It was a close race between the ruling the All Progressives Congress and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party as Speaker, House of Representatives, Yukubu Dogara named chairmen of 96 standing committees of the House.
Yakubu Dogara
Dogara yesterday lay to rest speculation on the power sharing as he made the announcement on the floor of the House four months after the inauguration of the House.
A breakdown shown that the ruling APC got 47, the PDP 46 while four committees chair were left to smaller parties of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Social Democratic Party and others.
It was learnt that the Speaker left what is known as ‘juicy committees’ within reps for his loyalists in APC and PDP, The Punch reports.
One of Dogara’s closest allies in the House, Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC) was named the chairman of Committee on Appropriation. Jibrin actually moved for his nomination as Speaker on June 9.
The Speaker loyalists in PDP went home with two petroleum committees, Victor Nwokolo from Delta state (PDP) now heads Petroleum Resources (Upstream) while Akinlaja Joseph from Ondo state (PDP) is the chairman of Petroleum Resources (Downstream).
Other PDP members chairing plum committees are Tobi Okechukwu from Enugu state, Committees on Works; Rima Shawulu from Taraba state heads Committee Army ; Sampson Okwu (Benue state) Committee on Air Force; Nkiruka Onyejeocha ( Abia state) will be charge of Committee on Aviation.
APC members chair the following committees, Murktar Aliyu (Borno state) heads Committee on Defence; Abdussamad Dasuki (Sokoto state) Committee on Navy;James Faleke (Lagos) Committee on Customs and Excise; Hassan Shekarau (Kaduna state) chair Committee on Pensions.
Other committees that went to APC members are: housing, telecommunications, electoral matters, interior, healthcare services, water resources, land transport, tertiary, police affairs, population, commercialization and privatization, police affairs, agricultural production services and steel.
According to The Punch there is an uneasy calm in the House as South-West members of the APC in the House think that PDP got the most ‘juiciest’ committees than their APC counterparts.
A lawmaker on the platform APC who sought not to be named said majority of the members of the APC were not please with composition of the committees.
The source said: “The PDP has many prime committees, including the committees on power, banking and currency, drugs/narcotics and capital market.
“The distribution of the committees also did not favour the South-West APC, as they did not get major committees in the real sense.
“From the distribution, the key committees that should drive the agenda of the APC’s government are in the hands of the opposition.
“During the 7th Assembly, the opposition got only 16 committees and about three key committees.
“This time around, the majority party and the opposition are almost on tie in terms of the number of committees each side got.”
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