Zonal and party caucuses of the House of
Representatives have declined support for any calls for the resignation
of the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, and three other principal officers
over the raging budget padding scandal in the House.
The other three are the Deputy Speaker,
Mr. Yusuf Lasun; the Chief Whip, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; and the
Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor.
Former Chairman, Committee on
Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, had alleged that the four
requested insertions of various projects amounting to N40bn in the 2016
budget.He also claimed that there were sundry
projects worth N30bn and N20bn respectively, which the four injected
into the N6.06trillion national budget.
Jibrin had alleged that his refusal to oblige the request was the reason Dogara sacked him on July 20.
Jibrin had stepped up campaigns against
the principal officers amid their denial of the allegations and demanded
the resignation of Dogara.
He also reported the matter to anti-graft agencies, seeking investigation of the allegations.
On Thursday, he claimed that 250 lawmakers out of 360 had actually signed a register, demanding Dogara’s resignation.
However, various caucus leaders told Saturday PUNCH that Jibrin’s resignation campaign neither had the backing of the leaders nor their members.
All Progressives Congress’ South-East
Caucus Leader, Mr. Chike Okafor, for instance, said members considered
Jibrin’s campaign as “embarrassing.”
He also observed that a chairman who
“honestly” wanted to fight graft would not wait until he was accused of
non-performance and removed from office before he would start making
corruption allegations.
Okafor said, “The fact that Jibrin was
removed wasn’t enough reason for him to start making all sorts of
unsubstantiated allegations about budget padding.
“The claim of 250 signatures is
laughable. Members are on recess. Who are the people on his side? Let
him mention them. People have been signing from their various caucuses
to say they are with the House leadership.
“Is it Kano that is with Jibrin? The
Kano caucus leader has also spoken. The young man is just playing to the
gallery. Two hundred and fifty (members) supporting him, how? I can
tell you that Jibrin doesn’t have up to 10 members backing him.”
Okafor added that the “House will come out stronger and better under the leadership of Yakubu Dogara on this issue.”
He said members were not thinking of a leadership change in the House.
“It is very impossible for anybody to
dream about a leadership change because of Jibrin’s unfounded
allegations. It is very impossible. This is a 360-member House and it is
our responsibility to decide when to have a leadership change. This
won’t get to anything near it,” he said.
Findings showed that members of the
wider South-East zonal caucus largely dominated by the Peoples
Democratic Party were not moved by Jibrin’s allegations.
The North-West caucus, the largest in the House, also disagreed with Jibrin.
The Leader of the caucus, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, said he could swear that Jibrin had no substantial backers.
Ado-Doguwa, who hails from Kano State as Jibrin, told Saturday PUNCH that over 20 of the state’s 24-member caucus were not with Jibrin.
“I am from Kano State where Jibrin also
claims he hails from. Over 20 members have clearly indicated that they
won’t support him,” he said.
Ado-Doguwa, who is the Chief Whip of the House, is one of the four principal officers Jibrin accused of “padding” the budget.
Similarly, North-Central caucus
lawmakers said they were not in support of leadership change in the
House, however; they called for a “surgical operation” in the budgeting
process.
But findings showed that members of the
zone indeed grumbled against the handling of zonal intervention projects
by the leadership of the House.
It was learnt that what members sought
to achieve was the equality of all in the sharing of intervention
projects, but “not unsubstantiated campaigns to tarnish the image of the
National Assembly.”
One senior member of the caucus, who
declined to be named because he sought to remain neutral, dismissed
Jibrin’s claim that 250 lawmakers had called for the Speaker’s
resignation.
The member gave details of what members
initially planned to achieve, saying, “There is nothing like 250
signatures. Jibrin missed the whole point and he cannot command
followership because of the way and manner he is going about this issue.
“Yes, indeed, a few members were not
satisfied with the distribution of zonal intervention projects. A
situation whereby some members have so much in their areas but others
don’t have anything to show is not acceptable.
“There was a feeling that the leadership
should be rattled a little to make some adjustments and to guard
against any repeat of uneven distribution of projects.
“But, the way Jibrin started the fight
was not what members wanted to do. What he has been doing has
embarrassed everybody, including those who would have supported him.
“Now, he cannot get that support; from the beginning, those who shared some reasoning with him were not up to 50 members.
“The number went down when he started
the way he did. Nobody has talked about leadership change the way he now
wants people to believe.”
The official hinted that the zone would
come out with a formal position on the budget next week after a sizeable
number of members would have returned to Abuja.
Members of the PDP-dominated South-South
also said they did not see how the allegations by Jibrin could lead to
the resignation of Dogara.
The caucus leader, Mr. Leo Ogor,
explained the position of the caucus, “What is happening is that in
Nigeria, whenever people hear the word corruption, they shout “crucify
him”.
“There is what is called fair hearing. Has anything been proven against Dogara? Why should he resign?
“Are we saying that the same Jibrin, who
discredited himself as a committee chairman, is the one who will
determine the direction the House will take?
“Let him publish the list of 250 members he claims to have; we will start from there.”
The South-West caucus leader, Mr. Femi
Gbajabiamila, who doubles as the House Majority Leader, could not be
reached for comments on Friday. He was said to be out of the country.
Efforts to get the view of the leader of Dogara’s North-East caucus, Mr. Mohammed Mongunu, failed on Friday.
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