Dogara: why APC’s directive on officers was rejected 

House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara said yesterday that a court matter and the need to uphold federal character prevented him from yielding to the directive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the selection of principal officers. Dogara’s move to shun his party’s directive led to a fracas on the floor of the House last Thursday. This prevented him from announcing the names of principal officers. Yesterday, the speaker said a court process by some aggrieved lawmakers and the constitutional provision on federal character created the difficulty he found himself in. He accepted responsibility for the incident, promising that a lasting solution would be proffered before resumption from the four-week recess to the satisfaction of all parties and Nigerians. Dogara spoke when he received the Forum of Former Members in his office. “There was a court process served on the leadership of the House. What they are alleging is very simple: whether it is in accordance with the constitution of Nigeria and the House rules that a political party has the right to choose the principal officers of the House. “The second question is: assuming the political party has the right, whether it is in tandem with the constitution to exclude their zone, whether that meets the requirement of the provision of the federal character. “There are issues of law, issues relating to court, issues relating to the provisions of the Constitution. “Now the precedent that we saw not too long in the House is that anytime we have such audacious report, we have always run away from trying to force that. “By this, let me just explain: assuming we go ahead to announce the party’s position, which recognises members of the Northcentral as principal officers position and most of the members from the Southwest as principal officers and then the Northcentral members made a very strong allegation against the APC. “Assuming they win the case and the court rules that that the directive of the party breaches the provision of the constitution relating to federal character, so do we now begin to see somebody vacating his principal official position so that we can accommodate the court’s ruling? “So these are issues that are really not easy to fathom or to sort. When we got this letter, we raised this issue with the party, that there is the need for us to look at it so that we don’t get a ruling that will compel us to go back and enforce the alignment. “We said the best thing is, in order to avoid this, let’s circulate the positions to the zones in the House. “There has never been a time in the House when a zone got more than two leadership positions and we all know the provision of the constitution which did say that all positions must be guided by the standing orders. “But in a situation where the standing order is not explicit or is not provide for, then we provide that the use of precedent, customs, the tradition. “So, that therefore means even though the law does not say distribute the position to six zones, but the tradition has been that it should go to the six zones in line with the constitutional provision relating to the federal character. So this is the bone of contention. “But, as leaders, we are bound by the constitution and when we got that directive from the party, we said that we must defend the constitution, we must enforce our rules and whether we have it would have harmful effect on the constitution of Nigeria for us to adopt the position of the party. “This is because certainly, we have to be aware of the gravity of the constitution. “That is where we are and that is what we are discussing. “It was an ongoing discussion relating to this that certain sections of our members felt ‘well whatever it is let the House know, that the party is supreme’ and so that was what led to the near fracas which we witnessed on the floor of the House.” Dogara apologised, saying amends would made in order to have a peaceful House capable of discharging its responsibilities to Nigerians. He said: “We would make the platform through which we can ventilate the wishes and aspirations of our people. “I have accepted responsibility for everything that transpired and we apologise to the nation.” The group, led by Dauda Bundot and Jonathan Asake said its visit was in solidarity with Dogara.  Previous Post Next Post 