OPPOSITION MPs were last evening forced out the National Assembly here over what the Deputy Speaker, Dr Tulia Ackson, described as disobedience.
Bunge had reconvened at 4pm, with the
deputy speaker inviting the Deputy Minister for Water and Irrigation,
Engineer Isaack Kamwelwe, to wind up debate on the ministry’s budget, a
move that the opposition camp opposed strongly, describing it as an
abuse of parliamentary rules.
Opposition MPs John Mnyika
(Kibamba-Chadema), John Heche (Tarime Urban-Chadema) and Esther Bulaya
(Bunda Urban-Chadema) stood up, maintaining that the issue of University
of Dodoma students be resolved before carrying on with any business.
Despite several attempts by the deputy speaker for order in the house,
Mr Mnyika disobeyed, compelling the chair to order him out.
Thereafter, all opposition legislators
started shouting and banging tables in protest over the winding up the
water budget, leading to their dismissal from the debating chamber.
Outside the chamber, the Leader of
Official Opposition in the House, Mr Freeman Mbowe (Hai-Chadema)
described their expulsion as a spite to the opposition, saying the
opposition camp intends to push an agenda of no-confidence on the deputy
speaker.
“I plan to move a motion before my
colleagues (opposition MPs) to boycott all sessions presided over by the
deputy speaker,” Mr Mbowe told reporters here amid applause from fellow
MPs.
Earlier in the morning, the expulsion of
about 8,000 University of Dodoma’s students sent the National Assembly
into an uproar, leading to premature adjournment of the morning session.
Dr Ackson was compelled to postpone the
session to 4pm shortly after the question-and-answer time, following her
failed attempts to send opposition legislators out of the debating
chamber.
“Honourable members…honourable members…I
now adjourn the session until 4pm,” the deputy speaker said amid
deafening jeers from protesting parliamentarians. She also ordered a
hurried meeting over the issue by the Steering Committee.
It all started after the
question-and-answer session when Dr Ackson invited the Minister for
Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Professor Joyce
Ndalichako, to issue the government’s statement on the expulsion of UDOM
students.
The minister said 7,802 students who
were pursuing a Special Diploma in Science Education at the public
university were ordered to return home due to boycott of the lecturers.
She admitted that it was not the fault
of students but lecturers who had refused to teach them, notwithstanding
all government attempts to resolve the stalemate.
“The government tried hard to resolve
the issue but in vain…it was considered wise to send the students home
pending the best and more effective mechanism for the benefits of both
students and government,” said Dr Ndalichako.
The minister said the internal auditor
at the higher learning institution had opposed as unrealistic the amount
of pay that the UDOM lecturers demand as extra pay for teaching the
diploma students. Chemba MP (CCM) Juma Nkamia sought the speaker’s
guidance on whether it was right to punish innocent students for the
wrongs of their lecturers.
“These students have done nothing
wrong…it is their teachers who have refused to teach them, why then
victimise the innocent,” queried Mr Nkamia, moving a motion to have the
house debating the issue. Almost all MPs from the opposition and ruling
CCM stood in support of the proposal.
Dr Ackson, despite expressing sympathy
to the affected students, most of them as young as 16 years old, ruled
out the possibility of debating the issue, saying the lawmaker had
wrongly presented his motion.
Mr Joshua Nassari (Arumeru East-Chadema)
stood up and properly raised the same motion, asking for the
postponement of the house’s activities to debate the students’
expulsion, describing the issue as urgent and of public interest.
But, the deputy speaker maintained her
stance, saying the expulsion of the students was an issue of ‘neither
public interest nor urgency.” It was then that the lawmakers, mostly
from the opposition, stood up in protest of the ruling.
Dr Ackson ordered the MPs to sit down
but in vain, compelling her to call in the sergeants–at-arms to drag all
the misbehaving legislators out of the debating chamber.
But, as the sergeants-at-arms entered
the house, almost all parliamentarians, including those on the ruling
side, stood up, forcing the deputy speaker to adjourn the session.
Outside the debating chamber,
legislators condemned the speaker’s ruling as undemocratic with no
regard to the welfare of the hapless children, especially girls,
stranded on the streets of the designated capital.
“We are not going to surrender until this issue is concluded,” said Mr Nassari at the Bunge grounds.
Ms Suzan Kiwanga (Mlimba-Chadema)
described the situation as sad, specifically blaming three prominent
ladies -- deputy speaker, education minister and chief whip, whom she
accused of failure to stand for the interest of the girl child
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