Speakership: I was deceived by Dogara’s ‘innocent looking personality’ – Jibrin

Erstwhile Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has stated that he was deceived by Yakubu Dogara’s “innocent looking personality” into working for him to emerge as Speaker of the lower chamber. He stated that, “I made an error of judgement. I don’t know to whom and from where I will start apologising for not heeding to wise counsel.”

In a statement he personally issued on Sunday, Jibrin said, “How do I face the world and say I got it wrong after playing such a lead role in his emergence? When you see a house you sacrificed everything to build is falling apart and the driver believes he is firmly in charge because he has 8 votes advantage, you are left with no choice than to tie your seat belt for obvious eventuality.”

He stated that his allegations of budget padding are against the Speaker and the three other principal members of the House rather than against the entire house. Jibrin alleged that Dogara and the three other principal officers took away the entire appropriation committee secretariat to a secret location where all sort of insertions were made into the budget.

The lawmaker pointed out that the Speaker also directed him to create “what I advised him will be a controversial line item” under service wide vote to introduce about N20 billion project to the budget, using the name of NASS.

Jubrin also explained how he discovered that about 10 only out of the 96 standing committees of the house introduced about 2,000 projects without the knowledge of their committee members, amounting to about N284 billion.

His statement read in part, “Many members of the House and Nigerians will be shocked to know that there has NEVER been good times between myself and Speaker Dogara. It took few weeks after his election as Speaker for me to realize I never really knew him well. I was hasty to judge him by his innocent looking personality. We practically disagree on everything. From when he started conducting himself like a lord, wanting everybody around him to just say yes sir and go, shutting and looking down at his colleagues, playing double game between the executive and legislature, drafting of a new house rule, senseless splitting of committees which raised the numbers of committees to 96, appointment of committee chairmen, Chairmanship of NILS, issues of bills and allotment of sponsors, chairmanship of budget consultative committee, budget process and house inputs, the PIB, his divide and rule approach, his frequent dealings with heads of MDA’s as if he is a committee chairman and so many other issues. In all of these issues, there is none that has not remained controversial till date.

“All these forced me to stay away from him except on official assignment. I can count how times I have been to his office or home. I stayed away completely. It was such a frustrating and depressing period for me. Who will I complain to?

“There is nothing I am saying now that I have not discussed or warned speaker Dogara on the few occasions that I sorted and got private audience with him. But he has been hijacked and surrounded himself with a small cabal of sycophants, corrupt, mediocre, money hungry, vindictive, envious, self-serving small minds who have already done an irreparable damage to his person and office.

“Speaker Dogara has completely derailed, remains clueless, keeps on with an unmatched ego and surely leading the House to the biggest scandal it may ever experience.”