House Speaker Yakubu Dogara is once again the focus of controversy from his own Party the All Progressives Congress (APC).
House Speaker Yakubu Dogara is once again the focus of controversy from his own Party the All Progressives Congress (APC).
SaharaReporters obtained the text of a press statement issued on Monday by “loyal” members of the APC at the Party’s headquarters in Abuja. It will be recalled that last week SaharaReporters provided a summary of a letter written to Speaker Dogara by House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila regarding the former’s failure to properly consult the latter on the appointment of chairs and deputy chairs of committees.
The issue of committee appointments is also among the list of grievances within the press release. The APC members accuse Speaker Dogara of providing “strategic” committee assignments to members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Party members were particularly outraged by the Speaker’s decision to award 50% of the committee chairmanships to PDP members.
The press released noted that, “no legislature in the world had ever shared committees on a 50:50 basis between the Majority and Minority parties.” Due to Speaker Dogara’s decision to enact a 50:50 split, the APC members accused him of being a “fifth columnist” who wished to, “derail the change agenda of President Buhari.”
The APC members criticized Speaker Dogara’s authoritarian leadership style stating he has taken measures “to suppress critical and dissenting voices from contributing to debates at plenary sessions.” The APC members expressed a deep concern regarding the Speaker’s undemocratic attempts to modify House rules to allow himself to dismiss dissenting members at will.
Since the issuance of the press release House Leader Gbajabiamila and his loyalists have announced a boycott of any future inagurations of the committees.