Speaker Abbas announces House Standing Committees, Faleke, Gagdi, retain committee chairmanships

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, on Thursday, announced the standing committees for the 10th House, raising the committees from 110 to 134.

His predecessor, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, had constituted only 110 committees for the 360-member House.

Persecondnews reports that a former Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, Yusuf Gagdi and Musa Betara, all of who aspired to the speakership seat against Abbas some months ago got chairmanship of their committees.

Wase (APC, Plateau) got the chairmanship of the less juicy committee on Federal Character, while Betara (APC, Borno) heads committee on Federal Capital Territory.

Gagdi retained the headship of the committee on the Navy, which he headed under Gbajabiamila while Mr Abubakar Bichi (APC, Kano) chairs the committee on Appropriations.

President Bola Tinubu’s political ally, Mr James Faleke (APC, Lagos), retained the Finance Committee chairmanship, which he headed in the ninth session.

Mr Faleke, who hails from Kogi State, was the secretary of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation until some months back.

Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun) is to chair the committee on Public Accounts, while Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) retained the committee on defence.

The former Leader of the House, Alhassan Doguwa (APC, Kano), is the new committee chairman on petroleum (Upstream).

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) got the highest number of chairmanship positions with 80 lawmakers drawn from the ruling party while the PDP has 39 chairmanship positions.

Six chairmen are allocated to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and six for the Labour Party (LP).

The Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Peoples Party (YPP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) got one committee chairmanship each.

Before announcing the committee heads, Mr Abbas appealed to the lawmakers to accept the appointments as a “fair and just” list, saying there is nothing like juicy committees or grade one committees.

“My dear Colleagues, you would recall that the leadership of the House has consistently assured members of its resolve to be fair to all, irrespective of political leanings and affiliations.

“There are no grade ‘A’ nor the so-called ‘juicy committees’ as some erroneously often think. Every committee of the House enjoys equal status, powers and privileges as mere working groups to discharge the mandate given to us by our constituents,” he said.

Persecondnews reports that the House has adjourned for its annual recess until September 2023.