Joint Task Of The 10th Assembly Divided Over Juicy Committees

In the Joint Task of the 10th Assembly, House members who supported Honorable Tajudeen Abbas and Honorable Benjamin Kalu for Speaker and Deputy Speaker are apparently divided over juicy committees.

According to the Leadership Newspaper, the Joint Task is disintegrating owing to competition for leadership and committee positions.

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The Joint Task of the 10th Assembly was created on April 12 by House MPs from all parties, both incumbent and newly elected.

The partnership initially included 283 newly elected MPs from the APC, PDP, Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Social Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, and Young Progressive Party.

The APC National Working Committee (NWC) supported President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's nominations of Abbas and Kalu as House Speaker and Deputy Speaker a month after the committee was formed.

The Juicy Committees

At the commencement of the 10th Assembly on June 13, Usman Bello Kumo and Kingsley Ogundu Chinda's Joint Task planned the Abbas/Kalu campaign as promised, winning.

After a legislative success, the House of Representatives gets outraged at "juicy" committees.

Federal government "juicy committees" administer MDAs with huge budgets and legislative influence.

Appropriations, Finance, Defence, Army, Navy, and Air Force; Police Affairs; National Security and Intelligence; Customs and Excise; Ports and Harbours; NIMASA; Banking and Currency; Health; Education; Agriculture; Ecological Funds; and Public Accounts are interesting committees.

Constitutionally, Abbas was the first opposition politician to receive the Public Accounts Committee. The Speaker and APC members receive it.

Before the House's June 15–July break, Speaker Abbas named himself and Kalu special committee chairs and deputy chairs.

Committees Delegations

Each federation state caucus and the FCT had to choose a delegate for the committee that created standing committees and chose their leaders.

Femi Gbajabiamila, 9th Assembly Speaker, created 105 committees to delight his admirers.

Even though opposition politicians were appointed to 25 of the most important and lucrative panels, APC members controlled 80 of them.

The current Speaker will unveil committees, chairs, and members when the House reconvenes the next week, so Joint Task supporters argue over who gets what.

The Joint Task is in a tough spot because junior and senior members of the ruling party and opposition want equal say in who becomes speaker and committee leadership and membership.

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“The center seems not to be held since the election of Mr. Speaker and Deputy. We just hope that things do not far apart amongst members of the Joint Task. The struggle for Committee membership and chairmanship is almost tearing us apart”, the source who is a lawmaker said.

“Normally, ranking members, especially from the ruling party which in this case, is the APC are given critical Committees but in our case, lawmakers who are both new and in the opposition want not just inclusion but to lead those critical Committees.

“They argue that they equally played a significant role in the emergence of the principal officers and they should be given fair share, irrespective of ranking and party affiliation”.

The core of the battle

According to a prominent APC member, the Joint Task is failing because the new parliamentarians are not patient enough to allow their returning colleagues manage major committees while they are simply members or deputies.

The politician who sought anonymity claimed that opposition party members, particularly those from small parties like the LP and NNPP, are competing for leadership positions in committees only accessible to the APC.

Another representative, fresh to the House and opposition, stated that ruling and ranking party members unilaterally assigned committee posts.

The opposition member who sought anonymity alleged that the recently elected minority party MPs are unhappy with the conditions and have been calling the Speaker's attention to them after almost backing him.

Aliyu Betara, who defected in favor of Abbas, was also trying to give President Tinubu loyalist James Faleke the Appropriations Committee chairmanship.

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Investigations showed that Joint Task co-chairman Honourable Usman Bello Kumo was determined to take the third seat in the House, while his counterpart, Honourable Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, was chosen as Minority Leader, and Honourable Muktar Aliyu Betara considered running for House Leader to free up a seat for Faleke.

“How can there be harmony in Joint Task – 10th Assembly when APC members and lawmakers who have been here before want to take everything for themselves? They are not being sensitive to us at all despite our commitment by keying into the ruling party’s anointed candidates”, the source said.

“You know the intrigues leading to the inauguration and election of principal officers of the 10th House. We contributed immensely. Remember the minority parties put together, have more numbers than the APC. Also, note that 75% of the members of this House are new lawmakers. So whichever way one looks at it, we have an equal stake. We should be given our fair share promised before we all support the Abbas/Kalu ticket”.