Dogara, Gbajabiamila in fresh feud over House committee chairmen

Speaker of the the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and majority leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila appear to be in some sought of cold war over the recently released names of the Chairmen of the 96 committees of the house of representatives by Dogara on October 22nd.

In a letter dated October 20th, Gbajabiamila had written to Dogara accusing him of sidelining and undermining his office and the office of other principal officers in the appointment of the chairmen for the various committees. Gbajabiamila’s letter, dated October 20, reads in part;

“Honourable Speaker, I acknowledge your right and prerogative to determine the leadership of the House Committees and I intend to work with you after such determination has been made. I intend and have stated privately and publicly to work with you for the progress of the House. However, I am constrained at this point to ask that due consideration is given to the provision of our House Rules, Order 7 Rule 10 paragraph (a) which states that the Speaker shall in consultation with principal officers, appoint chairmen and deputy chairmen from among the members of the committees. On the role of the Majority/House Leader: Order 7 Rule 27 (2) c says that the Leader of the House shall ‘liaise with committee chairmen and other functionaries of the House’.”. Criticisms have continued to trail the sharing of the committees, where the ruling APC got 48, while the PDP got 46. APC lawmakers have been unequivocal in their displeasure over the number of committee, including those termed as “juicy” assigned to PDP members. An APC member, Sunday Adepoju who was announced as the Deputy Chairman of House Committee on Special Duties, only last week announced his resignation. According to him, he decided to resign so as to protest “the strengthening of PDP at the expense of my party, APC in the house."