07:35:00
Fun Facts
• More to reject committee positions
A fresh crisis is brewing between House of
Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and some
members of his party -All Progressives Congress- in the
Green Chamber, this time over the recent constitution of
committees in the House.
Dogara whose emergence as Speaker on June 9 pitched
him against many party members and the APC
leadership is accused of conceding too many positions to
the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the
appointment of the committee chairmen and vice
chairmen as well as filling the juicy committees with non-
APC members.
They wonder why the Southeast and Southsouth which
voted against the party in the last elections should be
given as many as 17 chairmanship/10 vice chairmanship
positions, and 14 chairmanship/17 vice chairmanship
positions respectively.
Supporters of Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, Dogara's rival for
the speakership, are shouting marginalisation in the
constitution of the committees and want a redress
immediately.
Garba Datti Muhammed (Sabon Gari Kaduna) and Sunday
Adepoju (Ibarapa East/Ido Oyo State) have already
rejected their own appointments.
Muhammed was named chairman of the Committee on
Solid Minerals Development and Adepoju, deputy chairman
of the committee on special duties.
It is understood that more Representatives who are
disenchanted with the appointments are warming up to
announce their rejection of the positions given to them.
The angry lawmakers, according to reliable sources, are
insisting that the current composition of the committees
must not stand.
The development was confirmed by some House of
Representatives members from Kaduna, Lagos, Osun and
Edo States, who believe that anything short of the
reconstitution of the committees would only enable the
minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seize control of
the House.
Tempers first rose in the House on October 22 when the
committee chairmen and vice chairmen were unveiled.
In all 194 standing committees were constituted.
The chairmanship/vice chairmanship positions of the
committees were shared as follows:
Southwest -Chairmanship 15/Vice Chairmanship 14
Southeast-Chairmanship 17/ Vice Chairmanship 10
Southsouth- Chairmanship 14/ Vice Chairmanship 17
Northwest- Chairmanship 19/ Vice Chairmanship 29
Northeast- Chairmanship 13/ Vice Chairmanship 10
Northcentral- Chairmanship 16/ Vice Chairmanship 15
FCT- Chairmanship 1/ Vice Chairmanship 1
The House leadership replaced Datti with another
lawmaker from his state, Suleiman Samalia, but is yet to
react to Adepoju's decision to reject his appointment.
Datti and Adepoju are Gbajabiamila's supporters.
Muhammed, in announcing his resignation, said he was
not consulted before his appointment.
"I feel as a former principal officer, I should have been
consulted before my name was announced. I just heard of
it on the floor. And I have my own principles. I have
decided on my own to withdraw as the chairman of that
committee," he said.
For his part, Adepoju said: "It's nothing personal but we
have a duty to ensure that the party we all fought for and
succeeded in taking this far should not fail. Conceding key
committees to the opposition is another way of ensuring
that the programmes APC has for this country are
truncated."
The Nation also gathered that more lawmakers, especially
those in the camp of House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila,
may announce their rejection of committee positions in a
move that is meant to express the group's rejection of
alleged attempt by Dogara to sideline APC lawmakers in
the day to day running of the Green Chamber.
Muhammed said it is unacceptable to APC members as
the majority party in the House, to have PDP lawmakers
manning the most sensitive committees as announced by
the Speaker.
Other sources said members opposed to Dogara's are
mobilising with the sole aim of ensuring that the House
leadership reviews the committee appointments.
Gbajabiamila has reportedly been inundated with
complaints and he is party.
He is said to have advised the aggrieved Reps to make
their views known to the APC leadership.
A source said:"we have learnt a big lesson from what
happened during the tussle for the Speakership. We are
not going to wait endlessly on the party to reject this
anomaly.
"We have decided to move against this obvious impunity. I
can tell you that the Majority Leader was not properly
carried along in the constitution of these committees. This
is against the spirit of democracy.
"As the majority party in the House, and the party in
government at the federal level, we must not make the
mistake of being pushed to the position of minor partner
in this government. If we do that, then the change we
promised the people is threatened. That is why we have
resolved to resist this attempt to sideline us in our own
government."
Another source told The Nation that the APC caucus in the
House is reviewing the development with a view to taking
a decision.
"We are meeting by the weekend to discuss the
development. We want to hear what actually happened
from the principal officers. It is after that we will take a
formal position. But as we speak, the popular position is
that many of us will toe the line of those rejecting their
committee positions," the source said.
Gbajabiamila told reporters on Friday that contrary to the
House rules, he was not consulted on the selection of
the Committee chairmen by Speaker Dogara.
His words: "the list speaks for itself. I saw it for the first
time at 10a.m., a couple of hours before the
announcement was made. This falls short of the
consultation with Principal Officers required and mandated
by our House rules."
The Nation also gathered that the Majority Leader is
expected to make a public pronouncement on the
development soon. Lawmakers close to him said he is as
upset as any of his party men about the treatment meted
out to APC lawmakers by the Speaker.
"I can tell you that the leader will make an official
statement on the matter quite soon," our source said.
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