premiumtimesng.com
The Loyalists Group, consisting of All Progressives Congress members in the House of Representatives led by Femi Gbajabiamila, on Monday labelled the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, “agent provocateur” committed to the destabilisation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The group made the comment in a statement by Musa Garba-Adar (Sokoto State) after about 40 of its members met with the APC National Working Committee at the party’s secretariat earlier in the afternoon.
PREMIUM TIMES observed that the peace enjoyed in the house after Mr. Dogara named Mr. Gbajabiamila as Majority Leader in deference to the wish of the party has apparently collapsed, following the composition of headships of the house committees.
“The composition of headships of committees must be seen for what it is: a declaration of war against the APC and the Presidency – all calculated at sabotaging the majority advantage that APC enjoys, with ultimate aim of rolling back the electoral victory of our party.
“The composition of chairmen and deputy chairmen of committees are clear manifestations of the marginalization of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“Under the 7th Assembly headed by Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, the then majority party – PDP got 63 out of 89 committees of the House which constituted 71% share of the committees, while the Minority parties (ACN, ANPP, CPC and others) got only 26 out of the 89 committees which underscores the fact that the Minority got only 29% share of the committees.
“Unfortunetely, under Speaker Yakubu Dogara the Majority party – APC got 50% share of committees, same with the PDP and other minority parties, which equally got 50%.
“No legislature in the world had ever shared committees on 50:50 basis between the majority and minority parties.
“There must be a clear cut margin between majority and minority parties as was done in previous assemblies.
“Worthy to note that, in the U.S Congress, the current majority party (Republican) enjoys 100% committee chairmanship allocation while the minority party is only considered for deputies and also most African parliaments do not share same equally,” the group said.
The group added that the composition, which saw PDP having “strategic committees”, was meant to sabotage the “change agenda” of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is curious that strategic committees such as Petroleum, Power, Environment, Works, Gas, Foreign Affairs, Banking, Information Technology, Aviation, National Planning, Nigerian Ports and Waterways which are crucial to the success of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Change Agenda were given to PDP by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
“What is the motive behind such undemocratic move? Is it to derail the Change Agenda of President Buhari to ease their ungodly marriage with PDP ahead of 2019? Nigerians are yearning for meaningful development before 2019 and APC must be allowed to deliver on her mandate,” the group said.
“It is therefore absolutely clear that Hon. Yakubu Dogara is, but a fifth columnist, an agent provocateur committed to destabilizing the house on behalf of the powerful forces that have ruined Nigeria and brought us to the current sorry past.”
The group therefore asked Mr. Dogara to reverse the composition of the headships of the committees.
“For this and other reasons, therefore, the only path of honour opened to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, is to reverse the current order in the interest of Nigerians who are waiting for APC deliverables,” said the group.
The group made further blistering remarks about the speaker, accusing him of tyrannical tendency.
It said, “In the same vein, the speaker has continued to suppress critical and dissenting voices from contributing in debates at plenary sessions, while shamelessly promoting the dominance of activities of the house by hostile, opposition elements.
“In pursuit of his tyrannical agenda, the speaker has caused a motley crowd of his co-conspirators to amend the House Rules, to enable him suspend members at will and generally apply punitive measures to kill the well-known vibrancy that has historically characterized the House of Representatives.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Gbajabiamila was absent at the meeting with APC NWC, just as he was not at the inauguration ceremony of house committees earlier today.
Many APC lawmakers also joined Mr. Gbajabiamila to boycott the ceremony.
No comments:
Post a Comment