ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The crisis of leadership that has bedevilled the House of Representatives on Thursday continued as the Femi Gbajabiamila group accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of being hypocritical and insensitive in his insistence on zoning and federal character in the sharing of principal officers positions.
The Group also said that the Southeast APC members should forget about occupying principal positions, saying that with two members, they were not qualified to agitate for such position.
The Loyalists group which believed to have the blessing of the APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, through its spokesman Hon. Rufai Chachangi, alleged that the Speaker before his election had rejected the zoning formula of the party prior to the straw poll by the party.
According to the group, “It is interesting that 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.”
In a swift reaction, the Consolidation Group, which is supporting the Speaker, accused Gbajabiamila and his camp of being ignorant of the provisions of the law regarding zoning and federal character.
The camp had insisted that there was no going back on its position adding that the APC as a national party, all the geopolitical zones must be involved in decision making, especially in the National Assembly.
Spokesman of the Dogara camp, Abdulmumuni Jibrin, in a statement, Thursday, however, said that every geopolitical zone of Nigeria deserved to be represented, adding that it was embarrassing for some members of the House to dismiss the issue of equitable representation as “hogwash”.
The Dogara camp restated that the way out of the logjam was “for the aggrieved APC members who lost election for the Presiding Officers of the House, to accept the olive branch extended to them to produce the House Leader from among themselves, but excluding any member from the South West or North East.”
The Gbajabiamila group had, while reacting to the claims that the Dogara group had conceded the House leader to the camp, maintained that it was not going to accept any position outside the list submitted by the national leadership of the party which recommended the former minority leader for the position.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
