BY Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Time may heal wounds and indeed quarrels, but the festering sore that has challenged the leadership of the House of Representatives in constituting the top rank of its leadership has refused to heal. So as the House resumes today, the Aminu Tambuwal leadership is still confronted with the challenges of filling leadership positions in the House and its about five dozen committees.                                                                                Aminu Tambuwal

Time has refused to heal the smudge in the relationship between the majority of House members opposed to Mrs. Mulikat Akande and the desire of the PDP national leadership that she should be adopted for the position of House Leader.

However, one irritating sore that time may have healed and thrown into irrelevance is the agitation by President Olusegun Obasanjo and some of his supporters in the Southwest to nudge Speaker Tambuwal and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha out of office in their own imagination in the next two years. The duo according to the former President flouted the PDP’s zoning arrangement which reserved the office of Speaker and Deputy Speaker for the Southwest and Northeast respectively.

Ahead of the House resumption the PDP acting national chairman in unquestionable terms dissociated the party from Obasanjo’s agitation saying that the party had forgiven the duo of Tambuwal and Ihedioha following their penance.

With that denial, the party has left Obasanjo in the lurch leaving his crusade all but a seemingly improbable quest. However, Tambuwal and his leadership despite the breather they may now have, are, however, still faced with the prospect of peacefully resolving the issue of the adoption of a House leader.

While they House leadership it was learnt may not be really opposed to Mrs. Akande, majority of the House members, notably the Tambuwal troops are peeved at the thought of adopting her in consideration of her effrontery in contesting against their man.

There are also questions as to her submissiveness to the Tambuwal leadership. Some allege that she refused to rise in the spontaneous rejoicing that followed the convincing victory of Tambuwal on the House floor during the leadership election.

Given that the PDP has now riveted the position of House Leader to the Southwest, the choices open the House in adopting a leader are, however, limited. The PDP only has five members from the entire Southwest region.

In the Senate where the PDP delegation was also greatly diminished after the last election, the Senate overlook its rule book to adopt a new Senator as the Senate Majority leader. There are now suggestions that the House could follow suit to find a more agreeable person among the other four PDP members from the region.

Even if the House solves the issue of House Leader, Tambuwal is still faced with the ominous task of constituting the committees.

Other democracies including the United States where Tambuwal had his legal background normally adopt the tradition of ranking in sitting committee members and naming committee chairmen. In those democracies, committees’ numbers and sizes are also limited and in the United States for example to not more than 25 standing committees.

However, in Nigeria presiding officers have used committee positions as a weapon of patronage and allowed committee numbers and sizes to balloon for the purpose of appeasing concerned interests.

How Speaker Tambuwal balances the expectations from his supporters with international best practices in pruning committee numbers to a manageable number is now an issue.

As the House resumes today, there are also expectations that the House would take a look into the insecurity situation in the country that climaxed with the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja. House members are expected to ventilate their anger on the situation.