Is Dogara Stirring The Hornets Nest?

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, seems to have acquired imperial powers with the recent recommendations made by the House Ad-hoc Committee on Rules and Business led by Hon Aminu Shagari. The new rules give Dogara a somewhat overwhelming powers to deal with any of his perceived enemies or erring member. CELESTINE OKAFOR looks at the implications of the new powers of the Speaker as well as the controversy surrounding the composition of the new House Committees, wondering if Dogara is not stirring the hornets nest.

House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, seems to be courting trouble in recent times. The House Speaker has incurred the wrath of many of his colleagues across party lines with the October 8 adoption of a new House rules which has legally given the speaker sweeping powers to deal with Reps members who appear to have stepped on his toes or rather stepped out of line. The new rules however came in the aftermath of the stiff opposition that trailed his election as Speaker on June 9 this year.

Not only that, Dogara’s composition of the new House Committees which also seems to have given the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) members an edge in terms of choice Committees appointments, has pitched the speaker against his colleagues. In the coming weeks therefore, Dogara would have to contend with the anger of mostly his All Progressive Congress (APC) members in the lower chamber of the National Assembly who are presently feeling so shortchanged in new Committee sharing exercise.

Following the crisis and the brouhaha which characterized his emergence as speaker, Dogara decided to take firm steps to consolidate his hold on power and on the House. He constituted a 15-member ad-hoc committee of the House on Rules and Business headed by Hon Aminu Shagari to review the standing orders of the House. The new rules were eventually adopted by the whole House on October 8.

Among the Committee’s recommended is that henceforth, any Reps member that “approaches the mace with whatever intent” during an uproar, shall be summarily suspended by the Speaker or a period not less than six months. The new rules also provide that: “The mace is the sacred authority of the House and that the only authorized staff of the Sergeant-at-Arms may approach, handle or remove it in the ordinary course of their official duties. Therefore “No member of the House or his agent may approach, handle or remove the mace under any circumstance.

“Any member who approaches or handles the mace with whatever intent, including to remove, or who removes the mace shall be liable to suspension from the service of the House for a period not less than six months or such longer period as the Speaker or Chairman may consider expedient having regard to the particular circumstances”, the rule said.

The committee also recommended in the new House rules that the Speaker can suspend outright, for 30 plenary days, any member that refuses to obey his directive to leave the House chamber during a particular day’s sitting, after such a member has been directed to assume their seat but failed to do so.

The rule equally stated that a member who is asked to leave the House chamber by the Speaker but fails, “…when summoned under the Speaker’s Order by the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Speaker shall call to the attention of the House that force is necessary in order to compel obedience and any member named by the Speaker as having refused to obey his direction shall thereupon, without any further question being put, be suspended from the service of the House for a period not exceeding 30 plenary days”.

In the new arrangement, the House is empowered to suspend House sitting anytime he foresees an apparent disorder. “In the case of a grave disorder arising in the House, the Speaker may, if he deems it necessary to do so, suspend the sitting for a time to be named by him”. The committee recommended a ban on members from entering the chamber or anywhere in the House with weapons, stating that “No member shall enter the chamber or the precincts of the House of Representatives with guns, daggers, grenades, knives or any other weapons or instrument of violence”.

The new rule however prohibits the use of electronic and related gadgets. It states that “No member shall operate cameras, tape recorders, telephones and other communications equipment in the chamber or during committee meetings except strictly for legislative purposes”. The committee report limits the function of the Majority Whip from organizing “members in debates and divisions and persuade them on voting one way or the other,” to organizing “members of his/her party in debates and divisions, and persuade them on voting one way or the other.”

On the issue of handling of the mace which is the symbol of legislative authority in a parliament in any democracy, the ad-hoc committee’s recommendation must have guided to come up with the new rule on mace considering the fact that since the return to democratic system of governance in Nigeria in 1999, there had been several attempts to forcefully or clandestinely whisk the mace from the table in both the National Assembly or Sate Houses of Assembly during major disagreements. But the Dogara regime in the lower chamber of the federal parliament has now devised a seemingly effective formula for the first time, to sanction lawmakers in the House of Reps who may embark on such unparliamentary practice of illegally removing the mace during disagreements or crisis in the chambers.

However, hardly had the controversy over the new House settled, Dogara came up with his newly constituted House Committees numbering 96. The composition of the headship of the new committees is clearly creating a rumpus especially among Dogara’s APC members who are presently outraged and have accused the Speaker of favoring the opposition PDP lawmakers over his colleagues in the APC.

Among the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the 96 House Committees announced by Dogara are: Abdulmunin Jibrin (Chairman) – Committee on Appropriation; Rima Shawulu Kwewum (Chairman) – Army; Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (Chairman) – Aviation; Zakari Mohammed (Chairman) – Basic

Education; Chike Okafor (Chairman) – Healthcare Services; Aminu Shehu Shagari (Chairman) – Federal Judiciary; James Faleke (Chairman) – Customs; Rufa’i Chachangi (Vice Chairman)- Customs; Sani Zoro (Chairman )- Internally Displaced Persons, IDP and Garba Muhammed (Chairman) – Chairman Solid Minerals.

Others include: Austin Chukwukere (vice chairman) – Finance; Jones Onyeriri (Chairman) – Banking and Currency; Nnenna Ukeje (Chairman) – Foreign Affairs; Mohammed Munguno (Chairman) – Agriculture; Nicholas Mutu (Chairman) – NDDC; Aminu Suleiman (Chairman) – Education; Linus Okorie (Chairman) – Agricultural Colleges and Institutions; Simeon Arabo (Chairman) – Delegated Legislation; Olufemi Fakeye (Chairman) – Actuarial Matters; Betty Apiafi (Chairman) – Health Institutions; Laori Kwamoti (Chairman) – FCT Judiciary; Aminu Suleiman (Chairman) – Tertiary Education and Services; Tijani Jobe (Chairman) – Sustainable Development Goals; Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas (Chairman) – Media & Public Affairs and Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai (Chairman) – Ethics & Privileges.

The Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs was yet to get its head. In the new committee arrangement, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) heads 48 Committees (PDP) heads 45 committees while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) got one chairmanship slot each. The South heads 46 Committees while the North heads 50.

By the new committee sharing, Dogara, from all indication, seems to have stirred the hornets nest. Reps members who are abysmally dissatisfied with the new arrangement in the House standing committees have really come down very hard on him. Some of his critics who are of the APC stock accuse him of weakening the APC. LEADERSHIP Weekend investigation showed that Reps from the camp of the House Majority Leader, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila form the bulk of Dogara’s critics on the new committees.

They argue that the composition of the committees chairmanship was composed to favour the PDP Reps members on whose support the Dogara essentially emerged Speaker against Mr. Gbajabiamila, who was supported by the ruling party, APC. They said many of the key committees, otherwise called “juicy committees”, were clinched by PDP members. They listed those committees to include committees on Foreign Affairs, Nnena Elendu-Ukeje (Abia State); Petroleum Resources (downstream) Joseph Akinlaja (Ondo State); Petroleum Resources (upstream), Victor Nwokolo (Delta State); Works, Tobi Okechukwu (Enugu State); Power, Daniel Effiong (Cross River State).

Also Committees on Army, Navy, Air Force, Ports, Harbours and Waterways, went to the PDP quartet of Rima Kwewum (Taraba), Samson Okwu (Benue State), Abdussamad Dasuki (Sokoto State) and Patrick Asada (Enugu State) respectively. The APC members in the Gbajabiamila camp were not only aggrieved about the alleged lop-sidedness that favours the PDP, but also the way Mr. Dogara allegedly favoured his loyalists within the APC caucus.

For instance, the lawmakers said Mr. Dogara’s strong allies in the APC like Abdulmumin Jibrin (Kano), Mohammed Zakari (Kwara), Babangida Ibrahim (Katsina), Nasiru Babale (Kano) and Herman Hembe (Benue) clinched such key committees as Appropriations, Basic Education Services, Finance, House Services and Federal Capital Territory respectively.

One of the Reps close to Gbajabiamila, said anonymously that only nine chairmanship positions – out of 48 given to APC – were given to members of the group. Of the nine committees said to be given to the group, “only two are considered juicy”. These committees are Committee on Customs and Excise and Agricultural Production and Services which was given to James Faleke (Lagos) and Mohammed Monguno (Borno). Others committees given to the Gbajabiamila camp are committees on Aids and Loans, Adeyinka Ajayi (Osun); Anti-Corruption, jide Akinloye (Lagos); Civil Society, Peter Akpatason (Edo); Financial Crimes, Kayode Oladele (Ogun); Internally Displaced Persons, Sani Zoro (Jigawa); Insurance, Olufemi Fakeye (Osun); Special Duties, Nasiru Daura (Katsina) and Treaties and Protocols (Yakub Balogun).

According to the lawmaker source in the Gbajabiamila camp, Mr. Faleke’s committee headship was mere “smokescreen because they know Faleke would not use the seat”. Mr. Faleke is the running-mate of Kogi APC gubernatorial candidate, Audu Abubakar, in the forthcoming Kogi governorship election.

A member, Babban Kaita (Katsina State), said the lopsided committee leadership may affect the smooth-running of the Buhari administration. He said “Let’s bring Gbajabiamila group out of this; this is about the difficulty that the APC government of President Buhari will face because of this composition.

He maintained that “It has never been this bad. Dogara has short-changed his own party, APC, in favour of the PDP. But we are not surprised because that was the agreement they had before he became Speaker. All the critical committees that will play a role in the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari have been given to the PDP. Petroleum, Upstream and Downstream, Power, Works, Foreign Affairs; these are areas Mr. President would want to turn around in the country but they are conceded to the PDP “. The lawmaker claimed that Dogara disregarded House rules in the constitution of the committees.

According to him, “The composition should be made in consultation with the Principal Officers but none of them was invited. Even Femi Gbajabiamila, the Majority Leader, got to know about it the very day it was going to be announced “. He added that the PDP members holding the “critical committees” may sabotage Mr. Buhari and his ministers, especially when the opposition had made a rallying charge to its members “to rise against Buhari”.

Another APC lawmaker from North West also alleged that “ Dogara is giving everything to PDP in preparation for 2019. His effort is to revive PDP in 2019 in collaboration with Saraki.”

Among the Ekiti caucus of the House, there is also discomfort among some PDP members who claimed that the “Ekiti people have spoken; we are not very happy with the outcome of the new committees “. Hon Thaddeus Aina who spoke on behalf of his colleagues from Ekiti State, said that “We are six in number and they gave us just one slot. It is ratio 1:6. Although we have not seen the entire composition; notwithstanding, morning shows the day “.

Another PDP lawmaker from South West who would not want his name mentioned, said the zone was “not properly considered in what they did.

If you look at it, what came to PDP mostly went to South South and South East “. A PDP lawmaker from the South East said “Well, I am not authorized to speak for the Speaker. But let me say that South West should not complain because they already have Deputy Speaker and Majority Leader “.

However, some Reps members have also defended Dogara and dismissing the allegation of favoritism and partiality against the speaker. The new House committee chairman on media and public affairs, Hon Abdulrazak Namdsail ooh pooed the claim of favoritism against the speaker saying he was fair to all parties in the sharing of the standing committees. Namdas, who is a member of the APC from Adamawa state said: “It is not true that the Speaker has handed over the committees to the opposition. In sharing these committees, due process was followed. We ensured that every member of the House got two Grade ‘A’ committees. Whether you are a chairman or deputy, you are still relevant.”

Even as the criticism of Dogara on the issue of committee appointments is still raging, the speaker has continued to receive more verbal attacks hauled at him regarding the new House rules which has somewhat invested awesome imperial powers on Dogara to effectively checkmate his colleagues who may wish to give him troubles or try to torpedo his regime in the House.

A Reps member who would not want to be mentioned in an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend, alleged that Dogara “ hastily masterminded the new rules in anticipation that he would invoke the offensive provisions of that rule whenever he finds himself in a tight corner with his arch opponents in the House. The speaker is sufficiently aware that he is sitting on a gun nozzle so he has to design an antidote to save his skin whenever the day of the jackals comes. So Dogara knew what is trying to run away from”.