Most colleagues of Femi Gbajabiamila, particularly those in the Loyalists Group he heads, as well as chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), jubilated over his election on Tuesday, July 28 as House of Representatives Majority Leader.
The reason is not far-fetched: the man for the job eventually emerged.
The struggle to make him a principal officer was tough, a precursor to bigger political battles for power shift in 2019. Gbajabiamila is a stooge representing his masters in the tussle.
The noise about the supremacy of the party is an empty one, evidenced in the development in the National Assembly (NASS) since its inauguration on June 9 and the crises in both Chambers.
The party is supreme because every politician needs to be sponsored by a political party into an elective office.
But the same political parties and their leaders know that the principle of separation of powers in a democracy confers some degree of autonomy on the three arms of government – the executive, legislature and judiciary.
Because the executive arm feels superior to the others and tends to dominate government activities because of its power to execute policies and allocate resources, the constant struggle for power among the three arms becomes inevitable and is at times a matter of life and death.
Gbajabiamila has acquitted himself since he was first elected into the House in 2011. As Minority Leader in the Aminu Tambuwal/Emeka Ihedioha tenure, he gave a good account of himself during the formative days of the APC through constructive arguments laced with the power of persuasion.
He was part of the camp that worked hard to decimate the popularity of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the House.
That he ran for the speakership in June this year was not a surprise. Nobody would have doubted his intellectual capacity and grasp of legislative business if he had won. What is surprising, however, is how he has elevated inordinate ambition to something else.
Gbajabiamila has exhibited such loathsome behaviour since he lost the speakership vote. It seems to him that he was elected by his constituents to occupy a principal’s office in the House instead of being on the floor to make laws that would impact the lives of citizens.
It is his right to aspire to any office. But having missed the speakership, the honourable thing for him to do would have been to give peace a chance and support his colleagues who defeated him.
Some blame President Muhammadu Buhari for all the ills in the NASS since its inauguration because they expect him to meddle in the affairs of the House or make pronouncements that suggest he favours one camp above another.
Even in the last meeting he held with the warring lawmakers he did not support any camp.
Instead, he maintained his non-interference by telling Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the Gbajabiamila group to settle between themselves in line with the party’s thinking and constitution.
But that was the decisive comment the APC leadership had been waiting to hear from Buhari before it made good the threat to Dogara and his Deputy, Yusuf Lasun, on why Gbajabiamila must be crowned Majority Leader.
With the final pronouncement of Gbajabiamila as Majority Leader, the APC has infiltrated the House to determine who gets what, something it had wanted from the day of the inauguration.
APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, who arranged the meeting APC lawmakers had with Buhari, knew what he wanted and what the end result would be.
He simply pulled a fast one on Dogara in line with what he knew was the demand of the godfathers of Gbajabiamila, perhaps Oyegun’s own godfathers as well, some of who think the APC belongs to them.
Gbajabiamila is being used by powerful interests in the APC to achieve a bigger political calculation for the 2019 presidential election. However, it is not about him, but about the other ethnic segments in Nigeria the APC government has sworn to undermine, using any means possible.
By conceding to the whims and caprices of the fat cows in the APC, Dogara has elevated Gbajabiamila to a primus inter pares, a super lawmaker who can always get what he wants through the dictates of powerful backers.
Nothing would have happened if Dogara had stuck to his guns regarding the inviolability of the House rules on the election of principal officers in line with ethnic balancing and federal character.
The battle has just started. It may not be now, but definitely it will blossom at the appointed time, as the election of Gbajabiamila has altered the equation in the election of principal officers and there is no doubt it will affect the appointment of committee chairmen.
Dogara may have ceded part of his authority to outsiders. And he cannot eat his cake and have it, because the decision he took to have one ethnic group produce two key principal officers – when some others do not have any – will hunt him and impact his political career.
What makes Dogara think the Senate under the leadership of Bukola Saraki which found a way round the composition of its principal officers is stupid?
If the separation of powers is working well in the Senate, despite the overbearing influence of the APC leadership, I see no reason why it should not work in the House if Dogara asserts himself and his authority.
People may complain that former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, emerged as Senate Minority Leader, but has that affected the workings of the Upper House, which should be the concern of all senators?
The greedy and winner takes all mentality that APC chieftains exhibit in the House cannot be sustained. It is only in the House that APC leaders carry on as if the party belongs to the North and South West, or to Buhari and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu is the masquerade behind Gbajabiamila. That explains why he did not hide his anger when he reportedly berated Tambuwal for betraying a cause.
Even the pressure on Lasun to resign, which he has rejected, also points to the nauseating selfish influence APC chieftains have on the House.
Those who think they are rendering incapacitated other APC members from other ethnic groups, mainly from the South East, will soon discover that the distance between now and 2019 is very close.
Gbajabiamila said on Wednesday, July 30 when the House APC caucus was being constituted that “it is not right to play the ethnic or regional card for now but they will be adequately compensated.”
That is neither here nor there, as his comment is an after thought.
