Following the show of shame that became a grandstand on the floor of the Federal House of Representatives on Tuesday 10th November 2015, where blows and punches were freely thrown and received, it is necessary to allude a cause to the ruckus and attempt to stem the tide of what is gradually becoming a National embarrassment.
After several attempts to fix the sleaziness that became the relationship of the Speaker of the House, Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara and Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila, it has become apparent that the rooster has gone wild and would refuse to be appeased.
The disgraceful showboating of free-for-all battle of the rings that involved “Dis-Honourable” Members Herman Hembe (Konshisha/Vandekiya Federal Constituency, Benue State) and Magaji Aliyu (Birnin-Kudu/Buji Federal Constituency, Jigawa State) was as a result of the composition of the House Standing Committees, for which Mr. Gbajabiamila has gone gaga.
In the weeks leading to the constitution of the House standing Committees, Gbajabiamila had worn a hardline adornment against Dogara’s emergence as Speaker. However, it took the appeasement of senior members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari to have assuaged the leadership crisis; and ever since, it’s been bitter-sweet relationship between the duo.
No sooner had the Committee Chairmen been announced that Femi Gbajabiamila drew out the sheathing sword, alleging that he has been shortchanged in the scheme of things. He claimed he was not consulted in the selection of Committee Chairmen and that the Speaker acted unilaterally in the appointments of the Chairmen and deputies.
Although the Speaker’s camp has refuted the claims and said all principal officers of the House were carried along in the selection to ensure that all interests are taken care of, the most important posers begging for answers will be why Gbajabiamila has been running from pillar to post crying wolf; what is the fuss about and in whose interest?
If he has sheathed the sword against the Speaker, who is statutorily saddled with the prerogative of choosing the House standing committees leaders and their deputies, as he claimed since the leadership debacle that saw him lose the House top seat, why then is he attempting to undermine Dogara’s Leadership by the protest at the party secretariat and the needless boycott of the inauguration?
He had in a message claimed that he saw the final list of the Committee Chairmen at the meeting that led to their unveiling. The other question one is tempted to ask is where else would he love to have seen the final list?
And with Dogara’s insistence that due consultations were made to accommodate interests, for the greater good of the masses, what then is the reason for Gbajabiamila’s continued fight?
Just like the Senate, where some APC leaders have continued to draw swords with the President of the Senate on how he emerged, the House of Representatives scenario is playing out exactly in the same way.
To begin with, does Gbajabiamila need a soothsayer to tell him he lost out of being Speaker because of his unholy alliance with his Lagos godfather Bola Tinubu? Implicitly and as a matter of fact, his legislative experiences and the exposures garnered over the years since becoming a Member of the House cum his background, as a Lawyer would have counted as high points for him had he not dined with the devil. Obviously, losing out is to be paying the ultimate prize for his affinity with the “beast of no nation” (apologies to late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti) and should not command any sympathy whatsoever.
Indeed, political watchers and keen observers did opine that, had Tinubu not meddled with the choice of the Speaker of the House with his imperious and overbearing maneuvers, brilliant Femi Gbajabiamila would be the sitting Speaker today. Now, rather than eat the humble pie and concentrate on how to deliver quality representations to his Surulere Federal Constituency people, he has gone rogue and thrown caution to the cleaners, fighting dirty. How pathetic!
With the latest ploy to resort to physical combats to drive home their grievances, an example of what played out on the House floor on Tuesday with his group of disgruntled supporters, it would be safe to conclude that Gbajabiamila and his hordes of shameless sympathizers would continue to dance the ignoble macabre dance.
However, one is tempted also to warn Honourable Speaker Dogara to watch his back and live ready. The same mechanism of calumny and pull-him-down-by-all-means against Senate President Bukola Saraki may be unleashed on him.
The same Principal of the school where the senior prefect nay, head boy feels shortchanged and has been ranting to high heavens, will do everything possible to malign the Speaker just as is being done against Bukola Saraki at the Senate.
–Harold Adebola Smith
