Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and other members of the House of Representatives who are loyal to the All Progressives Congress leadership have enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to take a firm stand on the lingering crisis in the National Assembly.
Presenting a common position when the President met with 30 of them, led by Gbajabiamila on Wednesday night, they posited that the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and members loyal to him have an ulterior motive to polarise and destroy the APC.
According to the position paper, which they presented to Buhari and made available to State House correspondents, they alleged that members of Dogara’s group are already planning to dump the APC to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party.
They therefore, called on Buhari to call Dogara to order and compel him to announce the other principal officers of the House, which must be in line with the position of the party.
The closed doors meeting, held at the First Lady Wing of the State House, was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Gbajabiamila told correspondents after the meeting that it was successful, expressing optimism that the party would come out of the crises bigger and better.
Asked what the President told them, Gbajabiamila said Buhari is a party man who believes in party supremacy and the party’s ideologies.
On why the Speaker was not at the meeting, he responded this way: “The Speaker probably has other engagements.
“There are a few members of the caucus that are not here.
“We could not get everybody here.
“This is a representation of the caucus.
“When we are talking about the caucus, we are talking about 210 members.
“You did not find all the members here.
“This is a representation of the 210 members.
“It is not about me and we need to get that clear.
“Yes, they voted for me, but the idea is that they supported the party.
“That is who we are and there is nothing more to be said about that.
“It is not about any individual.”
Their presentation to the President reads in part: “It is noteworthy that Mr. President and the governors had strongly put their weight behind the party and had severally admonished the House to abide by the party’s position.
“The 39 APC members in the House continue to collude with the PDP to flagrantly disobey Mr. President, the governors and the party with a view to bringing the party and government to ridicule before Nigerians.
“The conduct of the 39 APC members colluding with the PDP is tantamount to affront, ultimately targeted at polarising our party so as to give room for many of them to decamp to the PDP.
“It is therefore imperative for Mr. President to take a stand and save the integrity of the party by cautioning the 39 members, which include the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, to respect honour and obey our party Leaders and their directives.
“In conclusion, Mr. President, we as loyal party members shall continue to abide by the party constitution, respect and honour our party leaders and their directives.
“We strongly appeal to you to direct the Speaker to return to our fold and be truly elected Speaker on APC platform. He should be directed to announce the other four party principal officers’ positions as directed by the party as it has always been the convention.
“We sincerely appreciate Mr. President for the audience trusting in his ability to successfully mediate so as to save our great party, the APC, from further embarrassment.
“It should be noted that the Federal Character principle as embedded in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is not justifiable and is of no legal consequence.
“Its provision in S.14 of the Constitution is only applicable to appointments in Federal Ministries and Agencies.
“The House of Representatives is not an agency of the Federal government and the principal officers’ positions are elective and not by appointment.
“If the Federal Character is applicable to the National Assembly, then both the Senate President and the Speaker cannot come from the North, one of them should be advised to step down.”
The Eagle Online reports that the House of Representatives has been polarised following the emergence of Dogara aas the Speaker.
The party leadership had during a mock election endorsed Gbajabiamila as its choice for the position of the speaker and Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency.
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