For over eight years, Femi Gbajabiamila has fiercely
defended his political party’s position in the House of Representatives. EDEGBE
ODEMWINGIE reports on the behind the scenes political power play and intrigues
that eventually led to his announcement as majority leader of the 8th House.
“For politicians, loyalty to party, which in practice has to
mean the party leadership is the supreme morality. If this is the yardstick for
measuring success, then Femi Gbajabiamila is right on course as a well rounded
politician.”
This is an excerpt from the political memoirs of
Gbajabiamila “Fearless,” written by Wale Okediran. This may well have captured
the political personality of Gbajabiamila, who defiantly defended “party
supremacy,” in his failed speakership bid and his eventual emergence as majority
leader of the 8th House of Representatives.
Gbajabiamila two days after his emergence as House leader,
revealed that he was on the verge of dumping his House leadership bid after the
contest was portrayed as a personal ambition, instead of a struggle to ensure
party supremacy.
According to Gbajabiamila, President Muhammadu Buhari and
the All Progressive Congress (APC) leadership, however, declined his offer to
withdraw from the race.
“A lot of people do not know this, but long time ago, I saw
the President, I saw my party, I explained to them that this thing has been
framed to be about me. So I said I wanted to withdraw for the sake of the House
and the country. I told them I would leave this thing in a heartbeat without
even thinking about it and I will go and sit on the floor of the House, without
even accepting anything, not even chairmanship. I have never been a committee
chairman or deputy, I have never even asked. So I told them, I have turned
things down,” Gbajabiamila revealed.
“But on principle, the President did not accept it, my party
did not accept it, and I thank God for the kind of confidence they have in me
to be able to deliver the goods for the party. Who am I to say no? It was on
principle that we stayed the course,” he added.
Throwback
On June 25, when the House embarked on a recess, proceedings
in the House turned rowdy and almost bloody after an attempt by Abdullahi
Balarabe Salame to snatch the mace – the House symbol of authority- drew the
members into a free-for-all.
The ugly development followed Dogara’s refusal, to read a
June 23 letter from the APC national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, which
directed that 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), deputy chief whip.
Dogara replied Odigie-Oyegun’s letter, rejecting the
latter’s directive on the sharing of majority principal officers positions in
the House and also insisted on the adherence to the constitutionally-backed
federal character principle in the selection. According to Dogara, the
North-east and South-west have been settled with the speakership and deputy
speakership positions respectively, hence should be excluded from the remaining
four principal positions in favour of other zones.
Dogara rather proposed a new zoning arrangement for the
distribution of principal offices in the House to wit: speaker, Yakubu Dogara
(North-east); deputy speaker, 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 and deputy chief whip, South-east.
The speaker’s new zoning proposal tagged “Dogara Formula,”
later adopted two members of the rival “Loyalist” faction, but excluded
Gbajabiamila.
In a July 8 statement, issued by the “174 APC Loyalists
Group” of the House, the faction said that in line with party supremacy
resolution, reached at last APC’s NEC meeting, the position of the party on
Femi Gbajabiamila as the House leader was non-negotiable.
The group submitted that precedences were set in the 6th and
7th assemblies, where a single zone, the North-west, produced two and three
principal officers, respectively.
“We understand that the Dogara group is now playing the
zoning card, after same group had hitherto before the speakership election of
June 9th, 2015 rejected the zoning formula of the party prior to the mock
election. Interestingly the six geopolitical zones in the country are not
recognised by the constitution. But if they wish to play the zoning card then
the Senate and House cannot be headed by the North,” Hon Rufai Chachangi
submitted in a statement on behalf of the group.
Chachangi dismissed the issue of the South-east being denied
a principal officer’s seat in the House as “hogwash.” The zones’ two-member APC
caucus were dismissed for not possessing “cognate legislative experience” – a
key requirement of the House Standing Orders for principal positions.
Credit: Leadership Newspapers
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