By Emmanuel Aziken

There were historic developments on the floor of the House of Representatives last Thursday. It was the first time that many would see Speaker Yakubu Dogara preside over a meeting of members sitting as a committee in the chamber, otherwise known as the Committee of the Whole.

Speaker Dogara

It was also a day that male members of the house saw the fury of their female colleagues who held the house hostage as they protested the bid by their male colleagues to follow the bad example of senators the previous day to suppress gender rights.

The Committee of the Whole in the Senate or in the House is the last stage in lawmaking when amendments to a proposed law can be taken in either chamber.

When the Senate or the House is about to enter into the Committee of the Whole, it is customary for an officer of the Sergeant-at-Arms to lay down the mace from its position. That action signifies that the chamber has moved away from plenary and moved into a committee.

In the Senate, the rule is that the Senate President if he is available presides. If he is not available, his deputy or a president pro tempore will preside over this crucial step of lawmaking during which the fine prints of the law are finalised.

In the House, the rule is, however, significantly different. Rule 7 (2) of the House Orders provides that the Deputy Speaker (DS) should preside over the Committee of the Whole. So that is why last Thursday a motion had to be taken for that rule to be suspended for Speaker Dogara to preside.

It became incumbent for Dogara to preside, not only because of the importance of the Constitution alteration exercise but because the Deputy Speaker is the chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review, so it became inconvenient for the Deputy Speaker to preside over his own assignment.

The job of Deputy Speaker presiding over the Committee of the Whole in the House of Representatives is a responsibility many previous deputy speakers have relished with gusto. Any member with interest in a bill knows that the DS could get at him or her at that stage.

Chibudom Nwuche, the first deputy speaker of the House in the fourth republic, came to be adored as Tiger for the way and manner he used his power to project his person and politics.

Perhaps on account of the way he carried himself on the national stage between 1999 and 2003, Nwuche perhaps believed that he had acquired enough guts to confront Governor Peter Odili, the governor of his native Rivers State, for the 2003 governorship ticket of their party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The deputy speaker with much bluster and bravado collected the party’s Expression of Interest Form, did some fund raising in support of his governorship aspiration and not long after was eased out as push came to shove.

In the end, he did not return to the House and was frozen from the Rivers PDP. Other deputy speakers have also used their positions to boost their fortunes in other directions.

Deputy speakers, in most cases, were elected on the coattails of the elections that produced the speakers.

The combination of Aminu Tambuwal as speaker and Emeka Ihedioha as deputy speaker in 2011 was particularly striking. Because of the opposition the team faced from the Goodluck Jonathan administration, particularly their plot to compromise the zoning formula of the PDP, both men slipped into the National Assembly on the day of inauguration in decoy. Tambuwal in a suit and Ihedioha in kaftan!

As Ihedioha waxed in office, the coalition that brought the two men to office was severely tested given what some alleged as the smugness of the DS. But Tambuwal’s levelheadedness was a tonic that stabilized that leadership.

Speaker Dogara is, however, not the first speaker to have sat as chairman of the Committee of the Whole. Opportunities for a speaker to act in that capacity are rare and come especially when the DS is involved in an issue just as last Thursday.

For Speaker Dogara, one could see that he was unusually stressed as seen in the near feisty exchange with Prof. Alabi Mojeed, a member from Osun State over alleged sloppiness in the work of the House Committee on Constitution Review. The insinuation in some quarters was that Mojeed, a Rauf Aregbesola acolyte wanted to use the platform to embarrass the incumbent DS, Yusuf Lasun from Osun State who has been at odds with the Osun governor.

Whatever, it was surely a day to remember!