There is a popular saying that “a man’s real character is his actions when he is faced with challenges.” This is axiomatic and indisputable because some people become stronger while others buckle under pressure. Some people are easily agitated and totally disoriented when crisis stare them in the face, while to others, it brings out the best in them.
That the House of Representatives is presently embroiled in crisis is not news; that its Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara is in a tinder box over the appointment of majority principal officers is not in doubt. What is not certain, however, is the ability of the speaker to wriggle out of the cobweb of the political chicanery that has entangled the lower chamber. Before the inauguration of the National Assembly, Dogara with his colleagues of like minds came together under a common platform, the Consolidation Group. Dogara utilised the group to further his ambition to become the speaker of the House despite the zoning (or is it selection) of the position to former minority leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila by the party.
The national leadership of the governing party, the APC, which Dogara is a member had in its ‘wisdom’ ceded the post of Speaker to Gbajabiamila from Lagos State and Deputy Speaker to Hon. Mohammed Monguno from Borno State. In spite of the threats and warnings from the party against challenging its decision on the choice of presiding officers, Dogara was undaunted. In fact, even after a mock Jega Zakari Dogara election that returned both Gbajabiamila and Monguno as speaker and deputy speaker candidates of the party respectively, the lawyer from Bauchi was indignant and subsequently emerged as speaker. The party viewed this as a mark of disloyalty and decided to take a second step by once again choosing principal officers to work with the speaker.
This has become a knotty issue for Dogara to untie. The speaker’s refusal to recognize the party leaders as directed by the party led to the pandemonium that engulfed the House about two weeks ago. Unlike Senate president Bukola Saraki who made his appointments on June 25, Dogara is yet to name his men. It is even difficult to guess who Dogara intends to fill the four principal vacancies with. But his body language shows that Hon. Orker Jev from Benue State might be his choice for majority leader. Jev, a ranking member is the chairman of the ad hoc committee on rules and business and is very close to the speaker. He was the one that moved the ill-fated motion for the House to revert to committee of the whole, which plunged the chambers into chaos.
After normalcy was restored on the floor, Hon. Goni Muktar Lawan in seconding a motion for the House to revert to plenary, referred to Jev as ‘’acting leader.’’ Surprisingly, the speaker could not react to Goni’s reference to Jev as acting leader thereby giving some credence to the insinuations that he intends to name the Benue lawyer as House leader against the party’s choice of his former challenger, Gbajabiamila. There is every tendency that Dogara may attempt to consider Jev because the North central is presently being shortchanged in the APC’s sharing formula in the House. If the speaker is to take hook and sinker the list from the party, it means the North central, which also contributed immensely to the success of President Buhari and the APC would end up with no principal position.
The question now is: Will Dogara accede to the party’s directive or act the independent man that he proved to be in the run for the election of speaker? A few days ago, President Buhari held a meeting with Gbajabiamila and his supporters at the Villa. Curiously, Dogara and his group were conspicuously absent. Although, it is learnt that the president may meet with the speaker too at a later date one wonders if Buhari would eat his words by interfering with House matters and impressed on Dogara to cow tow before the party hierarchy in the appointment of principal officers.
Again, will the speaker announce principal officers with a pending litigation against his leadership by the North central House caucus of the APC, which is challenging alleged marginalisation? It is against the Standing Orders of the House to attend to matters that are in court for it will amount to subjudice should such issues be entertained on the floor of the House. Dogara is a lawyer, a very good one at that. So, will he damn the consequences and recognise the principal officers as nominated by the party or name his own team before the determination of the suit seeking to stop the party list? Either way one looks at it, this will not be a one-off decision for the Speaker.
He will need to be tactical, diplomatic, suave and cautious. This is the moment the speaker must prove that he is not just a politician but also a leader and good crisis manager. How well Dogara handles this delicate political puzzle would go a long way in defining his success or otherwise as the Seventh speaker of the Eighth National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. This is indeed, his baptism of fire.
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