Dogara’s House: Still rebuilding

speaker Yakubu Dogara’s determination to build a vibrant House is gathering momentum despite challenges here and there.

The inauguration of the House last June was steeped in crisis on account of the defeat of the favourite of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Femi Gbajabiamila by the Bauchi born  Yakubu Dogara who was helped to the office by bloc votes of members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and renegade APC members.

Gbajabiamila was commended after his initial concession of defeat. Pleas to him to accept the office of deputy speaker were rebuffed by the former minority leader who showed remarkable statesmanship in defeat. He was, however, to change position later as he sought the position of Majority Leader and was backed by the hierarchy of the APC.

Hierarchy of the APC

His aim, however, tended to put the zoning configuration of the House in jeopardy as it meant that the Southwest which had already produced the deputy speaker in the person of Yusuf Lashun would produce the second and the third ranking officials in the House.

The contention for top offices by Gbajabiamila and his supporters finally led to a free for all on the House floor on June 25.

Dogara for a time continued to rebuff Gbajabiamila and the leadership of the party but following strong representations from the presidency, the speaker buckled a development that meant that the Southeast zone was left out of the leadership of the ruling party for the first time since the advent of the Fourth Republic.

FILE: Dogara ad Gbajabiamila supporters exchanging blows in the House

Meanwhile, by the time Gbajabiamila assumed the position of Majority Leader, Dogara had already broken the ranks of those supporting him with many of the former’s supporters especially from the Northwest already queuing behind the speaker.

But that did not mean that Gbajabiamila’s support base was totally broken. By the time the House created 95 committees last October, the Gbajabiamila camp again bared its fangs, threatening war, alleging that the majority of what was left of their support base was not taken into consideration in the apportionment of committee positions.

However, majority of members were not disposed towards the assertions as made by the Gbajabiamila camp especially given the fact that majority of the supporters of the House leader had relocated to support Dogara.

Besides the issues from the camp of Gbajabiamila, Speaker Dogara received his first baptism of fire from political stakeholders for his decision to name 95 committees, a record that many saw as an attempt at rewarding political allies.

The increase was brought through the splitting of a number of committees otherwise regarded as juicy committees. One of such, education was for example split into two, namely: Basic Education and Services and Tertiary Education and Services.

The argument of retaining big committees and creating sub-committees was thrown out on the assertion that a number of committee chairmen in the past did not allow the sub-committees to work effectively.

In justifying the multiplication of the committees when he inaugurated the committees on November 9, Speaker Dogara, was to reassure critics that it would not amount to an increase in the overall overhead cost of the House.

“It is necessary to point out that the splitting of committees has not resulted in increased cost of running the house. The committee clerks and other staff (of the committees) are sourced from the existing pool of staff (that are) paid salaries and allowances already by the National Assembly.”

“Committee members are already paid salaries also by the National Assembly. No person gets an increased remuneration by virtue of appointment as a committee member or chairman. The National Assembly budget has not been increased as a result’, Speaker Dogara had said at the inauguration of the committees.

Constructive criticisms

While acknowledging the right to constructive criticisms by some commentators on the number of committees, the Speaker said experience, gained from the operation of committees since 1999, shows that some committees’ functions and man- dates are very wide indeed and cannot be effectively supervised and ‘over- sighted’ by a single committee.”

Just before the House proceeded on Christmas break a red card was given to one of the members, Mr. Peter Madubueze of the All Progressives Grand Alliance who represented Anambra East/ Anambra West  Federal  Constituency. In his place, the former National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Dr. Tony Nwoye, a medical doctor and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was sworn in on December 17 to take the seat having been declared by the Court of Appeal in Enugu as the winner of the election.