The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara,
has replied a letter written by the national Chairman of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, John Oyegun, to him on June 23, 2015, directing him to appoint
party nominees as principal officers.
Mr. Dogara in his reply, dated July 16, 2015, recalled his
earlier claim that a court case instituted by some members on the matter, made
it impossible for him to make all necessary consultation on the chairman’s
letter.
Mr. Dogara also informed Mr. Oyegun the need to respect
Federal Character, and enumerated the tradition of the House of Representatives
regarding how Principal officers are elected.
He then proposed to the APC Chairman a list of zoning of
principal offices that would best reflect the spirit of Federal character.
He stated that The North East and South West have already
produced the Speaker and his deputy. He therefore, proposed that the House
Leader should come from the North West (with 86 APC members) Deputy House
Leader, from the North Central (with 33 APC members), while Chief Whip and
Deputy Chief Whip would come from the South South and South East respectively.
See Mr. Dogara’s full letter below:
July 16, 2015
The National Chairman,
All Progressives Congress (APC),
National Headquarters,
Abuja.
UPDATE ON ELECTION OF PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF THE 8TH HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
This is to formally acknowledge receipt of your letter Ref.
No. APC/NHDQ/NAM/01/015/06 dated 23rd June, 2015.
2. After the letter was received but before I could make the
necessary consultations concerning the letter because of its sensitive nature,
I was served with Court processes on the subject matter filed by some Members
of the House and other persons and groups from the North Central and South East
Zones of Nigeria. The Rules of the House enjoin us to make a determination
whether discussing a matter pending in Court in the House would be prejudicial
to the Case.
3. However, before this determination could be made, on the
25th June, 2015, I took steps to discuss the matter in an Executive Session of
the House which is open to only House Members and not the public. We were
prevented from doing so by some House members who conducted themselves in a
most unparliamentary manner. It is necessary to point out that the mechanism of
Executive Session is resorted to in order to iron out controversial matters in
an amicable way to preserve the unity and cohesion of the House.
4. Since then, efforts have been made by the Party,
Progressive Governors and other interested persons to intervene and resolve the
issues. We want to place on record, our unflinching loyalty and respect not
only to you as an individual, considering your antecedents, but also to the
party, APC, under whose platform we were elected to the House. We have no intention
whatsoever of disobeying your directives or the party’s position on any matter.
We would, of course, prefer a situation where we are consulted on matters
concerning the House before directives are issued and made public.
5. We feel strongly, that the issue of federal character in
the election or appointment of principal officers of the House is a cardinal
legal, moral and constitutional principle that should be respected by our
party. It is however obvious from the letter under reference that this principle
was not taken into consideration. If the letter is enforced the way it was
conveyed, it will lead to the following unjust result:
Speaker: North East:
Chief Whip: North East
Deputy Speaker: South West
House Leader: South West
Deputy House Leader: North West
Deputy Chief Whip: South South
This will totally and unfairly exclude the South East and
North Central Zones in the distribution of these political offices and lead to
undue concentration of some offices in the South West and North East Zones of
Nigeria.
6. The House Rules provide that in filling the positions of
Majority leadership of the House, namely, leader of the House, Chief Whip,
Deputy Leader, Deputy Whip of the House, each candidate;
“shall be a member nominated from among the members in the
majority party in the House”
Furthermore, Order 1, of the House Rules provides that
“In all cases not provided for hereinafter or by sessional
or other orders, Precedents or practices of the House, the House shall by
Resolution regulate its procedure”
It is evident that there are existing Precedents and
Practices which the House has been following for a long time and in particular
since 1999. Since 1999, Zonal Caucuses of a Party have been primarily
responsible for nominating Principal Officers of the House, other than the
Speaker and Deputy Speaker that are elected by the entire House.
In 1999, Principal Officers of the House were as follows:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Salisu Buhari &
Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba -North West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Chibudom Nwuche -South South
3. House Leader: Hon. Mohammed Wakil -North East
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bawa Bwari -North Central
5. Deputy Leader: Hon. Mao Ohuabunwa -South East
6. Deputy Whip: Hon. Samuel Sadiq Anwo -South West
2003:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari -North West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Austin Opara -South South
3. House Leader: Hon. Abdul Ningi -North East
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bawa Bwari -North Central
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh -South West
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Gilbert Nnaji -South East
2007:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon.Patricia Olubunmi Etteh
& Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole -South West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Nguruoje Babangida &
Rt. Hon. Bayero Usman Nafada -North East
3. House Leader: Hon. Akogun Tunde -South South
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bethel Amadi &
Hon. Emeka Ihedioha -South East
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal -North West
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Baba Shehu Agaie -North Central
2011:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal -North West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha -South East
3. House Leader: Hon. Mulikat Akande -South West
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Isiaka Bawa -North East
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Muktar Mohammed -North Central
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Leo Ogor -South South
2015:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara -North East
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Lasun S. Yussuf -South West
3. House Leader ?
4. Chief Whip ?
5. Deputy Whip ?
6. Deputy Leader ?
These are clear Precedents and Practices for Majority
leadership positions since 1999. They therefore, constitute precedents and
practices of the House as enshrined in the Standing Orders of the House. We are
bound by it by virtue of Provisions of Order 1 of our Standing Rules.
7. The issue of Federal character has very strong constitutional
foundations. They are indeed mandatory provisions of the Constitution. For ease
of reference, let us examine the following provisions:
a. S. 14(3)
“The composition of the Government of the Federation or any
of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such
manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote
national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that
there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few
ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies”
b. S. 147 provides for the appointment of Ministers by the
President. However, under S. 147(3)
“Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the
President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this
Constitution”
c. S. 223(1)(b) provides for observance of federal character
by political parties, thus:
“The members of the Executive Committee or other governing
body of the political party shall be deemed to reflect the federal character of
Nigeria only if the members thereof belong to different states not being less
in member than two-thirds of all the States comprising the Federation”
d. The Third Schedule, Part 1, C, especially Section 8 (b)
and (c) enjoins the Federal Character Commission to:
“b.promote, monitor and enforce compliance with the
principles of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic,, economic, media and
political posts at all levels of government;
c.take such legal measures, including the prosecution of the
head or staff of any Ministry or government body or agency which fails to
comply with any federal character principle or formula prescribed or adopted by
the Commission”
e. The Oath of office of Members of the National Assembly is
contained in the 7th Schedule to the Constitution and every member swore to:
“Preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive
Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, and ….. (to) preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”
To further underscore the seriousness with which the framers
of the Constitution regarded the issue of Federal Character, the National
Assembly was given exclusive jurisdiction to legislate in Item 60 of the
Exclusive Legislative List, for:
“The establishment and regulation of authorities for the
federation or any part thereof –
a.)To promote and enforce the observance of the fundamental
objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the
Constitution”
8. Our most respected Chairman, in the light of above and
and in view of our Party’s unshakable commitment to Due Process and the Rule of
Law, the present position is untenable. Therefore, insisting on it is only
tantamount to compelling us to violate the Constitution or to betray the Oath
of Office we solemnly swore to. This we believe is not what our Party and any
of our principled National Leaders stand for.
Indeed, we expect that our great party, the APC, will ensure
that “there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few
ethnic or sectional groups in (the) government or in any of its agencies”
9. Consequently Sir, we propose the following zoning
arrangement for the distribution of principal offices in the House of
Representatives.
Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara – North East
Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yusuf Sulaimon Lasun – South West
House Leader: North West (with 86 APC members)
Deputy House Leader: North Central
(with 33 APC members)
Chief Whip: South South
Deputy Chief Whip: South East
Above proposal satisfies the provisions of Order 1 of our
Rules, the Constitutional provision on Federal Character and gives all parts of
Nigeria a sense of belonging. The proposal will also obviate all pending Court
cases filed by some Zonal Caucuses on the matter.
10. To resolve this problem, we had offered that some of the
aggrieved members of our party, APC, who lost the election for the office of
Presiding Officers, should produce some of the remaining Principal Officers for
peace to reign. For emphasis, we have conceded the position of Leader of the
House and Chief Whip to those aggrieved, as long as the persons should not come
from the North East or South West Zones that have already produced the Speaker
and Deputy Speaker. In any case, sir, I pledge as the Speaker of the House, to
accommodate other colleagues of ours in the Party list, who may not be taken
care of by this arrangement, with other commensurate appointments or other
existing opportunities for service to the nation.
11. We owe a duty to lay the truth bare as we have done in
this case. The Party in conjunction with Governors, National leaders and the
APC Causes in the House may agree otherwise as the saying goes, “volenti non
fit injuria”. Our Party must not have the undistinguished honour of setting a
precedent outside of the provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of the
House.
12. CONCLUSION
We most respectfully urge that our above proposal be
considered on its merits and that efforts should be made to resolve this matter
so that the House will resume its working recess in a peaceful atmosphere.
There is no gainsaying the fact that a stable House is necessary to support the
President and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the APC in
fulfilling our electoral mandate of Change and Progress for the Nigerian
people.
13. May I Sir, respectfully assure you of our continued
loyalty and best wishes.
Rt. Hon. Dogara Yakubu
Speaker, House of Representatives
CC: President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria
CC: Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Progressive Governors’
forum mediator)
CC: Governor Rochas Okorocha, Chairman, Progressive
Governors’ Forum
CC: Chairman, Forum of APC State Chairmen
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