Member of the House of Representatives from Bauchi State, Mohammed Sani-Abdu, explains to JOHN AMEH why the All Progressives Congress must have its way in the tussle over the appointment of principal officers

How do you feel that the issue of principal officers led to a fracas in the House on Thursday?

It is not very true to say that the fracas was because of the names of the principal officers. I think there are historical antecedents to the fracas. Yes, the issue of principal officers is central to it, but there was nothing much that was done than the call that we should go into an executive session; contrary to the House rules which require that first, the House should be convened and then call for prayers. There was no prayer on Thursday. The speaker just came in and said that we should go for an executive session. There will first be prayers, petitions, and if there are letters, he reads the letters and so on, before the orders of the day will start. He skipped all these procedure and just said we should go for an executive session immediately he came in. For sure, this angered the members and that is why I said there are historical antecedents.

Are you sure people will agree with you that the speaker didn't follow these procedures or what are the historical antecedents you are referring to?

First of all, that seat (speakership) was keenly contested; and (Yakubu) Dogara came out tops with only eight votes margin. We should recall that Aminu Tambuwal (immediate past speaker) defeated his rival, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, with over a hundred votes. I am drawing a parallel so you can understand how the current House is so sharply divided. If I were Dogara, immediately I emerged, the first thing would be to secure my seat and the stability of the House. Unfortunately, he didn't do that. I was the one who nominated Femi Gbajabiamila to contest against Dogara. Even though I am from Bauchi State (same as Dogara), I have personal and other political reasons why I did that, and Dogara knows. However, I was one of the first to congratulate him after he won and I told him because the margin of victory was so slim, it was God's margin. I advised him to quickly heal the wounds of the House and reconcile forces. I also told him that we discussed with Umar Ghali Na'Abba (former Speaker of the House) and other people that the only way to resolve the problem at the National Assembly, particularly, the House, is to ask the present deputy speaker (Yusuf Lasun) to step down and give that position to Gbajabiamila. This would have allowed these parallel lines to have a coterminous to serve as the beginning of the healing. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and it is not his fault; he gave me plausible reasons why that could not happen. At the end of the day, Dogara's camp kept both the speaker and deputy speaker slots.

Was that why the APC insisted on playing a role in the choice of principal officers?

We know that the party has a say in the appointment of principal officers. The party always has that fundamental role. Constitutionally, there is no provision for independent candidature in Nigeria. Therefore, one has to be sponsored for an election by a political party. By filling a membership form, an individual has signed an undertaken that they will be absolutely loyal to the rules and regulations of the party. We all signed this and that is why they gave us a level-playing field to go through the primaries and the main elections. Therefore, we are a product of our own family, the APC, or any party as the case may be. So far, in the history of Nigerian democracy, parties have this commanding view of appointing principal officers. Dimeji Bankole emerged from the South-West; Tunde Akogun, who became the Majority Leader, was the choice of the party; Bello Mohammed from Zamfara State was the Deputy Minority Leader; and at the same time, Kawu Sunmaila was the Deputy Minority Whip. Therefore, it is nothing new. During Patricia Etteh's time (as the speaker), it was the party, the PDP, that decided on the principal officers. Why should the PDP do it, and now that the APC is in control, everybody is raising eyebrows and causing civil disobedience? The sons of the APC are now trying to rebel against their own father, the APC. That is very wrong.

The argument of members on the other side is that the party cannot make these appointments without first agreeing with the various caucuses.

When did we even form the caucuses? It is only when the House has been convened and the leadership is in place that the caucuses will emerge. For example, who is the Minority Leader? Can the person now decide what happens in the PDP? For now, there is nothing like caucuses because we don't have them yet, technically or legally speaking. But, we have different fora within the House, whether the APC fora or zonal fora, but these are not caucuses per say. Until the leadership emerges, there is nothing like caucuses as we speak. We have not reached that stage yet. Therefore, the party has the power to look at various equations, geographical balance and otherwise, to appoint the leaders. Take someone like Gbajabiamila for example. I came to know him in the 6th Assembly as Deputy Minority Leader. I worked with him closely because I was the secretary of the minority caucus when it was formed. I found him to be a very sound character. Being a true Nigerian, I don't look at where you come from. If you are the most excellent to perform a duty, I will go for you. That was why I went for him against my brother (Dogara) who comes from Bauchi-South where I come from too. This is a national duty. My brother won the speakership and I congratulated him; why are they now working against the APC? That is the beginning of the problem.

However, what is actually playing out is that there is the re-engineering of the New PDP (breakaway faction of PDP). They lost out at the front door of elections and they want to get something through the back door of the leadership in the National Assembly to re-launch themselves. Where is all the legacy of Bukola Saraki (Senate President) from? The PDP. Dogara had always been in the PDP, except about nine to 12 months ago when they quarrelled with our state governor for over a period of two years. It became so intense that he had to leave the PDP and join us in the APC. Otherwise, he had been one of the movers and shakers of the PDP, even as a young man. Thus, if you look at all of this and what played out today on the floor, all those who went to protect and champion the cause of Dogara today are from the PDP. So sad, the APC has been gullible and we have played into the hands of the New PDP. You know that some of them are extremely ambitious and have started planning for 2019 already. We knew all along that Dogara and Saraki have the same forum; they have been working together. Also, there is Tambuwal, who has always been a PDP man. He just happened to join the APC. He has been in the ANPP, PDP, New PDP and finally he is back to the APC. Now he is fighting some of his makers and there is 'Tambuwalisation' of the House for obvious reasons. There is a bigger picture which will follow. What played out today was not just about the names of principal officers. There will be an implosion if things continue this way.

You just admitted that the APC has been gullible. How is the party going to handle the situation before there is an implosion?

The fact is that the party made a mistake. The mistake is what I may call naivety or youthful exuberance of the party. The APC was formed by three and a half of or three and two-halves of different political parties. The merger that gave birth to the party was historical in the sense that it was the first time (such would happen). The APC is barely two years old, yet we went through the crisis of merger when nobody gave us a chance to succeed. The euphoria of forming a new party from different interest groups and parties, that puberty thing, is making the party not to go the whole mile.

The President may be a well determined and experienced person and a democrat, but as a group, we have failed by not going the whole mile. We dislodged a ruling party that was so wealthy and very ambitious, only for us to now say that we don't care about the emergence of the leaders of the National Assembly. That is the greatest mistake and it is a natural mistake because they wanted to imbibe the spirit of true democracy, but we are not there yet. They have forgotten that the enemies armed with sophisticated weapons are still around the corner and they are within the National Assembly. In fact, that is where they are strong. The President has dislodged the executive, but in the National Assembly, the enemies are still strong. To me, the naivety is the biggest mistake. It is not worrisome that one made a mistake, but it is worrisome if one doesn't rise quickly to amend one's mistake and wax stronger. I think the party will rise to the occasion as we have done before.

What is the way forward for the APC in this case?

As far as I am concerned, the onus lies on Dogara, the Speaker, being the number one person in this matter. As the leader of the House, he has to be responsible to Nigeria, his country, and the constituents that elected us all. My constituency, which is not his constituency, now directly relies on him because his responsibility is also to guide me into doing the right thing. There are many people who can tell him the truth and I am one of those people. He should stabilise the House. The onus is on him to allow party discipline to prevail, if he is truly an APC person. He needs to go back to the line of the party, heal the wounds and appoint these principal officers the same way God appointed him to be the leader of the House. He should discountenance whatever promises he made to anybody outside the party. If this APC platform crumbles, he too will crumble forever.