NASS Leadership Tussle: Reps In Free-For-All …As Pro-Saraki Men Emerge Senate’s Principal Officers …‘Why Buhari Won’t Intervene In Crisis’

Leader of delegation, European Union Consultants on Energy, Peter Cameron (left), and the NERC Chairman, Dr Sam Amadi, during a meeting with the delegation in Abuja, yesterday

The in-fighting among All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers over the leadership of the National Assembly took a dramatic turn yesterday, leading to the disruption of plenary.
The House was to decide on the remaining principal officers but some lawmakers disrupted the sitting and attempted to hijack the mace.
But lawmakers loyal to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, took custody of the mace to pre-empt moves to seize it by anti-Dogara members.
Fracas ensued few moments after Dogara commenced proceedings for the day.
Orker-Jev Yisa, chairman of the ad-hoc committee on the review of House standing order, stood to move a motion for a closed-door session but was interrupted by some protesting members.
After almost one hour of rowdiness, Dogara was able to restore normalcy and reconvene plenary.
He told his colleagues to consider themselves “lucky” to have been chosen to represent their constituencies, and promised that the crisis would be resolved.
He later adjourned sitting till July 21.
While the drama lasted, some of the lawmakers were chanting “Dogara”, while their counterparts on the other divide kept shouting “APC” repeatedly.
Femi Gbajabiamila, who the party is proposing to be the majority leader after being defeated by Dogara in the June 9 election; and Leo Ogor, the immediate past majority leader of the House, were among the members who sued for peace during the show of shame.
Both men approached the speaker seeking means to resolve the crisis.
The APC leadership had proposed Alhassan Doguwa as deputy house leader, Mohammed Monguno chief whip and Pally Iriase as deputy chip whip.
Many APC lawmakers are still unhappy with Dogara and Bukola Saraki, senate president, for upstaging the party’s preferred candidates for their positions.
Meanwhile, Senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, North-East Caucus, yesterday nominated Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader of the Senate, in defiance of the party’s anointed candidate, Ahmed Lawan.
Bala Ibn Na’alla was also nominated as deputy leader as aaginst the candidate of George Akume nominated by the party. This is seen as victory for loyalists of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Lawan as the anointed candidate of APC lost the senate presidency election to Bukola Saraki.
The nominations are subject to approval.
It would be recalled that the The Senate on Wednesday rejected a move by some APC senators to read the letter by the APC recommending some senators as other principal officers of the senate.
Sen. Gbenga Ashafa (APC-Lagos East), who relied on Order 15 of the Senate Standing Order, urged the President of the Senate to read on the floor of the Red Chamber, the letter from the Party.
“Yesterday, most of the media houses carried a letter that was written by the Chairman of our great party, the APC.
“We were expecting that that letter, which has been received in your office will be read in order to see to the resolution of the party leadership tussle,” he said.
He backed the decision of the party leadership to recommend persons to occupy the other positions exclusively preserved for the party.
Quoting from Order 28 (1) he read: “There shall be a Majority Leader of the Senate. The Majority Leader shall be a senator nominated from the party with the highest number of senators.
“I believe that that letter should have been read to the hearing of all senators here present. Perhaps that will be the solution to the leadership tussle in the Senate,” he said.
It would be  recalled that APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had in a letter dated June 22, 2015, recommended senators to occupy the other principal positions.
The letter recommended Sen. Ahmad Lawan as Senate Leader; George Akume, Deputy Senate Leader; Olusola Adeyeye as Chief Whip; and Abu Ibrahim as Deputy Whip.
In a related development, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, yesterday said President Muhammadu Buhari would not intervene in the leadership crisis currently rocking the National Assembly until the All Progressives Congress’ state governors ask him to do so.
Shehu said this while featuring on Sunrise, a programme of a Lagos-based private television station, ChannelsTV. He said Buhari would only step into the matter at the point when the APC state governors inform him that they cannot fix the problem.
He said that was necessary because the governors had during a meeting they had with the President on Tuesday night promised to handle the issue. He said, “When the governors met with the President, they told him that ‘we are the leaders in our states and we have influence over all of these senators.
They come from our places and from us and we can handle it.’ “The President will step into the crisis at the point when the governors say they can no longer fix it.”
In the event that he decides to intervene, the presidential spokesman said Buhari would not do that to the level of imposing leaders on the lawmakers. Shehu said Buhari’s position on the matter had remained that the National Assembly is an independent arm of government and he would not be seen meddling in their affairs.
He said the governors while advising the President to maintain his posture, asked him to allow them handle the matter their own way. He said the President has a responsibility to the party and to the nation. He also said despite what was currently playing out in the National Assembly, the situation had not gone out of control.
“The President has a responsibility to the party, the President has a responsibility to the nation and as far as we are looking at the situation it has not gotten out of control. It is still within manageable parameters, it is a little storm we will overcome and Nigerians better get used to it,” he added.
Apparently reacting to a statement credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, that Buhari is not the leader of the party, Shehu said the President was the leader. “Does it need to be said? I don’t think it needs to be said that the President is the leader of his party.
There’s no question about it,” he declared. He added that there is need for Nigerians to understand the basics of politics as the country is no more in the military era when decrees are made by a single leader.
“Politics, as its theory says, is basically about contest for interests and these interests may be fully defined by political party programme, while some of these things may be outside political party programme,” he said.
While corroborating Buhari’s claim that he inherited virtually empty treasury, the presidential spokesman challenged Nigerians to ask a former Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, to give further explanations on the $30billion he claimed the former government left behind.