THE dust raised by the distribution of House of Representatives committees by Speaker Yakubu Dogara may take a longer time to settle. More than a week after Dogara named the committee chairmen and their deputies, not a few members of the Green Chamber are yet to come to terms on why the All Progressives Congress (APC) has no edge in the headship of the committees as the ruling party.
There have been mixed feelings in the lower legislative chamber penultimate week over the sharing of 96 standing committees. The ruling party got the chairmanship slots and 46 went to the rival Peoples Democratic Party. The other two slots were allocated to the other opposition parties.
Some members of the House have cried foul, saying Dogara’s choices tilted more to the PDP side, a platform that allegedly helped him to win the speakership position on June 9. Yet, others have justified the formula; attributing it all to politics.
Two lawmakers have resigned their leadership of the committees allocated to them. The duo are: Garba Datti Mohammed (APC Kaduna), who resigned as the Chairman, House Committee on Solid Minirals and Sunday Adepoju (APC Oyo), who resigned as Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Special Duty. It was learnt yesterday that more committee leaders have concluded plans to resign their positions. Two chairmen were said to have submitted their resignation letters as at last night.
Those raising eyebrows argue that the allocation of some committees key to the change philosophy of the APC have been given to the opposition. Save for the Committee on Appropriation chairman who is an APC lawmaker, the other important committees are chaired by PDP lawmakers. They listed such committees Finance, Petroleum Committees (Upstream, Downstream, Gas), Aviation, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Science and Technology, Works, FERMA, and part of Marine.
According to them, the APC lawmakers, who are suppose to be change drivers are not in control.
“With these, it is not difficult to see that those who will drive the ideas of change are not in control. This is not a personal matter; I’m on good terms with the Speaker; the Deputy Speaker is also my friend; there are more of these committees; they are all in the hands of opposition,” Sunday Adepoju (APC, Oyo) told The Nation.
Adepoju declined his position as deputy chairman, House Committee on Special Duty, on a personal conviction that having PDP lawmakers as chairmen of the key committees would compromise the implantation of APC policies and programmes. The Oyo lawmaker, however, said his rejection of the deputy chairmanship position was not a group decision.
But, one of Adepoju’s colleague from Kano, Bala Dawaki, accused those rejecting the selection of committees’ heads and their deputies of not having the interest of the nation at heart.
In his reaction, Diya Oyewole, (APC Lagos), described the sharing of the positions by Dogara as a coup. “What happened is like a coup. Well, we have to live with it. Remember it is the prerogative power of the Speaker and the selection committee to appoint chairmen and their vice. There is really nothing I can say about that. It is just like the President appointing ministers. There will be complaints. But, that won’t any president from appointing ministers.”
According to him, how the Speaker handles the controversy triggered by the announcement would determine the peace in the hallowed chamber.
“I think that the Speaker should call members, talk to them and persuade them to understand that we all can’t all be chairmen or the vice chairmen. This is the fact, especially when you remember that we are 360 members with just 97 committees. That means 97 chairpersons and their deputies. Even at that, you will still have about 180 members who will not hold either of the positions. I just believe the Speaker should be on top of his game and try to get the message across.
Kolawole Babatunde (APC Ondo) also commented on the heat generated by the naming of the chairmen and their deputies. He also spoke on the mood within the APC camp.
Babatunde said: “Well, the summary of the whole thing is this, when it comes to the House, we have only one House. We are all here to represent Nigerians. It is not just about APC or PDP. So, we should see it that way. What is important for us is to ensure that our people benefit from the dividends of democracy.
“Of course, some people might be aggrieved and they have the right to be. But then, I know we have internal machinery of handling issues like this, should they crop up.”
Other members of the party describe the situation as “witch hunt” and “victimisation” of those identied as party loyalists.
The emergence of Dogara as Speaker split House of Representatives to two main groups – one loyar to Dogara and the other to House Leader Femi Gbajabiala. The Lagos lawmaker (Gbajabiamila), who was APC choice for the speakership position, lost the slot to Dogara (APC Bauchi).
One of such lawmakers told The Nation under the condition of anonymity that only nine members of the loyalist group got positions.
Members of the Gbajabiamila group who got committees’ chairmanship positions according to the lawmaker: are: Kayode Oladele (Financial Crimes); Sani Zoro (IDP in Northeast); Fakeye Olufemi (Insurance); Yakub Balogun (Treaties, Protocol & Agreement); Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Agriculture); Yinka Ajayi (Aids & Loan); Jide Akinloye (Anti-Corruption); Peter Akpatason (Civil Society & Donor Agencies) and James Abiodun Faleke (Customs & Excise).
The lawmaker further stated: “It is surprising that the speaker could do this to our group. How can he give us only nine out of 96 committees to lead? Is this fair? To me this is a witch-hunt.
“You can see that even out of the nine committees, the appointment of Faleke, who is the deputy governorship candidate in Kogi State is a smokescreen because he (Dogara) knows that the APC will win that election and Faleke will not be coming back to the House.
“What does that means? It means as soon as Faleke leaves, that committee will be given out to his close ally. We are aware of all these antics but we have resolved to watch how they will run these committees.
“We supported Gbajabiamila because we felt that apart from being the party’s choice, the leader had worked so hard for the opposition. So, we were not doing that to get committee chairmanship. We are here to work for the electorates so chairman or no chairman, we will continue to do our best.
“I can go on and on but we are not really bothered. Although we expected such a thing, but not to that extent, so, we are surprised. PDP members were given preference over us. It’s shocking.”
Another member of the loyalist group, Sani Abdul Mohammed (APC Bauchi) declined to comment when contacted. According to him, his comments may be interpreted as an interested party.
“The appointments have been made. Honestly, I don’t want to speak on this issue because as you know, I’m an interested party and whatever I say now, the people may misinterpret it. So, I prefer to be quiet.
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