Dogara backs down

• Names Gbajabiamila majority leader

After 49 days of disagreement and intrigues, House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, yesterday finally succumbed to the directive from the All Progressives Congress (APC) that his main challenger for the speakership, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, should be majority leader. Dogara, at a plenary in Abuja, announced Gbajabiamila, along with others as principal officers.

The speaker also appointed Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa as chief whip; Hon. Buba Jibril as deputy leader and Hon. Pally Iriase as deputy whip. With the appointments, Dogara has been able to accommodate three lawmakers from the Gbajabiamilaled APC Loyalists Group. Only Jibril belongs to the Consolidation Group led by the speaker. Also announced yesterday were the Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor; Minority Whip, Hon. Umar Yakubu Barde; Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Chukwuka Onyeama and Deputy Minority Whip, Hon. Binta Bello.

The appointment of Gbajabiamila and his loyalists as principal officers has ended the protracted crisis that has forestalled sittings of the House for over a month. The House has sat for only six times since its inauguration on June 9. Dogara had chosen his principal officers based on federal character and rejected the anointed candidates of the APC. The speaker had proposed Doguwa as leader, Iriase as chief whip, Jibril as deputy leader and Chike Okafor was to be deputy chief whip. But the party insisted that Gbajabiamila must be leader, Doguwa as deputy leader while Mohammed Monguno should be deputy chief whip and Iriase as chief whip. The controversy over the appointment of principal officers led to the freefor- all that occurred on the floor of the House on June 25, which forced the House to adjourn plenary until yesterday.

The insistence of the speaker to stick to his list generated so many crises amongst the APC members, necessitating President Muhammadu Buhari to call for a peace meeting between the warring factions on Monday night where the issue was eventually resolved. At yesterday’s plenary,Dogara could not make the announcement until the last moment before the adjournment of the House. While he was presiding, some of his loyalists had, at different times, gone to confer with him. Towards the end of the plenary, the speaker handed over to his deputy, Hon. Yusuf Lasun and left the chambers, but returned some minutes later to announce the principal officers. Earlier in his welcome address to his colleagues, Dogara regretted the unfortunate development that led to the free-for-all amongst members and apologised to Nigerians.

“When we departed for this recess, it was not in the most honourable of circumstances for which I had cause to apologise to Nigerians on their behalf. “Today as we resume, I am not ashamed to once again reiterate our unreserved apologies to the people of Nigeria for that unfortunate incident and promise that we shall be the vibrant House of the Nigerian people that we are. “The Eighth Assembly has a very crucial role in the political history of our dear country: we are saddled with the responsibility and special privilege to midwife the first government of complete democratic transition in which an opposition party has assumed the realm of government, the first in our political experience.

“We are a product of an overwhelming mandate of change from the people of Nigeria. Indeed, we are called to national service at a time when public expectation for good governance is at its peak and the people’s patience with government is on the edge. “I make bold to state that if the public expectation on previous legislatures was 100 per cent, then the expectation on this Eighth Assembly must be anything but not less than 200 per cent! Therefore, we can neither afford to abuse the confidence reposed in us nor can we dare to expose ourselves to the cruel judgment of history,” the speaker said.

Chairman, House ad hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Sani Zoro, said with yesterday’s announcement of the principal officers, all the problems that caused the crisis in the House had been resolved. He said: “What transpired today is the triumph of internal democracy of the House and this triumph is anchored on four factors.

It is anchored on patriotism, constitutionalism, reason and rationality. This is what guided the steps taken by the entire House of Representatives laid by its leadership and all the contending groups that were party to the various negotiations.” Reacting to his eventual emergence as majority leader, Gbajabiamila welcomed the turn of events, describing his appointment alongside two of his loyalists as “democracy in action”. He said: “What you saw in the last 49 days was actually democracy in action. That’s what politics is all about: everybody trying to outwit everybody for the greater good of the country. And I’m glad that everything has panned out the way it has panned out.

You will now see the House you knew in the last four years back in action, working for the people, working for the nation.” Gbajabiamila later visited the APC national secretariat in Abuja to thank the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who signed the letter to the House proposing Gbajabiamila as majority leader. Odigie-Oyegun commended the speaker and his team for their sense of patriotism. On how the party would resolve the crisis in the Senate, he said: “The Senate situation is a different situation.

It is totally different because we have a sore thumb in the form of a PDP Deputy Senate President. “So, I think it is totally different and the approach and the way we are going to handle the situation will be totally different. But at the end of the day, even the Senate issue will be sorted out too.”