sequel to the still unsettled crisis in the All Progressives Congress, APC, arising from last week’s National Assembly leadership contest, another crisis may be in the offing as lawmakers take up battle with national officers of the party over the appointment of principal officers of the legislature.
Ahead of next week’s resumption of the Senate and the House, informed sources disclosed pressures from the party to be given the privilege to appoint principal officers of the two chambers and some key committee positions.
The development, it was learnt, had again reignited supporters of Senator Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara who last week outfoxed the party’s leaders to emerge Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
Senators peeved by the pressure were, yesterday evening, enclosed in a meeting in one of Abuja’s five-star hotels on how to resist the pressure.
APC Joint Leadership Meeting: From left, National Publicity Secretary of APC Alh. Mohammed Lai, National Chairman John Oyegun, National Auditor Chief Morgan, Senatorial Candidate of APC, Hon Dino Melayi and APC Presidential Campaign Organization and River State Governor Rotimi Amechi discussing during APC Joint Leadership Meeting held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.
House members equally agitated by the pressure were also threatening to flout the party’s directive.
High-level sources in the Senate and the House disclosed, yesterday, that informal contacts have been made with the new leaderships as part of the process of restoring amity between the party and the leadership following the ‘rebellion’ that enthroned Saraki and Dogara last week.
The sources, who were seething over the development, said that it was another attempt by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party to diminish the power of the Senate President and the Speaker.
Against the procedure of parties zoning the principal offices in the two chambers and allowing the party caucuses to produce the officers, the APC leadership, it was learnt, was now putting pressure on influential members of the House close to the Senate President and Speaker Dogara to allow the party to appoint the officials.
Compounding the fury of the legislators is the alleged plan by the party leadership to also appoint loyal officers into key committee positions.
The four principal offices to be filled by the APC in the Senate and the House of Representatives are Senate/House Leader, Deputy Senate/House Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip.
What obtained in the past
The procedure in the past was for the party to zone the offices to the geopolitical zones and for the party members from the zones to elect from among themselves the persons to fill the positions given them.
Given that the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are from the Northeast and the Southwest, it is expected that the Northwest, Southeast, North-Central and South-South would produce the remaining key principal officers in the House.
In the Senate, given that the Senate President and his deputy are from the North-Central and the South-east, it is expected that the remaining principal officers would come from the North-west, North-east, South-west, and South-South.
What the party wants
“The party wants to appoint principal officers for us and this is going to be part two of the crisis and it is unheard of for the party to tell members who will be their principal officers,” a returning member of the House who was pivotal to the rebellion that saw Dogara emerge as speaker told Vanguard yesterday evening.
“We will resist it especially because the caucuses have a role to play in the election of their officers,” the member said on the condition of anonymity.
Another high level source in the House saw the party’s interest in the appointment of members into key committees as an attempt to undermine the speaker and his deputy who have the leverage in appointing committee officials.
--Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment