The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara, has replied a letter
written by the national
Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, APC,
John Oyegun, to him on June
23, 2015, directing him to
appoint party nominees as
principal officers.


Mr. Dogara in his reply,
dated July 16, 2015, recalled
his earlier claim that a court
case instituted by some
members on the matter,
made it impossible for him
to make all necessary
consultation on the
chairman’s letter.
Mr. Dogara also informed
Mr. Oyegun the need to
respect Federal Character,
and enumerated the
tradition of the House of
Representatives regarding
how Principal officers are
elected.

He then proposed to the
APC Chairman a list of
zoning of principal offices
that would best reflect the
spirit of Federal character.
He stated that The North
East and South West have
already produced the
Speaker and his deputy. He
therefore, proposed that the
House Leader should come
from the North West (with
86 APC members) Deputy
House Leader, from the
North Central (with 33 APC
members), while Chief Whip
and Deputy Chief Whip
would come from the South
South and South East
respectively.


See Mr. Dogara’s full letter
below:
July 16, 2015
The National Chairman,
All Progressives Congress
(APC),
National Headquarters,
Abuja.


UPDATE ON ELECTION OF
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF
THE 8TH HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
This is to formally
acknowledge receipt of your
letter Ref. No. APC/NHDQ/
NAM/01/015/06 dated 23rd
June, 2015.

2. After the letter was received but
before I could make the necessary
consultations concerning the letter
because of its sensitive nature, I was
served with Court processes on the
subject matter filed by some Members
of the House and other persons and
groups from the North Central and
South East Zones of Nigeria. The Rules
of the House enjoin us to make a
determination whether discussing a
matter pending in Court in the House
would be prejudicial to the Case.

3. However, before this determination
could be made, on the 25th June, 2015,
I took steps to discuss the matter in an
Executive Session of the House which
is open to only House Members and
not the public. We were prevented
from doing so by some House
members who conducted themselves
in a most unparliamentary manner. It
is necessary to point out that the
mechanism of Executive Session is
resorted to in order to iron out
controversial matters in an amicable
way to preserve the unity and
cohesion of the House.

4. Since then, efforts have been made
by the Party, Progressive Governors
and other interested persons to
intervene and resolve the issues. We
want to place on record, our
unflinching loyalty and respect not
only to you as an individual,
considering your antecedents, but also
to the party, APC, under whose
platform we were elected to the
House. We have no intention
whatsoever of disobeying your
directives or the party’s position on
any matter. We would, of course,
prefer a situation where we are
consulted on matters concerning the
House before directives are issued and
made public.

5. We feel strongly, that the issue of
federal character in the election or
appointment of principal officers of the
House is a cardinal legal, moral and
constitutional principle that should be
respected by our party. It is however
obvious from the letter under
reference that this principle was not
taken into consideration. If the letter is
enforced the way it was conveyed, it
will lead to the following unjust result:
Speaker: North East:
Chief Whip: North East
Deputy Speaker: South West
House Leader: South West
Deputy House Leader: North West
Deputy Chief Whip: South South
This will totally and unfairly exclude
the South East and North Central Zones
in the distribution of these political
offices and lead to undue
concentration of some offices in the
South West and North East Zones of
Nigeria.

6. The House Rules provide that in
filling the positions of Majority
leadership of the House, namely,
leader of the House, Chief Whip,
Deputy Leader, Deputy Whip of the
House, each candidate;
“shall be a member nominated from
among the members in the majority
party in the House”
Furthermore, Order 1, of the House
Rules provides that
“In all cases not provided for
hereinafter or by sessional or other
orders, Precedents or practices of the
House, the House shall by Resolution
regulate its procedure”
It is evident that there are existing
Precedents and Practices which the
House has been following for a long
time and in particular since 1999. Since
1999, Zonal Caucuses of a Party have
been primarily responsible for
nominating Principal Officers of the
House, other than the Speaker and
Deputy Speaker that are elected by the
entire House.
In 1999, Principal Officers of the House
were as follows:


1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Salisu Buhari &
Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba -North
West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Chibudom
Nwuche -South South
3. House Leader: Hon. Mohammed
Wakil -North East
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bawa Bwari -North
Central
5. Deputy Leader: Hon. Mao
Ohuabunwa -South East
6. Deputy Whip: Hon. Samuel Sadiq
Anwo -South West
2003:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello
Masari -North West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Austin
Opara -South South
3. House Leader: Hon. Abdul Ningi -
North East
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bawa Bwari -North
Central
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Patricia
Olubunmi Etteh -South West
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Gilbert Nnaji -
South East
2007:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon.Patricia Olubunmi
Etteh
& Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole -South West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Nguruoje
Babangida &
Rt. Hon. Bayero Usman Nafada -North
East
3. House Leader: Hon. Akogun Tunde -
South South
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Bethel Amadi &
Hon. Emeka Ihedioha -South East
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal -North West
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Baba Shehu
Agaie -North Central
2011:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal -North West
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Emeka
Ihedioha -South East
3. House Leader: Hon. Mulikat Akande
-South West
4. Chief Whip: Hon. Isiaka Bawa -North
East
5. Deputy Whip: Hon. Muktar
Mohammed -North Central
6. Deputy Leader: Hon. Leo Ogor -
South South
2015:
1. Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara -
North East
2. Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Lasun S.
Yussuf -South West
3. House Leader ?
4. Chief Whip ?
5. Deputy Whip ?
6. Deputy Leader ?


These are clear Precedents and
Practices for Majority leadership
positions since 1999. They therefore,
constitute precedents and practices of
the House as enshrined in the Standing
Orders of the House. We are bound by
it by virtue of Provisions of Order 1 of
our Standing Rules.

7. The issue of Federal character has
very strong constitutional foundations.
They are indeed mandatory provisions
of the Constitution. For ease of
reference, let us examine the following
provisions:
a. S. 14(3)
“The composition of the Government of
the Federation or any of its agencies
and the conduct of its affairs shall be
carried out in such manner as to
reflect the federal character of Nigeria
and the need to promote national
unity, and also to command national
loyalty thereby ensuring that there
shall be no predominance of persons
from a few States or from a few ethnic
or other sectional groups in that
government or in any of its agencies”
b. S. 147 provides for the appointment
of Ministers by the President. However,
under S. 147(3)
“Any appointment under subsection (2)
of this section by the President shall be
in conformity with the provisions of
section 14(3) of this Constitution”
c. S. 223(1)(b) provides for observance
of federal character by political parties,
thus:
“The members of the Executive
Committee or other governing body of
the political party shall be deemed to
reflect the federal character of Nigeria
only if the members thereof belong to
different states not being less in
member than two-thirds of all the
States comprising the Federation”
d. The Third Schedule, Part 1, C,
especially Section 8 (b) and (c) enjoins
the Federal Character Commission to:
“b.promote, monitor and enforce
compliance with the principles of
proportional sharing of all
bureaucratic,, economic, media and
political posts at all levels of
government;
c.take such legal measures, including
the prosecution of the head or staff of
any Ministry or government body or
agency which fails to comply with any
federal character principle or formula
prescribed or adopted by the
Commission”
e. The Oath of office of Members of the
National Assembly is contained in the
7th Schedule to the Constitution and
every member swore to:
“Preserve the Fundamental Objectives
and Directive Principles of State Policy
contained in the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, and …..
(to) preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria”
To further underscore the seriousness
with which the framers of the
Constitution regarded the issue of
Federal Character, the National
Assembly was given exclusive
jurisdiction to legislate in Item 60 of the
Exclusive Legislative List, for:
“The establishment and regulation of
authorities for the federation or any
part thereof –
a.)To promote and enforce the
observance of the fundamental
objectives and Directive Principles of
State Policy contained in the
Constitution”

8. Our most respected Chairman, in
the light of above and and in view of
our Party’s unshakable commitment to
Due Process and the Rule of Law, the
present position is untenable.
Therefore, insisting on it is only
tantamount to compelling us to violate
the Constitution or to betray the Oath
of Office we solemnly swore to. This
we believe is not what our Party and
any of our principled National Leaders
stand for.
Indeed, we expect that our great party,
the APC, will ensure that “there shall
be no predominance of persons from a
few states or from a few ethnic or
sectional groups in (the) government or
in any of its agencies”

9. Consequently Sir, we propose the
following zoning arrangement for the
distribution of principal offices in the
House of Representatives.
Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara –
North East
Deputy Speaker: Rt. Hon. Yusuf
Sulaimon Lasun – South West
House Leader: North West (with 86
APC members)
Deputy House Leader: North Central
(with 33 APC members)
Chief Whip: South South
Deputy Chief Whip: South East
Above proposal satisfies the provisions
of Order 1 of our Rules, the
Constitutional provision on Federal
Character and gives all parts of Nigeria
a sense of belonging. The proposal will
also obviate all pending Court cases
filed by some Zonal Caucuses on the
matter.

10. To resolve this problem, we had
offered that some of the aggrieved
members of our party, APC, who lost
the election for the office of Presiding
Officers, should produce some of the
remaining Principal Officers for peace
to reign. For emphasis, we have
conceded the position of Leader of the
House and Chief Whip to those
aggrieved, as long as the persons
should not come from the North East
or South West Zones that have already
produced the Speaker and Deputy
Speaker. In any case, sir, I pledge as
the Speaker of the House, to
accommodate other colleagues of ours
in the Party list, who may not be taken
care of by this arrangement, with other
commensurate appointments or other
existing opportunities for service to the
nation.

11. We owe a duty to lay the truth bare
as we have done in this case. The Party
in conjunction with Governors,
National leaders and the APC Causes in
the House may agree otherwise as the
saying goes, “volenti non fit injuria”.
Our Party must not have the
undistinguished honour of setting a
precedent outside of the provisions of
the Constitution and the Rules of the
House.


12. CONCLUSION
We most respectfully urge that our
above proposal be considered on its
merits and that efforts should be made
to resolve this matter so that the House
will resume its working recess in a
peaceful atmosphere. There is no
gainsaying the fact that a stable House
is necessary to support the President
and Commander in Chief of the
Nigerian Armed Forces and the APC in
fulfilling our electoral mandate of
Change and Progress for the Nigerian
people.

13. May I Sir, respectfully assure you
of our continued loyalty and best
wishes.
Rt. Hon. Dogara Yakubu
Speaker, House of Representatives



CC: President, Commander in Chief of
the Armed Forces of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria
CC: Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal
(Progressive Governors’ forum
mediator)
CC: Governor Rochas Okorocha,
Chairman, Progressive Governors’
Forum
CC: Chairman, Forum of APC State
Chairmen
www.primiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/186806-breaking-speaker-dogara-replies-oyegun-zones-majority-leader-to-north-west.html

nigeriantimes.ng/news/dogara-dares-apc-zones-house-majority-leader-to-north-west/

..

House assembly doesn't belong to any party nor any individual it belongs to Nigerians.

crinkum crankum, political higi haga

Nigerian interest is paramount nt party!the earlier Apc settle down for governance the better for them!

www.primiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/186806-breaking-speaker-dogara-replies-oyegun-zones-majority-leader-to-north-west.html

nigeriantimes.ng/news/dogara-dares-apc-zones-house-majority-leader-to-north-west/