EZUGWU OBINNA

The long standing rift between the camps of Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, former House Minority Leader over who takes the post of House Leader and other principal offices in the Reps finally came to an end yesterday when Dogara after much resistance announced Gbajabiamila as the Majority Leader of the 8th House of Representatives.

The battle over who occupies these positions had been raging since early last month when Dogara emerged speaker of the House contrary to the wish of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) which had, from all indications wanted Gbajabiamila to take the post.

Dogara’s emergence which was attributed to the influence of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) instantly created two factions among the ruling party’s members in the House, one for Dogara and the other for Gbajabiamila.

The APC having lost out in its bid to install Gbajabiamila as speaker insisted that it would decide who takes what as it concerned the principal officers of the House. To this extent, the party zoned the positions to favour the emergence of Gbajabiamila as majority leader as compensation.

However, the Dogara faction strengthened by the PDP support maintained that the House, as an independent arm of government be allowed to choose its principal officers. The group further noted that since Hon. Yusuf Lasun from Osun State had emerged deputy speaker alongside Dogara, ceding the post of House Majority Leader to Gbajabiamila who is also from the South West would amount to concentrating too much legislative powers on the zone. They insisted that neither the North East where Dogara is from nor South West which Lasun represents would be allowed to produce Majority Leader as the post should go to other zones that have not produced any officer in the House.

While the speaker’s group later agreed to allow Gbajabiamila’s camp to produce the majority leader, it insisted the post must not be given to a member from Lagos since he was from the South West. They advised that the group chose a member from the South-South, North Central, North West or South East for the position.

Consequently, some Northern members in the House were said to have toed the line of the Dogara camp in this regard thereby making it appear increasingly impossible for Gbajabiamila to get the seat.

Nonetheless, the former Minority Leader’s camp which had the strong backing of the ruling party’s leadership insisted that the decision of the party must be followed as the party is supreme. They explained that the South East and South-South by virtue of their not having a ranking member were not eligible to produce a principal officer.

But the Dogara group still insisted that the rival faction respect the principle of federal character and faulted their claims that the South East produced only two new members who lacked cognate experience to lead the House in any capacity.

“In the first place, any person acquainted with the rules and practice of the House knows that a new member is regarded as having cognate legislative experience immediately he is sworn in as a member as it is only new members elect that are affected by the rule,” the group said.

“It is as a result of this that the 7th Senate elected Ayoola Hosea Agboola as Deputy Whip even though he was the only member of the party from the South West.”

When a letter containing the names and portfolios of members was sent to the House leadership from the APC, Dogara refused to read it, citing an impending court case as reason. Thus the rift dragged until two days ago when President Muhammadu Buhari who had hitherto decided to allow the House to resolve the crisis and had begun to incur criticisms from some APC members in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu camp for not using his powers as president to intervene and settle the crisis, intervened by calling a meeting with both groups.

At the meeting that lasted for about 20 minutes, Buhari was said to have issued stern instructions that both groups resolve the outstanding issues within six hours while insisting that the position of the party must be supreme.

Buhari at the meeting was also said to have decried what he regarded as allowing the opposition PDP to be dictate who occupies what position in his own government, describing it as unacceptable.

Buhari’s stance understandably cowed the hitherto adamant Dogara and he instantly shifted his stance, allowing the South West caucus of the party to chose who became Majority Leader. They consequently picked the Lagos House member, Gbajabiamila.

Also Hon. Ado Doguwa was named Chief Whip; Buba Jibrin, Deputy Leader and Pally Iraise as Deputy whip.

For the opposition PDP, Leo Ogor took Minority Leader; Yakubu Umar, Minority Whip and Chukwuma Onyema, Deputy Minority Whip.

In the Senate which has also been enmeshed in dispute following the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremmadu as president and deputy president respectively, Senator Godswill  Akpabio emerged Senate Minority Leader; Philip Aduda of the FCT,  Minority Whip while Bwacha Emmanuel from Taraba was appointed Deputy Minority Leader.

The Senate also passed a vote of confidence on the Saraki’s led leadership during the Tuesday session. Effectively the national assembly is expected to get down to legislative business.