10th NASS: How House of Reps principal officers may emerge

By George Okereke

The race for the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly was, to say the least, intense. The Senators-elect and members-elect were literally up in arms through out the process that led to the emergency of Senator Godswill Akpabio as President of the Senate and Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Repreaentatives and their deputies. Claims and counter claims of endorsements, threats of fire and brimestone or even an Amargeddon were the order of the day, with the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, almost recanting on its earlier decision of consensus arrangement. And the politicking over the issue almost slipped out of its hands as the opposition to the nominations by the APC became more vociferous by the day. When the chips were down, it took the interventions of President Bola Tinubu, through several one-on-one meetings with some aspirants, to rein in party members to do the biding of the party leadership. In the end, it became crystal clear that to emerge as a presiding officer of the National Assembly is not a tea party.
And with the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House, attention as usual, has naturally shifted to the selection of the other principal officers, which are political party-based.
The challenge in recent times has been the game of either accepting nominated members presented by the leading opposition party, or recognizing those that reflect the preference of the presiding officer. This is where the next battle line in both the Senate and the House of Representatives would be drawn.
In the immediate past House (9th), Femi Gbajabiamila as the then Speaker ignored a communication from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, listing those it had in consultation with other minority caucuses, nominated to lead the minority team under the leadership of Hon. Kingsley Chinda, but went ahead to announce that supposedly presented by another coalition of the minority parties, headed by Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu. This was to earn Elumelu and his co-travelers suspension from the PDP over a period. This development, observers said, weakened the opposition throughout the lifetime of the ninth House of Representatives, which along with the Senate earned the unpopular sobriquet of a rubberstamp.
The current situation appeared to have been a different scenario, and may have seen a done deal behind the scene, especially with the tension trailing the speakership poll doused before the inauguration date of June13. Which is to say that the selection of the other principal officers of the House may be effortless and rancour free. That understanding appeared to have been digned, sealed and about to be delivered.
Speculations are rife that the immediate former Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, who after some alleged criminal allegations against him following the National Assembly election in Kano State, and a supplementary election in his constituency, was later confirmed as the duly elected member may be returned to the same position.
He was part of the initial G-7 speakership aspirants who took their protests to APC’s NWC over the micro-zoning arrangement which put forward Abbas, the incumbent Speaker, and his Deputy, Hon. Benjamin Kalu as its preferred candidates.
Doguwa was to curiously pull out of the group, and later publicly announced his withdrawal from the speakership race. The move was seen by many as a strategy to consolidating on his return as the Majority Leader of the 10th House of Representatives. With this scenario that has played out, Doguwa’s retention of the Majority Leader’s seat will not be a surprise, pundits have said.
On the side of the minority parties, Chinda, who was recognised as the leader of PDP Caucus all through the 9th House, despite the attitude of the presiding officers to the contrary, has been tipped as the man already heading to clinch the position of Minority Leader.
For one, he was leader of the Joint Task-10th Assembly, a group which worked in support of of the APC nominated candidates who subsequently emerged as presiding officers of the House; and two, he’s said to be fully backed by Governor Nyesom Wike, who many still see as a member of the opposition PDP, but hobnobbing with the APC, ostensibly, to have a cut in the current regime.
If the permutations turn real, with Doguwa and Chinda emerging as Majority and Minority Leaders respectively, what is yet unclear would be the distribution of the remaining positions, beginning with their deputies.
The other positions in the leadership of the House will be; Deputy Majority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Chief Whip, Minority Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Deputy Minority Whip.
These positions are expected to be announced as soon as the House resumes plenary after the Sallah break.
But that will not be the end of struggle for power and relevance in the lower House as jostling for juicy committee membership will take the centre stage before the House will finally settle down for real business of representation, legislation and oversight.