Juicy Committees: Lobbying Intensifies In House Of Reps

Some House of Representatives members of the 10th Assembly are reportedly pushing very hard to grab a spot in the so-called “juicy committees” of the house especially the chairmanship and vice chairmanship of such committees.

Members from the opposition and the ruling parties are said to be involved in the mass lobbying for the juicy committees. Note that there are 181 opposition members in the House, including 117 PDP, 35 LP, 19 NNPP, 5 APGA, 2 SDP, 2 ADC, and 1 YPP representative. While the rulling APC has 177 members.

Amidst the aforementioned, a seat is now vacant due to a death, while another one became vacant after the resignation of Femi Gbajabiamila, the former Speaker and current chief of staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

On Thursday, the speaker of the house, Tajudeen Abbas constituted the selection committee and six other special committees. He is the chairman of the selection committees which has members from the 36 states of the federation.

It is anticipated that the names of the various committees and the members of those panels will be made public when the House reconvenes for plenary on Tuesday, July 4.

According to the Nations Newspaper, House of Representatives members—both new and old members—are working very hard to get onto committees they deem lucrative.

In the 9th assembly, there were more than 100 committees, some of which were in charge of just one agency and others of which were in charge of up to five agencies.

Many members of the House view these committees as “juicy” because they are in command of significant budgets and powerful government ministries, departments, and agencies. Frequently, only well-known members of the ruling party and those who support the presiding executives are made members of these committees.

The Committee on Public Account and the Committee on Public Petition, both of which are only accessible to members of the opposition parties, are the only committees recognized by the Constitution aside from the so-called “juicy” committees.

While Hon. Wole Oke, who oversaw the public accounts committee in the ninth legislature, was elected to the tenth assembly, Jerry Alagbaoso, the chairman of the public petitions committee, didn’t return to the house.

One of the candidates for Minority Leader, Oke, is said to have stepped down for Kingsley Chima which could mean that he might retain the public account committee if he doesn’t become one of the house leaders.

The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which audits the financial records of all federal departments, agencies, and ministries, is under the committee’s control.

The committee has the power to sustain audit queries or demand their annulment after interrogating the MDA leaders.

However, it could be necessary to hold off on naming the chairpersons of the committees until the parties have chosen the house’s significant officers which are Majority Whip, Deputy Majority Whip, Majority Leader, Minority Leader, and Deputy Minority Leader.

Note that Tajudeen Abbas was elected speaker with the support of all eight political parties with representatives in the House, and they are eagerly anticipating that he would reward them with committee chair positions.