How Southwest lost minority leaders’ positions in the House of Representatives

Olusesan Laoye

As the 10th National Assembly is inaugurated, with the Senate President and his Deputy, and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, elected, members and their political parties in both Chambers, have continued to jostle for other key positions yet to be filled.

Though there appear to be no rancour yet in the House of Representatives, the battle for other positions in the Senate is daily getting more heated as there are disagreements among members across party lines, as to who would occupy these positions, with the argument that the interests of the respective zones in the country should be put into consideration.

Despite the fact that the House of Representatives has started in a peaceful mood, the raging battle between the G5 PDP governors led by the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and former vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar reared its head again, at the house, over the position of the Minority leader.

During the meeting of the leaders of the opposition parties it was agreed that the minority leadership position should be ceded to the South, with the South West being mostly favoured.

Before the election into that office was held, five contestants emerged, and they were all favourites of one clique or the other.

Those prominent among them were; Kingsley Chinda from Rivers State backed by the Wike led G5, Oluwole Oke, backed by Atiku while the third person Bamidele Salami was backed by the incumbent Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke. Bamidele and Oke are both from Osun State.

While Oke who is a 4th timer in the House is from Oriade Obokun Federal Constituency, Salami represents Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore and Ejigbo Federal constituency.

Out of these three contenders, Wole Oke, who was backed by Atiku and is spending his fourth term in the House was seen by some as mostly qualified. But for the mere fact that he was Atiku’s candidate, Wike and others after consultations, including allegedly with the Presidency, decided to put up their own candidate, Kingsley Chinda. Although with Chinda in the race, Oke’s victory still appeared to be a banker but what actually stalled things was Salami’s interest, being the candidate of Governor Adeleke.

As the two candidates from Osun failed to agree, Wike saw this opportunity to go back to the trenches with Atiku, since it was the PDP that would produce the Minority leader.

Wike along with his colleagues began intensive lobbying, and they further broke the ranks of members and created more gaps between the two brothers from Osun who represent the South West in the contest.

Capitalizing on this disagreement, Wike consolidated his lobbying and worked on the other Minority parties, like the Labour which comes next to PDP with the number of its Representatives, the Social Democratic Party, the New Nigeria Peoples party and others to share all the minority positions.

Since a deal had already been struck and positions shared, between the PDP led by Wike, and other minority parties, Wole Oke, who saw the handwriting on the wall, that the tide had changed from his direction to the other side, subtly withdrew from the race, leaving Salami and Chinda who eventually won. This, actually gave the Wike led G5 an edge in the House of Representatives, by producing the Minority leader.

It was a situation too, which Wike described as a good development for the parliamentary system in Nigeria because it has done the deal of cutting off the wings of some powerful people from the North, who have always been dominating the space to determine what goes on in the polity.

It is however being argued that Wike’s candidate, Chinda could not have won oughtritely and just like that, if Governor Adeleke had teamed up with Atiku’s group to produce the Minority leader.

It is still not yet clear, what could have led to Adeleke going a different direction against Atiku but feelers indicate that, It was not Atiku per se that the Adeleke’s group was opposing but Wole Oke himself. Even the reason for that, is still not yet ascertained.

What actually happened now, is a serious concern to the leadership of the South West, who believe that Adeleke’s group should have been with Atiku and this would have given the South West the chance to produce the Minority leader.

Sources hinted to Business Hallmark that the battle in the National Assembly would definitely

extend to Osun, the base of Oke and Salami. Those in Oke’s camp in Osun State now see Governor Adeleke as their enemy for preventing their man to hold that position.

It was said that the situation has further polarized the PDP in Osun State.

One of the supporters of Oke who expressed his bitterness over the action of Governor Adeleke said,” “we don’t know why the Governor took that decision to put up Bamidele Salami against Oke” He further said that the energy that was dissipated on one side, should have been put together by the two groups from Osun States to yield, favorable result that would have favoured the South West.

Another school of thought argued that governor Adeleke, with what happened at the National Assembly, could be affected as the people of Osun are not happy with the decision he took to back Bamidele Salami. who is just going for his second term against Oke who is arguably the most qualified to occupy the position, having been elected four times to represents his constituency.

Though Governor Adeleke is now being blamed for his action, Business Hallmark was reliably informed that he must have acted based on the assurance that the former Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, who is now the Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave him and Salami.

It was learnt that Salami during the speakership of Gbajabiamila is one of his favorite, members

It would be recalled that the crisis between Atiku and the Wike led G5 group, began after the primary of the PDP, as it became an issue a d a strong arguement, that the North cannot produce the Presidential candidate and the Chairman of the party.

As a result, the G5 said that the chairman of the party Iyorcha Ayu should quit the Chairmanship for someone from the South, which he refused and Atiku was solidly behind Ayu.

This animosity was what they all carried to the Presidential election with Wike keeping to his word, that he would do everything to ensure that Atiku did not win the election, which eventually happened.

As for Adeleke, the animosity between him and Makinde has been on since the election of the South West Chairman of the PDP. While Adeleke, and the former Governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose, backed a different candidate, Makinde put up the former Deputy Governor of Oyo State Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, who eventually won in the fierce contest.

The minority positions that were recently shared in the House of Representatives are the Deputy Minority leader, Minority Whip for the North, Minority leader and Deputy Minority whip for the South. At the close of the day, the Labour Party got a slot and PDP 2 slots. Further, there was one for the North and another for the South.