The politics of Speaker Dogara’s committees

In from Timothy Enietan-Matthews (Nation’s capital) . . .

Last Thursday, the Speaker of the. House of Representatives, Rt.Hon. Yakubu Dogara, announced the composition of House standing committees and their leadership.

The composition of the committees, 96 in all and their leadership, has elicited different reactions from members of the Green Chamber and other Nigerians.

In the distribution of chairmanship positions, the All Progressives Congress (APC) legislators got 48 slots while lawmakers of the opposition parties would chair 47 committees with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) having 45 slots.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) lawmakers are to chair one committee each.

Also, some returning lawmakers retained their positions as chairmen of committees they headed in the 7th Assembly. They are Reps. Mohammed Monguno (Borno-APC), Agricultural Production and Services; Aminu Suleiman (Kano-APC) Tertiary Education and Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia-PDP) Aviation.

Others are: Nnenna Ukeje (Abia-PDP) Foreign Affairs; Jones Onyereri (Imo-PDP) Banking and Currency; Shehu Shagari (Sokoto- APC), Judiciary and Nicholas Mutu (Delta-PDP) NDDC.

The Speaker also constituted Eight additional committees. They are Agricultural Colleges and Institutions; Basic Education and Services; Delegated Legislation and FCT Judiciary.

Others are Health Institutions, IDPs, Refugees and Initiatives on North-East, Insurance and Actuarial Matters and Tertiary Education and Services.

In a bid to reward his known loyalists, Speaker Dogara picked Reps. Jibrin Abdulmumin and Adams Jagaba to chair Appropriation and Interior committees respectively.

The committees for Army, Defence, Navy, Finance, Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and Petroleum Resources (Upstream) would be chaired by Reps. Rima Kwewum, Muktar Aliyu, Abdussamad Dasuki, Babangida Ibrahim, Akinlaja Joseph and Victor Nwokolo.

The committees on National Planning and Economic Development, Media and Public Affairs, Police Affairs and Science and Technology would be chaired by Reps. Jephter Foigha, Abdulrazak Namdas, Haliru Jika and Beni Lar.

Though many have applauded the maturity of the Speaker for the way the composition of the committees were done, there are others who felt cheated and sidelined.

Read also: Dogara in secret meeting with ministerial nominees

The Speaker, in his wisdom and in a bid to ensure that he has an even ride as the presiding officer of the House, gave PDP 45 chairmanship slot against 48 of the majority APC. The ruling party has over 220 members while PDP has about 140. This has drawn sharp criticism from members of Dogara’s APC, who felt the Speaker is unnecessarily placating the opposition party in his handling of the affairs of the House.

Also worthy of note is the fact that the South East, which totally lost out in the House Leadership, got the highest number of chairmanship slots from Dogara. The zone also got a sizable deputy chairmanship slot. This, according to analysts, is Dogara’s way of rewarding the zone.

The reactions to the composition has also shown the sharp divisions in the House along the Dogara, Gbajabiamila lines.

Some aggrieved APC members have said the sheer number of chairmanship slots given the PDP was because the Speaker clinched the top position in the House because of the block support he got from the members of the party, who voted en-block against Femi Gbajabiamila, the anointed candidate of the ruling APC.

Beyond the criticism and misgivings, Speaker Dogara, has come off as a mature politician and presiding leader who is committed to the unity of the House and ready to work with all members.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now