Speakership: Reps move against zoning, PDP godfathers

Hon. Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole

The House of Representatives amended its voting rule for the position of the speaker on Tuesday, thereby giving credence to the speculation that many of its members were bent on ignoring the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party and the advice of the party’s godfathers.
In a resolution in Abuja, the House unanimously adopted a motion to elect its next speaker through open-secret ballot instead of electronic system.
The motion, which was sponsored by Mr. Cyril Maduabum, amended Order II, Rule 3 (f), (i), (ii) of the Standing Orders of the House.
Under the extant rule (before the amendment), candidates nominated for the offices of the speaker and the deputy speaker “shall be elected by electronic voting.”
But the rule has been amended to read, “When two or more members-elect are nominated and seconded as speaker, the election shall be conducted as follows:

“(I) By open-secret ballot;

“(II) Voting by open-secret ballot shall be conducted by the Clerk at the table, using the list of the members-elect of the House, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote, with the proposer and seconder as tellers.”
Maduabum had claimed that using the electronic voting system could disenfranchise the majority of members-elect, whose data were yet to be captured by the system.
He said that it was not possible for the House to capture the data of the new members before June 7, the date of the election.
Out of the 360 members of the current legislature, only 100 will be returning to the House in June.
The majority of 260 members are freshers, whose data have not been captured on the electronic voting system.
Maduabum argued that using the electronic system might make the emergence of the next speaker not to be transparent.
He added, “The House of Representatives should show example of transparency in the democratic election of its leaders.”
Insiders however observed that beyond the “convincing surface reasons” offered by the House, the real motive was to guard against the imposition of candidates on the members as speaker.
Investigations also showed that the clamour to throw the contest for the speakership open to all the geopolitical zones in the country was gaining more ground.
A member of the House, who spoke with one of our correspondents, said, “There are now splinter elements in the House who have a different view on the zoning arrangement of the PDP.
“They are calling for an open contest; re-allignment of forces is going on and the calculations are changing from time-to-time.”
It was learnt that the House moved for the amendment following reports that some state governors and political party godfathers were mounting pressure on members to vote for their candidates.
The PDP had zoned the post of speaker to the South-West.
Flowing from this development, the South-West Caucus of the party endorsed Muraina Ajibola as its candidate.
However, another aspirant from Oyo State as Ajibola, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, is also in the race and is believed to be receiving the backing of about 80 members of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the House.
But, amid the confusion in the South-West, lawmakers from the South-East and their northern counterparts are said to be striking a deal to present a different candidate.
The candidate from this deal, who is likely to be a Northerner, may have a lawmaker from the South-East as his deputy.
Observers believe that the arrangement is also aimed at scuttling the zoning arrangement of the PDP.
“It is an open-secret that the Deputy Whip of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Chief Whip, Emeka Ihedioha, are the likely products of this deal”, a lawmaker privy to the plan, disclosed on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Presidency is said to be worried over the discordant tunes from members of the National Assembly over the PDP’s zoning of political offices.
Some lawmakers, especially those from the South-East have been vociferous in their condemnation of the zoning of the office of the speaker to the South-West.
They argued that since the PDP did not do well in the South-West during the National Assembly elections, it was wrong for the PDP leadership to zone the position of the speaker to it (South-West).
It was learnt on Tuesday that the Presidency believed that opponents of the zoning formula could be those who had wanted the office of the President to be zoned to the northern part of the country.
A Presidency source said, “The Presidency is taking the matter seriously. Having got reports about the radical views of some members of the House, both new and old on the matter, President Goodluck Jonathan was of the view that there was the need to speak with the members and would-be members of the Seventh Assembly.
“This was why Vice-President Namadi Sambo spoke with them recently on the need for them to allow the party to have its way on the matter (zoning).
“We are still worried because what we have heard is not what we wanted to hear. But we believe that we should be able to handle it.”
By John Ameh and Olusola Fabiyi,             Courtesy Of: Punch