The crisis rocking the House of Representatives over the election of principal officers might have been resolved following the reported agreement by Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s faction to concede the position of House Leader to the Femi Gbajabiamila group.
The House has been embroiled in turmoil since Mr. Dogara emerged Speaker against the directive of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, which supported Mr. Gbajabiamila for the position.
After losing the speakership election, the party again nominated Gbajabiamila, who was the Minority Leader in the 7th House as Majority Leader, a proposal the members loyal to Mr. Dogara rejected.
Strange enough, it was reported that following Dogara’s election as Speaker, he had offered the deputy slot to Gbajabiamila, a proposition he allegedly rejected.
However, following a meeting which held Tuesday evening between Mr. Dogara and some members of the House, with the immediate past Speaker and current governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal in Abuja, some concessions were made.
APC governors had, after their meeting last week, formed a committee led by Mr. Tambuwal to mediate and find a solution to the crisis in the House.
A member of the House who attended Tuesday’s meeting, informed PREMIUM TIMES that lawmakers had insisted that on the choice of principal officers of the House,“equity and fair play should be the dominant consideration”.
“There was a consensus that in order to achieve peace and accommodation in the House, that the position of the House Leader be conceded to the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila Group to nominate a candidate”, he said.
The lawmaker, however, said the concession was not without a caveat.
“Considering the constitutional requirement of equitable representation and federal character, such candidate should be from any zone other than the North East and South West Zones that had already produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively”, he said.
The lawmaker revealed that the members informed Mr. Tambuwal that there were already pending suits from members and groups from the South East and North Central Zones on the matter and that only a fair resolution that carries every zone along would be acceptable.
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