Gbajabiamila plunges House of reps into crisis over nomination

The House of Reps and its new leaders are sliding into another war over appointment of principal officers.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila finds himself in a strait as the APC National Working Committee nomination is different from his, drawn to pay back his colleagues that stepped down for him one way or the other during the contest.

The party’s NWC on Saturday ratified the appointments of Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (Abia State, South-East) as Deputy Majority Leader and Peter Akpatason (Edo State, South-South) as Chief Whip. Other principal offices that have remained vacant include the Majority Leader, which has been zoned to Kano State (North-West) and the Deputy Chief Whip, zoned to the North-East.

But at the plenary on Tuesday, Gbajabiamila said Mr Abdulrazak Namdas (Adamawa, North-East) had been nominated as Chief Whip.

And that was the only appointment he made.

The Speaker, however, kept mum on other principal offices.

A member of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Bamidele Salam, on Tuesday said the Speaker was still consulting on the appointments and would announce the officers by the end of the week.

He said Gbajabiamila did not announce others because there is a need for wider and further consultations by the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, to be sure that whatever is going to be announced is in consonance with the provisions of our rules.

“Before the week runs out, there will be an announcement of all the other principal officers of the House; the Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Whip, Deputy Minority Whip. Before the week runs out, the consultations will be over and they will be announced,” he said.