Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Mr. Yakubu Dogara, said on Tuesday that the leadership tussle in the All
Progressives Congress caucus of the House was almost over.
Dogara, who spoke while addressing some
APC youths, under the aegis of the APC Youth Mobilisers and
Professionals, who visited the National Assembly, said he would announce
the principal officers of the House on July 21.
“We will announce the remaining four
principal officers by the time we reconvene on July 21.We pray that this
matter has come to an end by the grace of God,” the Speaker told the
APC youths.
He
said there had been a series of meetings to resolve the crisis in the
party and that there were positive signs that the crisis was nearing its
end.
However, Dogara did not specify whether
the names to be announced on July 21 would be the same as those
recommended by the leadership of the APC or he would stick to his
position that each of the six geopolitical zones in the country should
have one seat.
Rather, he went spiritual by telling the
youths that leadership was ordained by God and that His wish must be
respected at all times.
The Speaker argued that God must have ordained the emergence of certain political leaders, which was being seen as “a mistake”.
“If there were mistakes that were made,
we must admit that God allowed these mistakes to make the way for
another person’s destiny to happen,” he stated.
The lawmakers went into a forced break on
June 24 after fighting broke out on the floor of the House over the
sharing of principal offices.
The APC leadership had in a letter dated
June 23 asked the Speaker to announce Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila (South-West)
as the Majority Leader; Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa (North-West) as his
deputy; Mr. Mohammed Monguno (North-East) as the Chief Whip; and Mr.
Pally Iriase (South-South) as his deputy.
The North-East and the South-South later swapped positions.
But, the Speaker declined to name the
officers, given the pressure from other geopolitical zones, which had
complained of being edged out of the power sharing arrangement in the
House.
Dogara, who was favourably disposed to
giving the North-Central and the South-East one seat each in order to
accommodate all the six geopolitical zones, also later told Nigerians
that he was restrained by a court process not to name the officers.
The APC’s National Executive Committee
later waded in through its governors’ forum, asking a committee headed
by the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, to look into the
crisis.
The committee had met separately with the two warring factions, led by Dogara and Gbajabiamila, a former Minority Leader.
Although the Tambuwal committee did not
make its findings and recommendations to the governors public, there had
been speculations that the committee shared the same view as expressed
by the Dogara faction.
On Wednesday last week, the Dogara group
said it had conceded all four principal positions to the Gbajabiamila
group, so long as the North-East and the South-West would not get
additional seats.
The Gbajabiamila group promptly dismissed
the concession and insisted on sticking to its position as already
directed by the APC.
Findings showed that as of Tuesday when
Dogara hinted that the crisis was almost over, the Gbajabimaila group
had not shifted ground on its position.
However, the Speaker informed the youths
that there was still one more meeting he needed to attend later same
Tuesday, where he hoped the dispute would be finally resolved.
Earlier, the chairman of the APC youth
group, Mr. Ismai Ahmed, had warned the party’s leaders against allowing
the National Assembly crisis to derail the APC-led Federal Government.
Ahmed expressed displeasure that having
worked so hard to ensure that the APC won the general elections, the
youths had expected the party leaders to settle down quickly and provide
good governance “and not fighting over issues such as sharing of
positions.”
Ahmed said, “We won the election, but we must win the country too. The House must be put in order.
“We know that you have the capacity to
handle the present issue and we want it nipped in the bud so that we can
have a functioning National Assembly by July 21.”
Meanwhile, the peace moves initiated by
the leadership of the APC to find a solution to the leadership crisis
rocking the Senate might have hit the rock again as the Edo State
Governor Adams Oshiomhole-led committee saddled with the responsibility
has not been able to convene any meeting.
The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday that
the committee members had not been able to meet because most of the
principal actors in the crisis, including the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, and his rival, Ahmad Lawan, had been away for the lesser hajj.
When contacted, the Special Adviser to
the Senate President, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, confirmed that the peace
moves might be concluded when the senators return from hajj.
“There is little that could be done at
the moment because the principal actors are currently in Saudi Arabia
for Umrah. I think the governors should be in a better position to give
an update on the matter,” he said.
The leadership crisis in the Senate
started when the leaders of the APC conducted a mock election to pick
the candidates for the offices of the senate president and the deputy.
Lawan emerged as the party’s candidate
for the office of the senate president but the loyalists of Saraki
boycotted the mock poll and reportedly formed an alliance with the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party to clinch the post.
The APC/PDP alliance in the Senate had
produced Saraki as president while Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP
emerged as his deputy.
Notwithstanding the development, the
Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie – Oyegun, had written to Saraki
and nominated Lawan and three others as the party’s choices for the post
of senate leader, deputy leader, chief whip and deputy whip.
However, the Saraki camp had insisted
that the APC caucus in the Senate at the various zonal levels would
determine their representatives who would hold the aforementioned
positions.
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