Hon . Aminu Tambuwal , House Speaker
As the House of Representatives gears up to pick its principal officers this week, there are strong indications that it has agreed to the principle of zoning but has again rejected the bid by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to impose its “anointed candidates” as principal officers.
The lower chamber, it was learnt, has decided that rather than having its leadership pre-selected by the ruling party, all its principal officers must emerge through an election.
As a prelude to the elections scheduled for Tuesday, both the Majority and the Minority Party Caucuses of the House will meet separately behind closed doors to streamline their action plans and possibly reach a consensus on their candidates for the leadership positions.
A source close to the leadership of the House told THISDAY that the decision to have open elections was in line with the new drive to ensure fairness and protect the independence of the legislature.
“We opted to go for the elections because that is the right thing to do and that is what our rules stipulates. We do not want any atom of imposition. We want an independent parliament and the best way to do that is to ensure that we choose our leaders ourselves,” he said.
The positions up for grabs include the House Leader, Deputy House Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip.
The most contentious of these positions has been the post of the House Leader and Chief Whip which is usually held by legislators elected on the platform of the ruling party.
In a last ditch effort to salvage the zoning principle,
THISDAY gathered that the ruling party has zoned the position of House Leader to the South-west while the Chief Whip has been zoned to the North East.
In the same vein, the party has nominated Hon Mulikat Akande-Adeola as House Leader, but this is being resisted by some anti-imposition lawmakers who prefer that the race be thrown open to all ranking lawmakers from the zone.
This scenario has once again pitched Akande-Adeola(PDP/Oyo) against Hon Ajibola Muraina(PDP/Oyo), two candidates who were in the speakership race before the House rebelled against the ruling party and dumped the zoning formula.
Akande-Adeola is said to be the favourite candidate of the Presidency while Muraina is again touted to be waxing strong with the support of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo , who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling party.
The development appears to have effectively knocked off the ambition of the legislators from the South-South zone who had long been in the race. Before now, Hon Andrew Uchendu (PDP/Rivers) and Hon Friday Itulah (PDP/Edo), Hon Ndudi Elumelu (PDP/Delta) and Hon Leo Ogor (PDP/Delta) and Hon Eseme Eyiboh (PDP/Akwa Ibom) were the front runners in the chase for the coveted seat.
In the race for the Chief Whip are two candidates from the North East namely Hon Yakubu Dogara(PDP/Bauchi) and Hon Ishaka Bawa (PDP/Taraba). It is not clear where the pendulum will wing to as these two candidates are largely independent and do not seem to be deriving support from external forces.
As for the position reserved for the minority parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has already nominated Hon Femi Gbajabiamila(ACN/Lagos) as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.
Gbajabiamila, who represents Surulere 1 Federal Constituency of Lagos State was for most part of the 6th session of the parliament the Minority Whip but rose to become the Minority Leader of the House towards the end of the session. The party has also nominated Hon Samson Osagie who represents Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode Federal Constituency of Edo State as the Minority Whip of the House.
However, there are speculations that the other minority parties namely the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) may not be comfortable with these two key opposition slots going to the Action Congress of Nigeria.
Since the inauguration of the new House and the subsequent election of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Emeka Ihedioha as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, the House has been bugged down by indecision over who joins the body of principal officers. This is due to the fact that the chamber was largely polarised between those who wanted the zoning formula sustained and those who wanted the controversial principle discarded on account of its perceived imperfections.
Under the old order designed by the PDP, the post of Speaker was allocated to the South-West geo-political zone; the post of Deputy Speaker was zoned to the North-East; the South-South had the House Leadership position while North Central Zone had the post of Deputy Leader. Similarly, the South East had the post of Chief Whip while the Deputy Whip was allocated to the North West geo-political zone. However, all that changed the moment the zoning formula was altered to pave way for the emergence of the current leadership of the House.
Since the election, Tambuwal and Ihedioha, the beneficiaries of the new order have been torn between going the whole hog to discard the party’s zoning arrangement and placating the party leaders by adopting zoning for the remaining offices. This has resulted in the delay in constitution the body of principal officers more than one month after the inauguration of the 7th session of the House of Representatives.
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