No going back on committees – Reps

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The House of Representatives said on Wednesday that it would not reverse itself on the composition of the chairmen of the 96 standing committees of the House.

The distribution of the committees by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, has been the source of the latest dispute in the House, particularly within the caucus of the majority All Progressives Congress.

But speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Jonathan Gaza, stated that the likelihood of the House reversing itself on the composition of the committees was remote.

He noted that the inauguration of the committees by Dogara on Monday indicated that the House had put the issue behind itself and was “set for full legislative activities.”

Gaza added, “There is nothing left on the issue of committees because we have gone past that stage.

“The committees have been inaugurated and they have started working. What else is left? Yesterday (Tuesday), the leadership of the House met and they resolved that they would work for the progress of the country.

“We cannot be talking of changing anything after the committees have been inaugurated.”

However, investigations by The PUNCH showed that some APC members remained aggrieved, especially with the unwillingness of Dogara to reverse the alleged “lopsidedness” of the sharing of the committees.

One aggrieved member claimed that Dogara was playing “politics of winner-take-all.”

The member, who did not want to be quoted, said, “We are in the era of winner-take-all politics in the House.”

The House Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, and some of his allies had boycotted the inauguration of the committees on Monday.

The aggrieved members later addressed journalists at the national secretariat of the APC, where they accused Dogara of favouring the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, in the distribution of committee positions.

But on Tuesday, other members of the APC, who said it was time for the House to move on, began plotting the removal of Gbajabiamila as Majority Leader.

A quick intervention by his loyalists, who protested against the plan, reportedly saved the situation.

Dogara, Gbajabiamila and other principal officers later held a separate meeting on Tuesday where they were said to have agreed to douse the tension in the House.

The House leader actively participated in debates on the floor on both Tuesday and Wednesday (yesterday) in a generally calm atmosphere.

On Wednesday, Gbajabiamila declined to comment on the issue of committees when The PUNCH sought his views.

“No comment yet,” he said simply.

There has been a cold war between Dogara and Gbajabiamila since October 22 when the Speaker named the 96 committees on account of the grumbling by APC members that the party was not fairly treated in the distribution of the committees.

The Speaker had allocated 48 of the committees to the APC while the PDP took 45 slots.

Some aggrieved APC members complained that the PDP was given more prime committees than the majority party.

Such key committees are better known as “juicy committees” in the parlance of the National Assembly.

Included in the PDP’s share were committees like Petroleum Resources (Upstream); Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream); Committee on Gas Resources; Committee on Aviation; Committee on Power; Committee on Works; Committee on NDDC; Committee on Niger Delta; and Committee on Air Force.

Among the APC’s committees were Committee on Appropriations; Committee on Finance; Committee on Customs/Excise; Committee on Defence; Committee on Communications; and Committee on Agricultural Services.

However, some APC members felt that Dogara should have given the committees on petroleum resources, gas resources, power, works and aviation among others, to the majority party as well.

In addition, they had observed that the difference between 48 and 45 was three, meaning that the ruling party and the opposition almost tied on the number of committees they got from the Speaker.

To demonstrate their grievances, two APC lawmakers officially resigned their committee headship three weeks ago. One was a former Deputy Minority Whip, Mr. Garba Dhatti-Muhammad, who resigned as the Chairman, Committee on Solid Minerals Development.

His official reason was that Dogara did not “consult” him before appointing him as a chairman.

Another member, Mr. Sunday Adepoju, rejected an offer to serve as the Deputy Chairman, Committee on Special Duties. Adepoju had claimed that he resigned because the APC was not fairly treated.

The Speaker simply replaced the two officials with other lawmakers and went ahead to inaugurate the committees on Monday.

Speculation that four more APC chairmen threatened to resign was not proven, as there had been no letters to that effect.

One PDP member, Mr. Hassan Saleh, also said he did not want to be a deputy committee chairman.

Findings indicated that attempts by the APC’s leadership to resolve the matter failed to alter the composition of the committees.

Source: Punch