Any member of the House of Representatives who rejects his appointment to head or deputise in any committee is after money and not for service, one of Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s loyalists, Hon. Mustapha Bala Dawaki (Kano, APC) has said.
Dawaki also said the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House has the numerical strength to block proposed reform legislation/resolutions if not adequately carried along in the affairs of the House.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja over the rejection of committees by some lawmakers, Dawaki (Kano, APC) said the primary goal of members should be service to the country and not personal interest.
At least three House members have so far rejected their committee appointments. They are: Sunday Adepoju (Oyo, APC) who resigned his position as Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Special Duties; Garba Mohammed Datti (Kaduna, APC) rejected his appointment as Chairman, House Committee on Solid Minerals and Hassan Saleh (Benue, PDP), who rejected his appointment as the Deputy Chairman, Committee on Local Content.
Adepoju and Datti are loyal to Dogara’s main challenger during the June 9 speakership election and House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Dawaki insisted that no committee is useless, adding that it is not the right of any member to be appointed to chair specific committees.
He said, “The leadership reserves the right to place MPs into committees and if their primary motive is service, they have no reason to reject such appointment. Any member who thinks he or she is in the House to make money is in for trouble as the Speaker will not tolerate such behaviour and will wash his hands of anyone found wanting.
“Mr. Speaker wants this (8th) Assembly to work and pass a record number of Bills. Members must sit up and do the right things. It will no longer be business as usual.”
The reps member further pointed out that there are 360 members in the House of which 10 are principal officers, while 192 are either chairmen or deputies leaving out 158 others who do not hold any position.
“It is therefore a great favour and privilege for any member to be appointed chairman or deputy as 158 of his colleagues won’t have any responsibility. Are they saying that they are better than those ones? Hon. Gideon Gwani is a third-termer and is neither a chairman nor deputy and he remained loyal and supportive of the leadership and did not raise any issue. Are they better than him?
“To tell you that the Speaker is not a selfish person, his region or zone of the North East has the least number of committees just about eight. Kano State, my state has six chairmen and eight deputies. These chairmen include Appropriation, House Services, SDGs, Housing, Poverty Alleviation and Tertiary Education. No Speaker has ever given Kano this in the past,” he emphasised.
Minority PDP has numbers to block legislation
Dawaki recalled that 93 Standing Committee chairmen and their deputies were appointed – APC got 48 to PDP’s 45. In a further breakdown, APC got 55 Deputy chairmen while the PDP caucus accounted for 39.
“Of the 48 APC chairmen, 26 are Gbajabiamila’s supporters and of the 54 deputy chairmen, 29 are from Gbajabiamila’s camp,” he noted.
“Some of the grade A committees allocated to Gvajabiamilas supporters include Customs and Excise which both chairman and deputy came from Femi’s group. Hon. Faleke and Hon. Chanchangi. Agriculture and many others are grade A committees.
“Again, APC got grade A committees such as Agriculture, Appropriation, Finance, Police Affairs, Navy, Defence, Interior, FCT, Basic Education, Tertiary Education, Customs, Judiciary, Electoral Matters, Emergency and Disaster Management, Housing, Land Transport, Marine, Pensions, Public Safety and Intelligence, Rules and Business, House Services, Telecommunications, Water Resources and Solid Minerals,” the lawmaker added, pointing out that some committees that naturally belong to some zones as obtained in previous assemblies which include Petroleum Resources and Gas were retained in those zones.
He however said that unlike in previous assemblies, the ruling party, APC, does not have 2/3 majority in the House.
“The opposition party, PDP, has the numerical strength to block or frustrate any bill or motion which requires 2/3 majority vote, which means that they must be carried along in the scheme of things… that is why they too must be given committees to chair.”
Due process
The House spokesman, Abdrulrazak Sa’ad Namdas, on Monday insisted that the selection of the chairmen and deputies of the 96 House Standing Committees followed due process and was in line with the principles of the constitutionally-backed Federal character.
The newly-appointed Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, while justifying Speaker Dogara’s appointments, said aside 10 House principal officers, the remaining 350 House members got “at least two Grade A Committees.”
Pre-election agreements entered by Dogara with the opposition PDP caucus and some APC members before the closely contested June 9 speakership election shaped the composition of the 96 Standing Committees unveiled on October 22, 2015.
APC loyalists maintain that the composition and quality of the headships of the committees was skewed in favour of PDP members, whose support helped Dogara become Speaker against Gbajabiamila, who was supported by the party. They have accused the Speaker of weakening the caucus going by the composition of the committee headship.
– Leadership
