by Soma Oj.

On the night of the 6th of April, reports filtered out nationally that the Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly had absconded with the mace as insurance that the members of the House will not be able to impeach her.

This is exactly how we interpreted the news the next day:

Mrs Rita Maduagwu had sensed as the 28-member parliament gathered in the hallowed chamber for the business of the day that she was about to be booted out of her position as the 3rd female Speaker of the Anambra House of Assembly so she did the only rational thing she could think of: run off with the mace.

The mace is the symbol of authority in any legislative house in the country and without it, her impeachment would have been impossible. It is reported that Mrs Maduagwu retired with the mace to her country home in Ukpor, Nnewi South, Anambra.

The current House of Assembly is the 6th in the history of the State and was inaugurated in 2015. She emerged Speaker, having been elected to represent Nnewi South Constituency in the House, on the 12th of June 2015.

Rita Maduagwu’s woes, however, began when she openly opposed the passage of a proposed grazing bill in the wake of increased violence around the country linked to herdsmen. According to Mrs Maduagwu: “…as lawmakers, I think we have our various opinions but, for me, I don’t think the grazing bill is one of the bills I will jump at because, honestly we can do without the grazing bill. It shouldn’t be priority in Nigeria. There are so many people in Nigeria who have cattle ranches, so, if you can do cattle ranching, why grazing bill? Outside here, they kill cows, they eat cow meat without grazing bill, so, why grazing bill?  I won’t be a party to it. I don’t think I will jump at it, but, if the state so wishes, I don’t have any problem, but, personally, I don’t think it is a bill I will jump at because of all the controversies following it.” She has also been accused of highhandedness among other offences.

On the 6th of April, the Speaker’s abscondment with the mace forced the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano to visit the House of Assembly complex in a bid to intercede and persuade the 28 members of the house – all members of the  All Progressive Grand Alliance – not to carry out the impeachment.

The speaker of the House was nowhere to be found when the bell signifying her entrance into the chambers rang severally. Her absence forced the majority leader, Victor Okoye to call for the adjournment of the house to Tuesday, April 11 using the House’s old wooden mace as the symbol of authority – a development that some other members of the house considered ineffective on account of the old mace being a “contraption”.

After the eventful day, Mr Onyebuchi Offor, representing Ekwusigo constituency said spoke with journalists about what had happened. In his opinion, the House had suffered “poor leadership under Rita Maduagwu. But I’m assuring you that justice must prevail. No matter where she runs to, we have determined to take a decision on the leadership of this House. There is no going back because we are here to serve Anambra people well.”

The next day, police officers from the Anambra State Police Command had sealed off the entire Anambra State House of Assembly complex, denying lawmakers, journalists and other visitors entry into the complex.

On the 11th of April, the day the lawmakers were meant to have reconvened to continue the business of lawmaking in the State, Mrs Rita Maduagwu not only failed to reconvene the House, she also did not give her annual Easter broadcast to the State. Instead, she caused a bulk SMS message to be sent to all legislators, as well as the staff of the House to let them know that there will be no plenary on the said day.

When surprised lawmakers made efforts to reach the hiding Speaker for clarification, they got no response.

Because Mrs Maduagwu continued to hold the Mace ransom, rumours about where she may have hidden it started to spread. Some people said she may have hidden it in a famous cave in the State; prompting the Chief Priest of the said cave/shrine in Oyi Local Government Council Area of the state, had to clear the air that the Assembly’s Mace is not in the revered cave.

According to a report in one of the national dailies, the Chief Priest said: “You should look for the Mace at Nnewi; the Speaker is not from Ogbunike. Maybe she kept it in Nnewi. They have their own god that looks after them and their properties.”

Since the nothing of note has been heard from the lawmakers and its hard to tell whether Anambra has a functional House of Assembly or not.

Has Rita Maduagwu shown up now? Has the mace been retrieved? Have the lawmakers finally sought a legal resolution to their dilemma in order to allow them to reconvene with or without Mrs Maduagwu as Speaker?