2014 budget: Has PDP lost control of the House?

Tambuwal, Speaker, Federal House of Representatives

The presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be heading for a fresh row with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal over what sources referred to as “Tambuwal’s lukewarm attitude” to issues that concern the party.

The latest anger is not unconnected with the presentation of the 2014 budget proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan which could not hold last Tuesday. The presidency blamed teh failure on the mix-up on the benchmark for oil revenue between the two chambers of the National Assembly. However, many other sources blame the failure on the alleged plans by some elements in the House to boo the president in revenge for the embarrassement caused to the G7 governors aligned to the Kawu Baraje led faction of the party when they visited the House last September.

Smooth entry

Vanguard gathered that penultimate Monday that the PDP members in the House met to pave way for a smooth entry for the president last Tuesday. The reverse, however, became the case as old issues between the mainstream  PDP and nPDP reared its ugly head and truncated the process. And hence, the critics say, the president was adviced to call off the budget presentation.

The implication of the deadlock is that the House is no longer under the firm grip of the PDP.
The same is also said of the House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Adeola Akande, who was said to have lost control of the members elected on the platform of the PDP.

It is even worse for the PDP that Senator Joy Emodi who in the past would browbeat and persuade the members to push through party policies, programmes and proposals was unceremoniously removed despite what many acknowledged as her positve works for the administration.


A source who was privy to one of the meetings on the issue told Vanguard that it is now clear that the there is a sharp division among the members.

He continued that the PDP has lost its grip on the leadership provided by the party. He regretted that  opposition members in the House were now more organized than the ruling party. “With what happened at the meeting, it is clearly obvious that the leadership of the House has lost control of the PDP members”, the source said.

It was thus not surprsing that some PDP members in the House helped by some administration officials formed recently formed a group of pro-Jonathan lawmakers known as “PDP Unity Forum.” The main objective of the group is to ensure that the concerns and interests of the PDP-led Presidency get the support and protection of  PDP members.

The group is to also work to establish the influence of the party in the House against the emerging opposition led by the All Progressives Congress (APC). But from every indication, it appears that the group has lost steam in its pursuit.

Our party has drifted — Rep Azubuike

A member of the Group and Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions, Hon. Uzo Azubuike who spoke to Vanguard further shared the aim of the group. “We saw a certain drift in our party and we saw the difficulties of some leaders in steering certain programmes and policies through because of the composition of the House itself and the incoherence among PDP members in the House. So we floated what we called the PDP Patriots Forum. In that forum, we came together and said we had a duty to protect the policies of our party in the chambers.

We’re partners in progress — Gulak

Commenting on the face-off between the Executive and Legislature arising from the benchmark, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak said both the President and the National Assembly were doing their constitutional duties even as they needed not to agree at all times.

“The President doesn’t have to be happy with the action of any player. All the president will do is to play his constitutional role and those other statutory arms of government should also play their constitutional role.”
However, given the firm grip of Speaker Tambuwal on the majority of the members, it remains a doubt on how far the Unity Group can go.