How Buhari got House leader job for Gbajabiamila

Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives yesterday succumbed to pressures from his All Progressives Congress, APC, and named Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila House Majority Leader, and by that, drew the curtain on the lingering crisis that has trailed the chamber since its inauguration last June.

Among those who put pressure on the Speaker, it was learnt yesterday, was President Muhammadu Buhari who reportedly put in a phone call to Dogara following a last-minute meeting with party leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, however, denied knowledge of any interaction between the President and the Speaker prior to yesterday’s pronouncement.

Following yesterday’s resolution of the crisis, Speaker Dogara charged the legislators to proceed to discharge the issues that brought them to Abuja, saying that they had wasted enough time on issues of personal aggrandisement.

Prior to the sitting yesterday, tempers had reached feverish pitch upon the resolution of supporters of the Speaker to adopt what they termed as the party’s “position as amended,” which would have led to the exclusion of Gbajabiamila, the party favourite who lost out in the leadership contest to Dogara on June 9.

Security was tightened within the precincts of the National Assembly with the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, leading the screening of visitors into the Assembly complex.

The Speaker also had arrived the Assembly complex with the National Security Adviser, NSA, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd).

Allies of Speaker Yakubu Dogara who had in recent days consolidated their superiority over the camp of Gbajabiamila following defections from the camp of the latter, had at the end of a caucus meeting that ended around 12.30 a.m. in Abuja yesterday resolved to push ahead with their permutation of Ado Doguwa (Kano) for House Leader, Bala Jibrin (Kogi) for Deputy Leader, Pally Iriase (Edo) for Chief Whip and Chike Okafor (Imo) for Deputy Leader.

That plan was aborted midway into yesterday’s session following pressures from the Presidency, urging Dogara to kowtow to the party’s earlier stance on Gbajabiamila for House Leader.

Speaker Dogara who was presiding over the affairs of the House had to step down from the chair to allow his deputy, Rep. Yusuf Lasun to take over deliberations while he conferred with Gbajabiamila and Doguwa in the office of the House Clerk.

Following the deliberations that lasted for about one hour, the Clerk returned to the chair and announced the complement of principal officers of the ruling APC.

He announced Iriase as deputy whip, Jibrin as Deputy Leader, Doguwa as Chief Whip and Gbajabiamila as Leader, immediately throwing majority of the members into celebration mode as they congratulated the Speaker for reaching out to his rival.

Speaker Dogara also announced the complement of four officers to represent the minority Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as principal officers. Those announced were Rep. Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta) — Minority Leader, Rep. Wilfred Chukwuma (PDP, Anambra) — Deputy Minority Whip, Rep. Yakubu Badre (PDP, Kaduna) — Deputy Minority Leader and Rep. Binta Bello (PDP, Gombe) — Minority Whip.

The announcement of Gbajabiamila as House Leader was a departure from the earlier stance of the Speaker that doing so would violate the spirit of federal character given that Gbajabiamila is from the South-West which had already filled the position of Deputy Speaker. The development left the South-East as the only geopolitical zone not to have a representative in the APC’s complement of principal officers.