Reps Leadership Crisis Almost Over – Dogara

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, yesterday said the leadership crisis rocking the House is “almost over”.

The speaker hinted that he would constitute the principal officers when the House resumes on July 21.

Dogara made the disclosure when he received members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth Forum who paid him a courtesy call in his office at the National Assembly.

Before the House embarked on its month-long recess on June 25, proceedings in the House turned rowdy after Dogara refused to read APC’s letter signed by the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, asking that Femi Gbajabiamila (South West) be made majority leader, Alhassan Ado (North West) deputy majority leader, Tahir Monguno (North East) chief whip and Pally Iriase (South South) as deputy chief whip.

Dogara said there are relentless efforts to settle the crisis which has pitched his faction against the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila’s APC caucus.

“That problem is almost over. As soon as I leave here, I am going for a meeting. I hope we will bury the issues over the position of principal officers once and for all; I am talking about the House of Representatives; by the time we reconvene, this issue would have been resolved,” he said.

Dogara said despite the friction with the APC, he remains loyal to the party, and also expressed ‘unparalleled faith’ in President Muhammadu Buhari’s ability to turn around the fortunes of the country for good. He called for reconciliation amongst party members.

He called on Nigerians to pray for the president not to make mistakes in constituting his cabinet.

“I also want to use this forum to say that we still have issues regarding the government that will be formed very soon. We still want to appeal for your prayers and support so that we don’t get things wrong. We all know the circumstances that pushed us to uproot the government of the day. Everything was virtually against us; we didn’t have the benefit of incumbency; we didn’t have the kind of money like the party that was in government; but in spite of that, we were so resilient. Some of us even rejected offers of money because of our conviction.

“The only way we can pay back the people is not to abandon this conviction. We have unparalleled faith in the president of this nation and for most of us, we believe that if we don’t get it right now, it will be very difficult for us to get it right in our own generation. That is why we will do everything possible, as even here in the HOR, we will do everything possible, so that even if it comes to partisan issues, we will rein in support from opposition parties to make sure that the president succeeds.

Credit: Leadership