Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, recently voiced out his frustration over unending crisis in the appointment of principal officers of the House. DGossip247 enumerates the failed reconciliation moves
Since emerging as speaker of the House of Representatives against the directive of his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Yakubu Dogara has not known peace. The House has only sat in plenary five times since after inauguration and had one of the most embarrassing moments on the floor in the last 16 years. On June 25, hell was let loose on the floor of the chambers as members engaged in a free for all and struggled with Sergeant-atarms to snatch the mace. It took the gallantry of the Sergeant-atarms to ferry away the mace to avoid a worse scenario.
The genesis of the lingering crisis is the refusal of Dogara to buy wholesale, the directive of his party to appoint his main challenger, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (South-West) as Majority Leader of the House. The party also want Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (North-West) as deputy Leader, Pally Iriase (South-South) as Chief Whip and Mohammed Monguno (North-East) as Deputy Whip. While the party insists on its directive, Dogara’s position is anchored on the principle of federal character as enshrined in the constitution. Even after several efforts to reconcile the APC Loyalty Group led by Gbajabiamila and the Consolidation Group led by the speaker, attaining truce is a far cry.
Despite the claim by the Dogara’s group that the crisis is over, the Gbajabiamila group, though currently decimated, maintains that the speaker must comply with the party’s directive or no peace. In pursuing reconciliation and unity, both camps have made concessions. The party has reversed its earlier decision not to recognise Dogara as speaker and now accepted the result of the election that returned him as speaker. However, the APC acceptance of Dogara came with a caveat that Dogara should obey the party and appoint Gbajabiamila as leader. Meanwhile, Dogara has also conceded two out of the four positions on the condition that the leader should go to the North- West and not to Gbajabiamila or the South-West
Dogara’s frustration
While inaugurating the House Committee on Law Reform last week, Dogara could not hide his feelings over the protracted crisis. According to him, “The 8th Assembly has had a few distractions, but it is time to get on to the job for which we were elected. Apart from reviewing existing laws, law reform involves introduction of new laws where necessary.” The speaker stressed that: “The good news, however, is that the 8th House of Representatives is resolutely committed to expeditious passing all major bills before it or submitted to it that will impact positively on the lives and well-being of Nigerians.
This is the irrevocable undertaking enshrined in our legislative agenda,” Dogara said. The strategy the speaker adopted was to appoint Hon. Mohammed Monguno, a strategic partner of Gbajabiamila as chairman of the committee. This has paid off to some extent but not completely.
Purported truce
As part of his efforts to achieve peace and forge ahead, Dogara has been able to break the ranks of the Gbajabiamila camp, winning over key members. Hence, the Gbajabiaila’s camp is now factionalised. While the faction led by Ado Doguwa has accepted Dogara’s sharing formula, the other faction led by Hon. Nasiru Zangon Daura is averse to the development and maintains that anything short of the party’s anointed list is null and void. Over the weekend, the opposing groups: the Consolidation Group led by Dogara and the APC Loyalists Group led by Gbajabiamila in a reconciliatory agreement tagged “Equity Team” announced their decision to adopt the zoning formula proposed by the speaker.
At a joint press conference on Saturday, the Gbajabiamila Group, represented by Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Hon. Pally Iriase and Hon. Mohammed Monguno, and the Consolidation Group represented by Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, announced that the crisis has been resolved in the interest of peace and national unity. Speaking on behalf of the Loyalists, Iriase said: “We looked at it and used it to assess Speaker’s proposal that Doguwa (North- West) be made House Leader, Pally Iriase (South-South), the Chief Whip, Buba Jubrin (North- Central) be made Deputy Leader and Chike Okafor (South-East) be made Deputy Whip.
“We reflected on it and made consultations and I hereby let you know that majority of the APC caucus in the House has accepted this position. This position was accepted because it reflects inclusiveness, equity, fairness and justice. This position was accepted because Nigerians’ patience has been overtasked and our sense of responsibility will be called to question if this crisis lingers further. “In doing this, we are very indebted and salute the maturity and sense of responsibility, fairness and justice of the Speaker,who ceded the major substantive positions to our group, the Loyalists.
This is because other offices are to deputise the House Leader and the Chief Whip occupied by our members. The Speaker can’t be fairer than that. I and House Leader designate, Doguwa hold ourselves loyal enough to the party and the caucus of Loyalists group to ensure that their interests are protected in the affairs of the House. “We urged all those who, might have wished that this crisis ought to be resolved in a different way to think Nigeria first and embrace peace for the sake of having a respectable and enduring institution of legislature in Nigeria.
The three of us, known to be key members and leading lights of the Loyalists group have stepped forward on behalf of our members to accept the position as indicated in the Speaker’s proposal.” Also supporting the peace move, Doguwa, who is the adopted House leader and a member of the Gbajabiamila’s Loyalists Group said: “In my opinion, we have taken enough to entrench what we think is expected of us in the House. “Of course, there will be a few members that may have contrary opinion but majority of us have accepted the arrangement and have accepted to work in complete harmony with the two presiding officers to move the House forward. “It is my opinion that if it was disagreement, we have disagreed enough, if it was misunderstanding, we have misunderstood enough.
It is time to understand ourselves and forge ahead and work for the collective interest of Nigerians who sent us here.” Confirming the reconciliation, Monguno, who had lost in the race for deputy speaker against Dogara’s deputy, Yusuff Lasun said: “Ordinarily I should be the last person to be part of this meeting because both Iriase and Doguwa have maintained their positions under our platform but I am losing out. “I decided to accept the Dogara proposal and consequently lose out just because it is in the interest of Nigeria and peace and unity in the House.
“Initially, the reason behind the party nominating us as principal officers was to take care of the interests of members of the Loyalists group, but right now Doguwa and Iriase, our members being chosen as Leader and Chief Whip, I think they are capable and well positioned to take care of the interest of the Loyalists group in the House as enunciated by the party. “I also decided to follow suit because the new arrangement also reflects equity, fairness and justice as every segment are provided for in the Dogara formula.”
Dogara’s consolidation
In his presentation, the representative of the Dogara camp, Jibrin said: “We have commenced collection of signatures which has reached advanced stage to affirm the Dogara formula. All other interests, including those excluded from the principal officers specifically Hon. Gbajabiamila and Hon. Monguno will be duly accommodated with commensurate responsibility to serve. Since the Speaker has about 200 positions to share out, many members will have the opportunity to serve the country.” According to him, “it is heartwarming to announce to you that the disagreement in the House, which many have erroneously labelled as crisis, has finally come to an end.
We hereby express our deep appreciation to Mr. President for his fatherly disposition during this disagreement. We also commend our party for its patience and understanding and re-affirm our continued support for the realisation of its objectives. We thank our other colleagues who disagreed with us for their willingness to dialogue and accept our compromise position for the peace and stability of the House and overall national interest.“We will make a particular mention of Hons. Monguno, Doguwa and Iriase for their patience, maturity and understanding. Finally, we thank Nigerians and once again pledge that this House will now get down to work for the Nigerian people.”
The counter-claim
In spite of the assurances from these groups, peace is still an essential commodity because a faction of the Loyalty Group does not believe in the Equity Team. Kicking against the purported reconciliation, other members of the Loyalists group led by Hon. Nasiru Zangon-Daura (APC, Katsina) on Sunday announced that no truce has been reached between the two groups and advised the speaker to seek for genuine peace. Zangon-Daura in company of 17 other lawmakers alleged that Speaker Dogara and his supporters have perfected plans to lock out some of their members from the chambers and announce the principal officers not endorsed by the party.
The lawmaker warned the speaker against taking law into his hands and harassing any of his opponents. He said: “To the Speaker Dogara’s group and their PDP allies we are aware of your attempt to deny entry into the House of Representative Chambers to members of the Loyalist Group especially the likes of Hon. Aliyu Madaki, Hon. Rufai Chanchangi, Hon. Philip Shaibu, Hon. Mohamed Soba, Hon. Isa Aliyu Zuru, Hon. Ahmed Babba Kaita, Hon. Ismaila Sulaiman, Hon. James Faleke, Hon. Yusuf Ikara, Hon. Abdullahi Salame and Hon. Abubakar Chika.
“We strongly warn Speaker Dogara that we will not take any breach of our members’ privileges lightly and we will hold you, Speaker Dogara personally responsible. Honour is earned through honourable actions. A word is enough for the wise” The group also accused Dogara of an unholy alliance with the PDP to forestall the anti-corruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari. “We also note that in the elections of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, there was an unsanctioned and unholy alliance between the members of the opposition parties in the House and the 39 disloyal members of the APC in the House that connived to produce the Dogara Speakership.
“We are also aware that this unholy alliance is a bid to truncate President Buhari’s agenda, which include his anti-corruption stance by using the National Assembly to, at the very minimum, slow it down if they cannot stop this presidential initiative dead cold,” Zangon-Daura said. The group noted that “to have a genuine agreement that is not tainted by the PDP, the Dogara group will have to first of all cut off the umbilical cord between it and the PDP and secondly engage in candid reconciliatory discussions with our group as a whole through our approved members under the leadership of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
“We are however aware of the trojan offers of party principal officers positions being made to individuals in our group in their individual capacities in order to lure them from our group. “We hereby restate for the avoidance of any doubt that this struggle is not about Femi Gbajabiamila, Yakubu Dogara, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Mohammed Monguno or Pally Iriase; this is about being loyal and committed to party’s manifesto which amongst others includes the fight against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
It is clear that without genuine peace, the House cannot function effectively and for Dogara to secure the needed peace, he needs the support of the hub of the party. This is the knotty issue as the House once again attempts to reopen for business. What becomes of the House should the speaker announce his choice of principal officers on resumption?
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