Speakerahip: Gbajabiamila—Wase alliance unsettles Dogara’s camp

Last week, the two leading candidates for the speakership/deputy speakership of the 9th House of Representatives, House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Deputy House Leader, Ahmed Idris Wase, officially formed an alliance.

The alliance, Daily Trust has learnt, has already caused confusion in the camp of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who, along with his loyalists, appears hell-bent to truncate what seems a popular choice of majority of both returning and new members-elect for the 9th Assembly.

At the beginning of the contest, immediately after the presidential and National Assembly elections in March, several returning lawmakers had indicated interest to occupy the coveted seat, which Dogara is to vacate in June.

Although he had initially indicated interest to recontest, Dogara is said to have since retraced his steps as his new party, the PDP, does not have the number. Based on available record, APC won 224 seats, PDP 122 and other opposition parties 14.

Some of the initial contenders were Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), Wase (APC, Plateau), Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa), Mohammed Umar Bago (APC, Niger), Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano), Babangida Ibrahim (APC, Katsina), Mukhtar Aliyu Betara (APC, Borno), Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim (APC, Yobe) and a host of others.

However, Monguno, Doguwa and Khadija dropped their ambitions for Gbaja, as he is fondly called. But Namdas, Bago, Betera and Ibrahim, all of who belong to the Dogara camp, are said to be in the contest. While Namdas and Betara are both from the North East where the position of the senate president has been zoned to by the APC, Babangida is from the same state with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Bago seems to be the only joker from the Dogara camp, being from the North Central. But his choice by the camp, according to some of Dogara’s loyalists, would ultimately make some of them to declare support for the Gbajabiamila/ Wase camp.

Wase, who came out strong and enjoyed wide acceptance among both returning and new members, only dropped his ambition a couple of weeks ago after the official adoption of the House Leader as the choice candidate of the APC. The position of the Deputy Speaker was then zoned to the North Central, ostensibly with Wase as the target.

Unlike in 2015 when Dogara forged an alliance with some members of the opposition to challenge the APC’s choice, Wase, it was learnt, was not ready to challenge the party as a “loyal party man” hence his resolve to go for the deputy speakership.

Since the official collapse of his campaign structure to merge with that of Gbaja last week, the Dogara camp has been nervous, sources said.

Although some believe that Gbajabiamila could have emerged even with Wase in the contest, there may be serious divisions in the House in the end. The Wase camp, it was learnt, took the decision to collapse and work with Gbaja in national interest for a good working relationship between the executive and the legislature in the 9th Assembly.

A statement from the Wase campaign office on the alliance with Gbajabiamila said, “We first of all wish to immensely appreciate you all for keeping the faith and staying the course of our interesting project so far. Your support and goodwill is electrifying, divine and noble.

“We wish to bring to the notice of all our members that, following the zoning of the positions of speaker and deputy speaker by our great party, there has been series of consultations with members, supporters and stakeholders on the best way forward.

“After the intense internal consultations, it was agreed that a core technical committee of the Wase Equity Project and the Femi Joint Task Project be constituted to explore ways of possible collaborations and harmonisation of vision, mission, goals and interests.

“At a meeting by both technical committees, it was resolved that in the spirit of party loyalty and national unity, both the Femi Joint Task Project and Wase Equity Project be fused together to jointly actualise the zoning intention of our party and the aspirations of our teeming supporters.

“To that effect, both campaign councils of Hon. Femi and Hon. Wase have been collapsed and fused into a single new campaign council to be named FemiWase Campaign Council.

“The Speaker-to-be, Femi Gbajabiamila, has been appointed as the chairman of the campaign council, while the Deputy Speaker-tobe, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, was appointed the deputy chairman of the council. All other positions of the campaign council will be announced in due course,” the statement read in part.

As is always the case in Nigerian politics, some observers are already kicking against a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the house as both Gbaja and Wase are Muslims.

But others have punctured that argument as the house and the senate are not new to that kind of scenario. For example, former Senate President, David Mark, served as the Number 3 Citizen with his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, for eight straight years, from 2007 to 2015. Both of them are Christians. At the time they served, the then Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, was also a Christian.

Again, from October, 2007 to June, 2011 when Dimeji Bankole served as speaker, he had Usman Bayero Nafada as his deputy. Both of them are Muslims.

Thus, it is believed that the most important consideration for the two presiding officers of the House, or even the Senate, is not religion but capacity, as shown in the Mark/Ekweremadu and Bankole/Nafada scenarios. Under the two sets, the National Assembly was stabilised to a great extent, it is believed.

Besides, it is argued that both Gbajabiamila, being the House Leader since 2015, and Wase, the Deputy House Leader from late last year, have understood each other well in terms of working together.

Both have good legislative grasp and are well grounded in the business of running the House, hence it is believed that they would shape the Green Chamber in coming up with good legislations that would address issues such as insecurity, economic challenges, unemployment and other vices in the country, as well as bring government closer to the people.

Gbaja and Wase, being the strongest contenders, it is believed that the Dogara camp is finding it difficult to bring out somebody that can effectively challenge them and take the show in the end.

However, some of the lawmakers are of the view that despite their strength, the duo of Gbaja and Wase could be effectively challenged for the two seats.

According to the lawmakers, Gbajabiamila was the popular candidate in 2015 with endorsements from different quarters, but he lost to Dogara, who was considered a no-match then. The defeat was made possible due to some lastminute alignments and realignments, which they believe cannot be ruled out this time too.

As for those who believe the 2015 scenario cannot be repeated, they argue that the scenario last time was quite different from what obtains now. First, they believe that Wase could have been the only challenger to Gbaja, but that since they were now together, those that hitherto wanted to vote for the former would now vote for the later.

Secondly, they argue that the Dogara camp is now in disarray as some of the henchmen are on their way to joining the Gbaja/ Wase team because of the imminent endorsement of Bago for speaker.

Although many believe that Gbajabiamila and Wase are the candidates to beat, it is not yet Uhuru for them as they have to work hard to maintain the tempo of their popularity and acceptance for victory in June.