The battlefield in the House of Representatives has shifted to the sharing of key committee positions, with its leadership tussle over.

The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, had on Wednesday last week, called for nominations for the membership of the Selection Committee from the zonal caucus leaders in the House.

The Selection Committee is statutorily charged with the responsibility of appointing the chairmen and members of the standing committees of the House.

However, findings showed on Monday that in spite of the fact that the principal officers and others drawn from zonal caucuses were members of the committee, the Speaker “largely influences how the committee positions are shared.”

A senior National Assembly official who spoke on the issue in confidence in Abuja, said, “There are up to 94 committees in the House.

“We know that for the committees traditionally, the chairmen come from particular zones; but the speaker will still have to decide who among his loyalists in the zone, will head such committees.

“There are committees often referred to as ‘juicy committees’, where again, the Speaker’s strong men will take the larger numbers.

“With the way the just resolved leadership tussle dragged for weeks, the sharing of the committees may likely be another source of dispute.”

Findings indicated that the emergence of Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila as the House Majority Leader had reportedly altered the original formula of Dogara for the committees.

“The House leader will now have to influence appointments into certain key committees as a way of compensating some of his loyalists who supported him during the race for the speakership and House leader.

“Initially, he had little chance of influencing much were Dogara to go ahead with his decision to leave Gbajabiamila out of the body of principal officers”, another House official said.

Investigations revealed that the most sought committees remained Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream); Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream); Committee on Appropriation; Committee on Finance; Committee on Communications; Committee on Power; Committee on Works; Committee on Customs; Committee on NDDC; Committee on Electoral Matters; Committee on Gas; Committee on Aviation; Committee on Baking/Currency; Committee on House Services; Committee on Water Resources; Committee on Agriculture; Committee on Education; and Committee on Defence.

It was gathered that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party had been promised 18 committees, up from the 16 the opposition parties had between 2011 and 2015.

However, the PDP caucus was asking for between 25 and 30 committees on the excuse that its members played “vital roles” in the election of Dogara.

“The speaker has promised the opposition 18 committees, but they are asking for more, considering their role in the emergence of the speaker.

“The opposition may get, at least, one of the petroleum committees”, a senior lawmaker told The PUNCH.

When contacted, the Chairman, House Ad hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Sani Zoro, confirmed that though committee composition was one the next most important tasks before the House, it would not lead to another crisis.

Zoro also claimed that Dogara would allow a process of engaging various groups and zones in the House to arrive at the choices of membership of committees.

According to him, the idea of involving zonal and caucus members in the Selection Committee is to “democratise” the exercise in such a way that one person does not decide the fate of all the chairmen and members of the committees.

Zoro added, “The process of constituting standing committees of the House is the next step in sequence; it will therefore be seamless.

“To further democratise the procedure, the speaker has asked state caucuses to nominate one member each into the House Selection Committee.”