Fighting Over Juicy Committees at Lower Chamber

House of Reps

The House of Representatives is in tumult again, following the naming of chairmen for the various committees by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara last week.

The speaker had shared the leadership of the committees between the ruling party, APC and PDP, a development that did not go well with some lawmakers, mostly the supporters of the Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila. As a matter of fact, these supporters have resigned their membership of the 96 new standing committees of the House of Representatives inaugurated on Monday and vowed not to attend the inauguration by Dogara. The group had claimed that Speaker Yakubu Dogara allowed the House members belonging to opposition party People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to take control of sensitive House committees by sharing leadership of the committees equally between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP. However, there are indications that some of Gbajabiamila’s supporters might dump in as they now pledge their support for Dogara leadership.