President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday ordered the lawmakers of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to resolve their differences ahead of resumption of today’s plenary.
The order follows the lack of consensus among the contending interests at the meeting convened by the President to resolve the crisis rocking the House of Representatives over its principal offices.
Similarly, the meeting of the Adams Oshiomole-led committee of the party to resolve a similar dispute on principal posts in the Senate failed to calm frayed nerves among the feuding senators of the APC.
Buhari had called for a peace meeting with the two factions in the lower legislative chamber led by Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his arch rival, Femi Gbajabiamila.
But the meeting, which lasted just 20 minutes, only succeeded in making the feuding lawmakers head for more meetings last night where it was hoped that a compromise could be reached before dawn.
Unable to find a middle ground in the impasse, Buhari urged the lawmakers to continue dialogue and gave them six hours to reach a resolution before resumption Tuesday.
Gbajabiamila, while speaking on the outcome of the meeting with Buhari, described it as a “family meeting”, insisting that by last night a comprise would have been reached.
“We are still talking. But I think this is the first time everybody is coming together in a cordial atmosphere.
“It is not about magic, this is a family that has come together and we are here to resolve the problem and we shall move ahead to resolve the issue this evening,” he said.
APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, while also speaking on the outcome of the meeting, said: “You will be very surprised that a lot was achieved in 20 minutes.”
According to him, there was a compromise as stakeholders came out of the meeting smiling.
He said: “I have a feeling that in another three or four hours and by tomorrow, we will have a compromise and good news for the nation.”
Dogara, in his remark, said he had always stood by the party. “I have always stood firmly by the party and like my chairman has just explained, we’re going to do consultations with the party and I am sure sooner than later, we will have good news for Nigerians,” he said.
While Dogara’s group has insisted on observing the constitutional provision of federal character in the appointment of principal officers in the House, Gbajabiamila’s group has maintained that the directive of the party on its nominees for the principal posts must be strictly adhered to.
Gbajabiamila, last month, narrowly lost out to Dogara in the contest for the speakership of the House. As compensation, the party had sent his name to Dogara as its nominee for the post of Majority Leader in the House.
But Dogara had rejected the party’s proposal, alongside other names sent to him for principal offices, insisting on adherence to the federal character principle in the selection of nominees for the posts.
However, as the House members attempted to reach a compromise on who should occupy the posts, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yusuf Sulaimon Lasun, yesterday ruled out the possibility of resigning his position to pave the way for Gbajabiamila, arguing that he was duly elected by 203 members of the lower legislative chamber.
Speaking when he received members of the Abuja chapter of the Ilobu Development Union who paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, Lasun stated that he emerged deputy speaker through an election and not by appointment.
He said the speculation that he may be pressured by his party, the APC, to tender his resignation in order for Gbajabiamila to emerge majority leader and take the slot for the South-west zone in the distribution of principal positions of the House was inconceivable.
“It was an election that was beamed live and it was watched by all. Having been elected the speaker, there were 357 members who also voted for the deputy speaker’s position; as at that time, the speaker could only have been involved if there is a tie, so 357 participated in the election and I got 203 votes,” he said.
“Having gone through all that, it will be difficult for anyone to say that as part of the solution, part of option open to APC now is to make the deputy speaker resign so that there can be peace in the House,” Lasun added.
Lasun insisted that his hometown, Ilobu in Osun State, had paid its dues in the progressive movement, describing it as one of the strongholds of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) before its metamorphosis into the APC, and to therefore ask him to resign would amount to cheating the town.
Also, the ad hoc Committee on Media and Publicity in the House yesterday described as baseless, the allegations made by some of Gbajabiamila’s supporters that there are plans to bar them from entering the National Assembly complex when the legislature resumes plenary tuesday.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, the committee said there was no time the leadership of the House considered barring some members from the National Assembly, adding that it is the right and freedom of every member to attend plenary, committee meetings and even access their offices without any hindrance.
Some members of the group, at a briefing on Sunday, had alleged that there were plans to bar several of their members from the National Assembly.
In another statement, the House’s ad hoc Committee on Code of Conduct warned yesterday that it would not tolerate any unruly behaviour by any member, no matter how highly placed.
The House was forced to go on recess a month ago following fracas over the principal positions.
The committee, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Hon. Aminu Shehu Shagari, welcomed all members from the working recess.
“Members who have grievances are advised to explore peaceful avenues of seeking redress instead of resorting to violence on the floor of the House or the precincts of the National Assembly.
“There are adequate sanctions in place to penalise any member who may want to disrupt the peace during plenary, committee meetings or other legislative functions of the House,” the statement read.
The committee said it would deal with any member who violates the rules, disrupts plenary or is found guilty of misconduct and other sundry offences.
In the Senate, however, the meeting of the Oshiomhole committee with APC senators held Sunday night in Abuja failed to calm frayed nerves among the feuding lawmakers.
The meeting was expected to serve as a forum for a final resolution of the protracted crisis plaguing the National Assembly since the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Dogara as Speaker of the House against the party’s wish.
Sunday night’s meeting was conceived to serve as a platform for the reconciliation of the lawmakers with a view to enabling the APC fold in the Senate put their grievances behind them ahead of today’s resumption.
The Senate Unity Forum which pursued the aspiration of Senator Ahmad Lawan for Senate presidency stayed away from the meeting following claims that the meeting violated an earlier agreement between Unity Forum and Saraki’s group, Senators of Like Mind.
Explaining the reason for the boycott of the meeting, a member of Senate Unity Forum told our correspond that the group believed that discussions should have been held only between the Oshiomhole committee, Saraki and Lawan.
According to him, the group would only wait for the recommendations of the committee, which he said were to be submitted to the Progressives Governors’ Forum.
The Progressives Governors’ Forum, he said, was expected to forward the committee’s findings to both the party and the president. He, however, added that the forum had resolved to abide by the president’s position.
“I doubt if the meeting will hold because we believe that discussions should be between Atiku Bagudu and the (Adams) Oshiomhole committee and Lawan and Saraki in the Senate, and Tambuwal and House members.
“After the discussions, we expect them to go back and give their positions to the Progressives Governors’ Forum while the forum will report their findings to the president. Thereafter, we expect them to revert to us and tell us, this is their position.
“We believe in party supremacy. Whatever the party says, we will abide by it. If the party’s position is the president’s position, so be it. If the president changes his mind, no problem. But so far, the president has been steadfast.”
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