There was a new development in the crisis rocking the House of Representatives yesterday, as some key members of the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led Loyalists Group openly concord to the sharing formula for the principal offices in the House, as proposed by Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
The new arrangement now being referred to as the ‘Dogara Formula’ had, in line with the federal character principle, zoned the offices of majority leader to the North-West; deputy majority leader to the North-Central; chief whip to the South-South; and deputy whip to the South-East.
Signs that the ranks of the members of the Gbajabiamila-led group had been broken began to emerge few days back, following a letter from the Speaker to the APC leadership in which he explained reasons why it would be difficult for the remaining principal officers to emerge according to the party’s proposed sharing formula, citing violation of a constitutional provision of federal character principle, which the opposing camp argued was ‘not justiciable’, hence its insistence on adherence to party supremacy on the matter. He had also come up with a sharing formula, which according to him, was more nationalistic.
Recall that on the heels of Dogara’s letter to the party, the Consolidation Group announced its support for the ‘Dogara Formula’ and consequently, endorsed Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa as House Leader; Hon. Buba Jibrin as deputy leader; Hon. Pally Iriase as chief whip; and Hon. Chika Okafor as deputy whip, edging out Gbajabiamila and Monguno from the race, tactically.
Doguwa and Iriase are members of the Loyalists Group, headed by Gbajabiamila, who is favoured to emerge House leader by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Consolidation Group had in a statement, issued by its spokesman, Hon. Jibrin Abdulmumin, called on its supporters to intensify lobbying at the zonal caucuses for the emergence of its nominees.
“For the benefit of enlightenment, it is important to state that in terms of the leadership status of these vacant positions, the House Leader is the most senior, followed by the Chief Whip. In the spirit of reconciliation and unity, Speaker Dogara has graciously conceded the positions of House Leader and Chief Whip to the Femi Gbajabiamila group…Kindly note that Hon Alhassan Doguwa is the Head of the Gbajabiamila’s Group while Hon. Pally Iriase was in the Speakership race but stepped down for Gbajabiamila and assumed a very prominent role in the Gbajabiamila group,” the statement read in part.
In line with the distribution of the positions, as proposed by the Speaker, the group also presented Hon. Buba Jibrin from the North Central, Kogi State, as Deputy House Leader, and Hon. Chika Okafor from the South East, Imo State, as the Deputy Chief Whip.
But the spokesman of the Loyalists Group, Hon. Nasiru Sani Zangon-Daura, in a letter to the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, insisted on party supremacy in the selection of the principal officers.
However, two other members of the Loyalists Group, Hon. Muktari Dandutse and Hon. Tijjani Abdulkadir Jobe, in a joint statement, said the July 18 letter to Oyegun, signed by Zangon-Daura, did not reflect the wishes of the group, as it did not emanate from any formal or collective meeting of their group.
Dandutse and Jobe urged the party to accept Dogara’s concession of the two major principal positions to the Loyalists Group, in the interest of peace and stability.
“We make bold to state that the view expressed by Hon. Nasiru Zangon-Daura was his personal opinion and never has the Loyalists Group met or agreed to write formally to the leadership of the party in reaction to last week’s entreaties by Speaker Dogara to the national chairman of our great party on the way forward,” the statement read.
While reaffirming their loyalty to the Loyalists Group, the duo further disclosed that the last time the group met was at the July 3 meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC), where it accepted to engage the Governor Aminu Tambuwal-led reconciliation committee.
Yesterday’s development was therefore a clear deviation from the instructions of the leadership of the governing APC, which had earlier directed Dogara to announce the names of Gbajabiamila, Doguwa, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and Iriase as majority leader, deputy leader, chief whip and deputy whip of the House respectively.
But in a twist of events yesterday, the trio of Doguwa, Monguno and Iriase addressed a joint press conference in Abuja with the spokesperson of the Dogara group, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin in attendance, denouncing their earlier stand on party supremacy, while pledging support for the ‘Dogara Formula’ in the interest of “peace.”
“In light of this development, it is heart-warming to announce to you that the disagreement in the House, which many have erroneously labelled as crisis, has finally come to an end.
“All other interests, including those excluded from the principal officers, specifically Hon Gbajabiamila and Hon Monguno will be duly accommodated with commensurate responsibility to serve. Since the Speaker has about 200 positions to share out, many members will have the opportunity to serve the country,” Jibrin said.
Earlier, Iriase, who spoke first from the Loyalists group, said that they had since realised that the Constitution compels all the heads of the three arms of government to ensure compliance with the federal character as enshrined and that it was time to bury the hatchet and move forward.
For his part, Doguwa said the presence of Monguno, Iriase and himself at the press briefing showed that the crisis was truly over, having disagreed and misunderstood each other for long.
Monguno said he would have been the last person to be part of the arrangement but for the need to ensure peace and fairness in the House, hence he has followed suit.
Meanwhile, a close ally of Gbajabiamila, who craved anonymity, told LEADERSHIP Sunday when contacted that the Lagos-born lawmaker was not party to the latest deal.
This was corroborated hours later when the spokesman of the Gbajabiamila camp, Zangon-Daura, issued a terse statement denouncing the ‘Dogara Formula’.
“The APC Loyalists group hereby denies and unequivocally rejects any purported endorsement of a so called formula on the APC leadership in the House of Representatives. Any member of our group who claims to be part of this arrangement acts on his own and not on behalf of the group,” Zangon-Daura said.
LEADERSHIP Sunday findings revealed that the promise of juicy committee leadership positions to some other members of the Loyalists Group has further widened the cracks among the self-styled ‘APC Loyalists.’
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