesterday, Aminu Ibrahim Safana, a member of the House of Representatives was full of life. But it turned out to be his last appearance in the legislature.
As part of moves to check the growing opposition to the continued stay of Speaker Patricia Olubunmi Etteh in office, he joined Etteh and her loyalists to hold a special meeting and prayer session in the Speaker's office for a hitch-free session.
Safana from Katsina State was in the Etteh train that was resisted by the opposition from entering the chamber, but the Speaker's camp prevailed, with Safana playing an active role.
But a few minutes into the shouting and shoving match between the two camps in the House, the unexpected happened. A hitherto boisterous Safana slumped and his colleagues rushed him out of the rowdy scene into the waiting arms of a medical team. First aid treatment was administered on him. He was thereafter rushed to the National Hospital, Abuja, where he passed on.
His feuding colleagues, who were unaware that one of them had died, continued with their "Etteh must go and Etteh must stay" exchange in the House.
When news filtered into the chamber that Safana had died, the lawmakers were shocked and the altercation ceased. Etteh, who insisted that she would not quit, went for the gavel and the members dispersed.
Twice-elected Safana died 30 minutes after being rushed from the National Assembly to the National Hospital.
The two factions had engaged each other in chaotic exchanges over whether the Speaker should voluntarily step aside for deliberations or resign on account of the report of the David Idoko probe panel on the financial scandal in the House.
Safana was first rushed to the clinic in the basement of the main building of the National Assembly in a wheel-chair and later to the National Hospital.
The Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Dr. Olusegun Ajuwon, disclosed the immediate cause of death as high-blood pressure and diabetes. Ajuwon spoke on the basis of the diagnosis immediately carried out on Safana and not on an actual autopsy.
He said that he would not make authoritative statements on the death in the absence of an official autopsy. Ajuwon claimed that the deceased's medical history revealed a subjection to diabetes and hypertension. On why the hospital could not conduct an autopsy on him, the hospital chief explained that Safana's family insisted on taking his remains immediately away to Katsina for burial.
A medical practitioner, Safana, was the Secretary to the Katsina State Government during the first tenure of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as governor of the state.
On his election to the House in 2003, Safana aspired to the Speaker's office but withdrew in compliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) directive that all candidates should withdraw in support of the former Speaker, Aminu Bello Masari. At the new House, Safana was appointed chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Health, a position he held until his demise yesterday.
The late Safana was born in April 1961. He was first elected to the House in 2003 and got re-elected in 2007.
Married with eight children, he was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; the University of Leeds and the University of London, where he bagged MBBS, MRSH, MFPHM (Dublin) certificates.
He worked as a public health consultant before being appointed by Yar'Adua, enroute his final journey to the National Assembly.
A die-hard loyalist of the PDP, Safana reined in sections of the North during the region's earlier opposition to the immunisation of Moslem children from the region.
A member of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), a dominant group in the PDP, Safana was described as a close confidant of President Yar'Adua in the House. He had spearheaded northern support for the failed Constitution Amendment exercise and its most controversial provision for the extension of presidential and governorship tenures
from two terms of four years each to three terms of four years each.
Death was the last thing imagined for Safana or any member of the House yesterday morning as members left their seats, waving the Nigerian flag and white handkerchiefs.
With pro-Etteh and anti-Etteh lawmakers chanting songs of victory and both denigrating or praising the Speaker all at once, Safana was in Etteh's office in prayer with some of her supporters.
The strategising and prayer session had delayed the arrival of the Speaker beyond the scheduled 10 a.m. commencement of the plenary sitting. In the rowdy session of the previous day, Safana had been on the floor of the House consulting with Farouk Lawan, leader of the Integrity Group, the anti-Etteh group. For the last three months, since the inception of the crisis, Safana had variously attempted to orchestrate peace between the Speaker and her antagonists and worked to ensure her survival in the conflict.
Having entered the rowdy chamber with Etteh, the deceased joined the side chanting that the Speaker should not resign or step aside for the consideration of the panel's report without a vote to that effect. It was in the process that he slumped and was rushed out from the chamber.
Meanwhile, Etteh, has expressed deep sorrow and shock at the sudden death of Safana representing Batsari/Dan Musa/Safana Federal Constituency.
"I am shocked and distressed at the death of Hon. Aminu Safana on the floor yesterday. I still find it difficult to accept the harsh fact that he would never be on the floor again, that I would never see him again. He was a man of peace, a bridge -builder who always put his country first. He was a pillar of this House and hero of democracy.
"The House of Representatives will miss Hon. Safana's brilliant contributions on the floor," she said in a statement signed by her adviser on media affairs, Funke Egbemode.
Also, the Deputy Speaker, Babangida Sai'du Nguroje, expressed shock and regrets over the death of the lawmaker whom he described as a mentor and political associate. Nguroje said it was a huge loss and paralysis, which the House would find difficult to recover from.
Also, the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) has described as unfortunate the circumstances that culminated into the death of Safana yesterday.
The party in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Mr. Ismaila Sani, said it aligned itself with the Action Congress (AC's) earlier submission that Etteh was in the first place a misfit for the reverred office of the Speaker.
The leader of the AC and Minority Whip of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, has warned that it would be dangerous for the Speaker to continue to enter the chamber as its head.
Speaking after the death of Safana, Gbajabiamila noted that about four lawmakers have died since the inception of the present House of Representatives on the 3rd of June this year. Indeed, condolence registers for the three who passed on earlier are still at the entrance of the House.
From Pascal Nwigwe, Mohammed Abubakar, John-Abba Ogbodo (Abuja) and Clifford Ndujihe (Lagos)
The Guardian
Thursday, October 18, 2007
