Unending House Minority Leadership Tussle

Udora Orizu writes that the House minority leadership crisis continues to fester as the recent Secondus-Must-Go clamour has further polarised the Peoples Democratic Party’s lawmakers

Contrary to the claim by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, on February 19, 2021 that the tussle rocking the caucus over its leadership had been resolved, it seems an end may not be in sight yet.

This followed the conflicting views held by the lawmakers over the recent calls for the sack of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus.

Immediately after the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly on June 11, 2019, two factions laying claim to the minority leadership of the green chamber emerged.

One is led by Hon. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) and the other by Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers).

It all began when the national leadership of the PDP in a formal letter dated June 26, 2019 and addressed to the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, endorsed Chinda, Chukwuka Onyema, Yakubu Barde and Muriano Ajibola, as Caucus Leader, Deputy Caucus Leader, Caucus Whip, and Caucus Deputy Whip, respectively. A similar letter from the party was sent to the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, on the party’s choice of Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe as its Minority Leader.

But Gbajabiamila, unlike his Senate counterpart, announced different names for the various minority leadership positions. He announced Elumelu as Minority Leader, amidst protest by some lawmakers.

Despite the protest, the House leadership recognised the Elumelu-led group as the authentic minority leadership caucus while the PDP national leadership continued to relate with Chinda in that regard.

The PDP later suspended Elumelu and six other members (including other principal officers) suspected to have influenced their emergence.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, speaking to journalists at a press conference in Abuja, had noted that the suspension was the outcome of the meeting of the National Working Committee over the crisis that resulted from the tussle for the House of Representatives Minority Leader.

He had disclosed that the party noted the roles played by the affected lawmakers which resulted in the Speaker, Gbajabiamila announcing the list of the minority leadership of the House, different from the one submitted by the opposition party.

Since then, the crisis has continued to fester with no cohesion in the caucus, despite the intervention by the party’s national leadership.

At different times, Chinda and Elumelu factions had issued separate press statements on behalf of the caucus.

Also, the animosity between the factions further deepened as the two groups ignored each other in situations which required a united front by party members. For instance, the Elumelu-led group was silent when Chinda, in a statement on December 7, 2020, called on Nigerians to compel their representatives to commence the process of removal of President Muhammadu Buhari. The lawmaker’s call was not unconnected with the rising cases of insecurity nationwide.

Another instance was when the House Leader, Hon. Ado Doguwa, during plenary December 20, 2020, recommended that the House should take disciplinary measures against Chinda, for calling for the removal of President Muhammadu Buhari.

While the PDP national leadership weighed in, cautioning the House against punishing Chinda for calling for Buhari’s removal over his alleged failure to secure the nation, the Elumelu-led minority caucus was silent on the issue.

Crisis Seemingly Resolved

However, in February this year, shortly after the PDP lifted the suspension placed on Elumelu and six other members of the House, the Minority Leader issued a statement that the crisis rocking the caucus over its leadership had finally been resolved.

The statement titled: ‘Resolution of issues around leadership of minority caucus in the House of Representatives’ read in part, “Today, we are happy that the challenges around the leadership of the minority caucus of the House of Representatives, which reared its head in our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party, since July 2019 has been finally laid to rest. Therefore, we especially thank the leadership of our great party, particularly the National Working Committee, our governors, the Board of Trustees and our party elders and faithful for their understanding and show of leadership when it mattered most. We equally want to thank our colleagues for their support. The PDP in the House of Representatives is one. The PDP in the National Assembly is also one big family.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, had in a statement, also issued on the same day it announced the lifting of the suspension, said the party recognised the Chinda-led PDP Caucus.

Elumelu, however, remained the Minority Leader, which involves all the minority parties, including the PDP.

In the following months, it seemed all was well as there was no more drama over the leadership tussle. The lawmakers even posed a united front when expected. A notable situation was seen during the consideration of clauses in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill in July. Controversy had trailed the consideration of clause 52, which sought to legalise electronic voting and transmission of election results. This forced the House to adjourn after the stalemate. At the resumption of the consideration of the report, the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Hon. Idris Wase had promised the lawmakers that Section 52 would be revisited at the end of the consideration.

After the consideration of other clauses in the bill, Wase attempted to revert to plenary to report progress, but Elumelu raised a point of order that Section 52 should be decided. In response, Wase said Clause 52 was considered the previous day, insisting that the decision could only be changed with a substantive motion for ‘rescission’. In protest, Elumelu and other minority lawmakers (including Chinda) walked out of the chambers, while the APC lawmakers stayed behind to adopt the report.

Renewed Division

However, the harmony didn’t last long as the division over the authentic leadership of the minority caucus resurfaced last week following clamour for the sack of PDP national chairman, Secondus.

Chinda had issued a statement on behalf of the PDP lawmakers in the House, asking Secondus to resign.

His position was contained in a resolution he said was reached at an online meeting of the caucus held on August 7, 2021 in respect of the concerns over party leadership.

But in a swift reaction, the Elumelu-led faction, issued a counter statement denying the purported resolution.

While cautioning those behind the publication to retrace their steps and desist from such, Elumelu urged PDP members, supporters and the general public to completely disregard the said resolution.

Though the intervention of the PDP governors and BoT members saved Secondus’ job, the conflicting statements from the PDP caucus in the House were strong indications that the main opposition party has failed to reach a consensus on its authentic leadership in the green chamber.