Disgruntled House members are accusing Speaker Bankole of failing to protect the interest of the House members during the recent round of party primaries during which some claim that as much as 80 per cent of House members failed to secure their party return tickets.
The disharmony in the House and the bid to avoid an open eruption of discontent, Vanguard learnt, was the immediate reason for sending the House members back on holidays once they resumed from the Christmas and new year holidays last Tuesday.
The angst against Speaker Bankole, Vanguard learnt, is however, moderated by the bitterness of the aggrieved House members against the Senate and the Presidency. Members who have been meeting in strategic sessions since last Monday blamed the Senate for failing to adopt the Electoral Act amendment proposals passed by the House which would have allowed members of the House to dominate the National Executive Committees of the parties and as such influence the party primaries.
The House members are equally in arms against the presidency for its purported inclination to the governors who the legislators are blaming for their problems.
Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Idowu Bankole, however, denied any uprising even as he affirmed that Speaker Bankole protected the interest of the house members during the primaries.
“There is no impeachment threat against the Speaker, none to my knowledge,” Mr. Bakare said in a text message.
“Its also not true that he failed to protect members during the last primaries as alleged by you. The well being of members has always been of utmost concern for the Speaker.”
Some members are well aware of measures taken by the leadership and he has consistently campaigned for high return rate for parliamentarians at all levels. He believes that the parliament institution can only grow when members capacity is retained,” Mr. Idowu said in reference to the efforts of the Speaker to protect the members during the primaries.
Speaker Bankole’s efforts nonetheless, a sizeable majority of the House members including some of the most popular names in the House failed in the bid to win the party primaries to return to the House or for other positions. among the most famous names that lost out were the spokesman of the House, Rep. Eseme Eyiboh, the Deputy Speaker of the House Usman Nafada, who failed in the PDP gubernatorial primaries and several prominent House members including Halims Agoda whose senatorial bid was as at yesterday still on suspense in Delta State.
The lawmakers had returned last Tuesday after the heavy bruising they received during the primaries prepared for an onslaught against the leadership but the rug was pulled from under their feet when the speaker immediately announced a fresh two_week break ‘to work on the budget’.
A member of the Integrity Group who was a staunch supporter of the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act, 2010 that sought to make National Assembly members automatic members of political parties’ NEC told Vanguard yesterday that the members have vowed that there will be no “let down this time around on impeachment”.
The outpouring of disaffection which reportedly spreads over to the Senate according to one source could cause negative consequences for the presidency.
Over 75 members attended a meeting in the Central Area of Abuja on Tuesday night after the House session where strategies on how to pile pressure on the leadership were reportedly articulated. That night meeting was, allegedly a follow up to an earlier meeting in the Apo Legislators’ Quarters hosted by the leader of the group.
One of the resolutions adopted at the meeting it was learnt, is to delay the passage of the 2011 appropriation bill.
‘I can assure you that the 2011 budget will not see the light of dayl. Nobody is going to pass the budget if our part of the bargain is not met. The speaker is aware of this and you could see that he did not emphasise on the need to expedite action on the budget before declaring additional two weeks break,” one of the aggrieved members said yesterday.
‘I want you to know that the break is not for voter registration as he (speaker) would want you people to believe. It is just a way of trying to douse tension in the House because there is fire on the mountain and we are serious about this move’
Another strategy adopted by the aggrieved lawmakers is to revive “Old Issues” in the house as a way of pilling further pressure on Speaker Bankole.
Another lawmaker from one of the South East who defected from the PDP to the ACN and was also a promoter of the ‘toxic’ Electoral amendment confirmed to our correspondent that the impeachment threat is real.
“No, it is true. In fact, we are not making any pretence about it. They can’t use and abandon us. We had a gentleman agreement to massively support the leadership and the President in return for automatic tickets but what did we get in return?”
‘The leadership of the House did not protect our interests. They allowed the Presidency to connive with some governors to scheme us out of the race. We can’t just give up without a fight. We must take our pound of flesh’, he assured.
The group also wants to investigate the funds used by President Goodluck Jonathan in the recently concluded presidential primaries as well as open up debate on the N500 million allegedly contributed by some state governors to his campaign.
When contacted yesterday, Rep. Eyiboh the spokesman of the House said ‘as much as I’m aware that most members are aggrieved on the various set back they suffered during the political parties primaries, that is purely political party affair and I doubt if it has anything to do with governance issue, which the House of Representatives as an institution represents.
‘However, it is important to state that there is a nexus between political parties and governor’s affairs, which requires strategic management. In the days ahead, I truly believe that stakeholders in the unfolding issues will place the interest of the nation in their considerations before arriving at any decision. For the House of Reps and its leadership, there is a subsisting commitment for us to work as a family in the overall interest of the Nigerian people’.
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