There is a plot to secretly amend the standing rules of the
House of Representatives ahead of the inauguration of the 9th Assembly early
next month.
The plot, it was gathered, is to tinker with the provisions
for the election of the speaker and the deputy speaker so that the current
conditions where a winner must get votes of 50 percent of members-elect plus
one would be removed.
As it obtains in the current House Standing Orders, if all
the 360 members-elect of the House are seated during inauguration, once there
are two or more nominees for the office of speaker, the winner must get 181 to
emerge.
But the intended secret amendment, it was learnt, would do
away with that so that if there are more than two candidates nominated for
speaker, anybody with the highest votes without necessarily getting up to 181
will be declared speaker.
Order Two Rule 3 (g) of the Standing Orders of the House,
9th Edition, provides that: “When more than two members-elect are nominated and
seconded to be a speaker and where two or more accept, the division shall be
conducted in the manner prescribed in Rule 3 (f) herein and the member-elect
who has received more than one-half of the votes shall be the Speaker-elect.”
However, the rule states as a proviso that in the event that
no member-elect gets more than one-half of votes in the division, the candidate
with the smallest number of votes shall be removed and a fresh election will be
done between the candidate with the highest votes and the runner-up.
But the secret plot is to remove the proviso above so that
anybody with the slightest lead in the number of votes or simple majority will be
declared speaker.
The new rule, according to sources, would be in tandem with
the Senate provisions for the election of Senate President and the Deputy
Senate President where the person with simple majority would emerge.
Our correspondent gathered that the secret plot is being
hatched by members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to get one
of their own to be elected as speaker without much hassle.
It was further gathered that part of the plot is for the
opposition lawmakers to initially push for a member of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) to be nominated to challenge the party’s choice candidate for
the position, Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), who is the current House Leader.
Once Gbajabiamila and the other APC member are nominated on
the floor, a PDP member will then nominate a member of the party for the
position, which will make three candidates to contest for the position, two
from APC and one from PDP.
Though a nominee may decide to withdraw his acceptance of
nomination before voting commences, the APC member to be nominated against
Gbajabiamila will be someone who will stay put, it was further learnt.
This will make the PDP members to deliver their block votes
to their member in the contest, while the APC lawmakers may divide their votes,
which could give room for the opposition lawmaker to emerge.
A source said a similar thing is being targeted for the
position of Deputy Speaker, which Rep Ahmed Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), is being
positioned to occupy.
“What they want to do is to connive with the management to
amend the rules like it was alleged some people did in the Senate in 2015. They
want to take us unawares, but we already heard it.
“As a matter of fact, they want to conceal everything and
let it be among very few of them so that on the day of inauguration, they will
strike. Another thing is that they’re likely to get the buy-in of some members
of our party, APC, and other smaller opposition parties.
“Everything will happen like drama. The plan is to let
people know on the floor, just before the voting takes place. Their main target
is the position of speaker, nothing less. But we won’t allow that to happen.
There’s procedure of amending the House Rules, which is
through a resolution of the entire House,” one of our sources said. Another APC
member told Daily Trust that “let them do whatever they want to do. We won’t
fold our hands and look at them.
We’re equal to the task. We know the procedures of amending
the rules, so let them go ahead and see what will happen.” In the incoming 9th
House, APC has 224 seats; PDP has 122; while other opposition political parties
have 14.
Those plotting the secret amendment of the House rules are
said to be encouraged by the fact that during the inauguration of the 8th
Assembly on June 9, 2015, a new Senate Rules surfaced, which changed the method
of the election of the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President from
open to secret ballot.
Though the new Senate Rules became a subject of litigation,
it is still being used by the 8th Senate.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara has so far not endorsed any of his
loyalists in the APC for the speaker’s seat and has kept mum on the matter,
rising speculations that he is still eyeing the seat in an APC-dominated
chamber.
Dogara’s spokesman Turaki Hassan had however said in a
statement in March that the speaker “is concentrating in accomplishing all he
promised in the Legislative Agenda of the House of Representatives.
Who becomes what in the 9th House of Representatives is not
the concern or business of the current Speaker, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara.”
House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) could not
be reached for comments as his mobile phones were switched off.
Also, the chairman of the Rules and Business Committee, Rep
Edward Pwajok (PDP, Plateau), who is the custodian of the rules of the House,
did not pick calls put to his mobile phone. He did not also respond to a text
message sent to him.
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