Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has defied the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the principal officers of the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
In a letter to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Dogara zones the Majority Leader position to North-West instead of South-West as directed by the party.
He has also zoned the deputy leader to North- Central, Chief Whip to South-South and Deputy Whip to South-East. These are at variance with the party’s zoning arrangement. Dogara, in a July 16 letter entitled “Update on election of Principal Officers of the 8th House of Representatives” to Oyegun, maintained that the “above proposal satisfies the provisions of Order 1 of our Rules, the Constitutional provision on Federal Character and gives all parts of Nigeria a sense of belonging. The proposal will also obviate all pending court cases filed by some zonal caucuses on the matter.”
Referring to Oyegun’s letter which heated up the APC crisis, Dogara proffered that: “To resolve this problem, we had offered that some of the aggrieved members of our party, APC, who lost the election for the office of presiding officers, should produce some of the remaining principal officers for peace to reign. “For emphasis, we have conceded the position of Leader of the House and Chief Whip to those aggrieved as long as the persons should not come from the North-East or South-West zones that have already produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
“In any case, sir, I pledge as the Speaker of the House, to accommodate other colleagues of ours in the party list, who may not be taken care of by this arrangement, with other commensurate appointments or other existing opportunities for service to the nation. “We owe a duty to lay the truth bare as we have done in this case. The party in conjunction with governors, national leaders and the APC Caucuses in the House may agree otherwise as the saying goes, “volenti non fit injuria”.
Our party must not have the undistinguished honour of setting a precedent outside of the provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of the House.
“We most respectfully urge that our above proposal be considered on its merits and that efforts should be made to resolve this matter so that the House will resume its working recess in a peaceful atmosphere. There is no gainsaying the fact that a stable House is necessary to support the President and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the APC in fulfilling our electoral mandate of Change and Progress for the Nigerian people,” he stated.
The Speaker noted: “After the letter was received but before I could make the necessary consultations concerning the letter because of its sensitive nature, I was served with court processes on the subject matter filed by some members of the House and other persons and groups from the North-Central and South- East zones of Nigeria. The Rules of the House enjoin us to make a determination whether discussing a matter pending in court in the House would be prejudicial to the case.
“However, before this determination could be made, on the 25th June, 2015, I took steps to discuss the matter in an Executive Session of the House which is open to only House Members and not the public.
We were prevented from doing so by some House members who conducted themselves in a most unparliamentary manner. It is necessary to point out that the mechanism of Executive Session is resorted to in order to iron out controversial matters in an amicable way to preserve the unity and cohesion of the House.
“Since then, efforts have been made by the party, governors and other interested persons to intervene and resolve the issues. We want to place on record, our unflinching loyalty and respect not only to you as an individual, considering your antecedents, but also to the party, APC, under whose platform we were elected to the House. We have no intention whatsoever of disobeying your directives or the party’s position on any matter.
We would, of course, prefer a situation where we are consulted on matters concerning the House before directives are issued and made public. “We feel strongly, that the issue of federal character in the election or appointment of principal officers of the House is a cardinal legal, moral and constitutional principle that should be respected by our party. It is however obvious from the letter under reference that this principle was not taken into consideration.”
The letter was copied to President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal who serves as Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) mediator, Governor of Imo State and Chairman, PGF, Chief Rochas Okorocha and Chairman, Forum of APC State Chairmen.
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