By Eric Elezuo
When a list of reputable Nigerians is compiled, a former Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Yakubu Dogara, will definitely be at the top echelon. This is not only because of the fact that he has held the number four citizen before, but because of the established fact he is a career minded individual of note, dishing out humanitarian tendencies, and approaching every assignment in every position with a human face. Dogara is one of a Nigerian.
Dogara is an effective lawmaker, who became the Chairman of the newly created House Committee on Customs, even as a neophyte in 2007. Describing him in his book, Dogara: A Reed Made Flint, Dele Momodu noted that “I’ve encountered many leaders globally but Dogara Yakubu is in a class of his own.
Born on December 26, 1967, to Yakubu Ganawuri and Saratu Yakubu, in Bauchi State, Yakubu Dogara began his education in 1976 at Gwarangah Primary School in the then Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State. Upon graduation in 1982, he proceeded to the Bauchi Teachers’ College for his secondary education, and obtained a Grade II Teachers’ Certificate in 1987. In 1988, he went on to the University of Jos, Plateau State, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Law (LLB Hons.) degree in 1992. He is a prolific politician, who served as the 14th Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives. He has been a member of the House since 2007 representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria Federal constituency of Bauchi State. He is currently a member of All Progressive Congress (APC).
Dogara’s academic and career rise are best described as legendary, starting from 1992 when he was admitted as a student at the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School, and later called to the bar in 1993. He followed it up by obtaining a Masters (LLM) in International Commercial Law at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.
His quest for knowledge did not end with his law education as he also attended a course on Managing and Leading Strategic Change in 2006, the Oxford University Course on Negotiation in 2013, and a course on Leadership in Crisis at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2014.
Even after becoming the Speaker, Dogara’s passion for education did not abate as in October 2016, he attended a course on transformational leadership in Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
Like the oak, Dogara began from a humble level, taking taking up his first employment in April 1988 as a classroom teacher at the ATBU Staff School in Bauchi. In 1993, during the mandatory National Youth Service Corps exercise, he served at NCCF, Akwa Ibom State. On completion in 1994, he went into private legal practice until 2005 when he was appointed Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Transport, a position he held until 2006, when he decided to contest to represent the Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa constituency at the Federal House of Representatives. He was successful and consequently admitted into the House in 2007.
His appearance in the House did not go unnoticed, as he was immediately given a committee to head. There was then no going back from then onwards. He became a strong force to reckon with, strongly advocating among others, the independence of the legislature. His legislative interests include tenancy, regulating monopolies, company law, and intellectual property. The number of bills he has sponsored remains innumerable just as he has undertaken several assignments with success results trailing.
Some of them include as recorded by Wikipedia:
During the Sixth Assembly (2007 – 2011), Dogara chaired two House committees, namely the House Committee on Customs and Excise, and the House Services Committee. During this period, he was also a member of the House committees on Judiciary, Capital Markets and Institutions, Foreign Affairs, Rural Development and Power, among others.
During the Seventh Assembly (2011-2015), he served as Chairman of the committee on House Services and Welfare, and as a member of others including Judiciary, Land Transport, Labour, Employment and Productivity, Steel Development, and Legislative Budget and Research.
Dogara has also served on panels and adhoc committees in the following capacities;
- Chairman, Nigerian Customs Service Probe Panel
- Chairman, Adhoc Committee on Composition and Pigmentation of Cement in Nigeria
- Chairman, House Adhoc Committee on Disbursement of Public Funds by the Bank of Industry
- Member, House Contract Scam Probe Panel
- Member, Hijack of fishing vessels and Maritime Security Probe Panel
- Member, House Adhoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft
- Member, House Adhoc Committee on Constitutional Review
In 2010, Dogara sponsored the Corporate Manslaughter and the Data Protection Bill. These were followed by Federal Competition Commission Bill in 2011.
In 2013, he sponsored a bill for an act to amend section 143 of the Nigerian Constitution in order to make the process of removal of the President and the Vice President (on charges of misconduct) less ambiguous. In the same year, he also sponsored bills on Public Interest Disclosure, and Hire Purchase.
In the Eighth Assembly, i.e. the current dispensation, Dogara has sponsored bills which include the North-East Development Commission Establishment Bill 2015, the Subsidiary Legislation Bill 2015, the Federal Competition Bill 2015, the Data Protection Bill 2015, the Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2015 and the Hire Purchase Bill 2015.He is also sponsoring the Budget Process Bill in fulfilment of his promises to reform Nigeria’s budgeting process. The Bill when passed into law, according to him, will outlaw non-implementation of budgets which is the bane of Nigeria’s development since 1999.
Dogara has sponsored many motions throughout the duration of his legislative career, some of which bordered on;
- An alleged concession agreement between the Ministry of Finance and a technology firm which was signed in secrecy during the government transition period
- The indiscriminate granting of waivers, exemptions and concessions by the Federal Government
- The need for the Central Bank of Nigeria to implement the cashless policy in phases based on the availability of the requisite infrastructure.
- Urgent need for both Houses of the National Assembly to activate their constitutional powers under section 58 (1) (5) of the 1999 Constitution in relation to bills over which the President has failed to exercise constitutional responsibilities and powers under section 58 (1) and (4) of the Constitution.
Dogara is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Institute of Management, the Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators, the Cyber Bar Association and the Social Policy Association. He is also an associate member of the Institute of Environment Management and Assessment, and the World Jurist Association, among others.
He also serves as the Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Legal Adviser to FAcE-PAM, an NGO operating in Bauchi State.
Dogara is a Christian. Shortly after his election as speaker, Dogara held a thanksgiving service at Living Faith Church Worldwide. He explained that his victory was through divine placement and the teachings from the Church since 1988.
He is an active supporter of the Not Too Young To Run campaign, which aims to secure representation for Nigeria’s youth in the political process by lowering the age of eligibility for elective offices. He first mentioned the need to consider this reduction in the next amendment process during a meeting with student leaders drawn from across Nigerian tertiary institutions. He also advocated extensively for local government autonomy in Nigeria. His support for local government autonomy is informed by his belief that it will result in greater and quicker development at grassroots level, and the House of Representatives, under his leadership, pursued constitutional amendments which would grant both political and financial independence to local governments.
While delivering a pep talk on the place of opposition and persecution in shaping the destiny of a believer delivered to his fellowship group, Watchmen, in London in 2018, Dogara made some revelations about himself.
He said:
“In 1988, I made a conscious decision to build my life on the promises of God, not on the circumstances of life. My life has never been anchored on the things of this world but on the promise Maker and keeper, the ever covenant keeping God, who cannot be taken away from me. Because his word is unbreakable, my hope is Unshakable. The natural scares me no more because the supernatural has taken over. You may not know what the future holds but that’s not important if you know the one that holds the future. My heart desire is for God never to take me to a position where I ll no longer serve him and humanity.
“I want every step I take to be paved by God’s grace not by any sense of mundane importance or popularity that I may gain from it. I know that every promise of God must be tried before it can triumph. If you must give me gold or silver don’t give me the one that hasn’t been refined. For God’s promises it is opposition or enemies that refine them for us.
“When enemies rise up against you, as long as you are in his will, rejoice greatly because your promotion draws near. This is validated by my own life testimony. The greater the opposition, the greater the promotion. That’s God’s promise to us. Remember Jesus was massively opposed by the devil and you as his disciples cannot escape opposition from the same old devil. Even in this, his word is ever reassuring: “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
“God’s promises are sure. Based on his assurances in the scriptures, I have learnt to see opposition or enmity differently.
“When enemies raise up against me, it is that he will cause them to be smitten before my face. When they come against me one way, It is that they ll flee before me seven ways.
“When they gather against me, it is that they ll fall for my sake. When I am in the presence of my enemies all I see is a table he has prepared for me and my cup running over. If these were not to be the case, then God ll be a liar and he is not. It has always been the case for me and you too can build your hope on these sure promises of God and the result will not be different.
“Had the devil known, he would have gone to war with those who crucified Jesus. The scripture is clear on this: “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. The devil underestimated the power of Jesus’ resurrection and that proved too costly. If your enemies know that is it on account of what they do to you that your promotion comes, they would not try it. But they ll do all within their powers to pull you down in your ministry, career or positions because they are blinded and by that your promotion will come.
“My final word is for you not to bother about enemies or oppositions. They ll come, anyway because that’s what the scripture says. The scripture admonishes us, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:”. Friends, just dare God. Don’t worry about results either. It’s not in your place to work out results, all that’s required of you is to believe. The one who works out the result does not sleep nor slumber. He does not change and cannot change. He never fails otherwise he won’t be God. If you hold unto him without wavering, you ll see the results. My experience has thought me that as long as you are in his will, those operating in the natural cannot pull you down, no matter how hard they try, even if they hire the devil to help them out.
“As watchmen, let’s continue in the best tradition of prayer. Taking our eyes off the opposition and enemies and focusing on the firm assurances of our eternal king. May we remain faithful and true to the end and until God sends the early and later rains again, as our anthem says.
“God bless you all.” He is a dedicated Christian.
It must also noted that Dogara’s political sagacity is intertwined with milk of human kindness. He narrated how he strived to save a former Speaker of the House, Mrs Patricia Etteh from obvious impeachment, saying he warned her, but she didn’t listen. The exposition is contained in his biography by Dele Momodu.
He said: “We had this practice whereby the body of principal officers of the House of Representatives and the body of principal officers for the Senate were like the tenders’ board for award of contracts and like Etteh that was what consumed Okadigbo as well. So when the House awarded the contracts for the renovation of presiding officers’ houses, there were cries that the contracts were inflated and that there was no way Speaker Etteh could wash her hands clean.”
The book highlighted that ‘the moment Dogara heard this allegation and her accusers started bringing out the papers, he knew that it was a high-stake political game involving both members and the management of the National Assembly.”
The book added that her detractors were in possession of some papers which they were leaking, and Dogara saw a controversy that was proving to be more than met the eye, stressing that everything pointed to the fact that the Speaker’s days in that exalted position were numbered.
Being one of those that took the enlightened decision that led to Etteh’s emergence, ‘Dogara was wary of the outcome. Etteh had set a great pace for the undermined women and men by breaking the barrier, the glass ceiling and now there was no doubt a huge, powerful group was about to destroy the symbol of that accomplishment.’
Momodu’s book confirmed that Dogara knew he needed to reach the embattled Speaker as soon as possible. But fate was bent on playing games against the ill-fated speaker as most Reps who could be dissuaded were on an annual recess at that time, and had gone on holidays abroad. This includes the Speaker himself who Dogara recalls was in the US at the time. But he went ahead and put a call across to her!
The call was necessitated based on the fact that he “studied the documents and noticed enough red-flags, as a lawyer, to put the embattled Speaker in a serious fuss.” He still wanted to give the hapless woman the benefit of doubt; that the errors or red flags might have been inadvertent. After all, as a human, anybody could be misled in a world of sundry advisers. He believed that if Etteh must go, she must be given the honour of a gracious exit.
The book went: “I will never forget this,” Dogara reflects. “I remember placing a call to her and advising her like any other lawyer member could have done, to say that ‘Ah, Madam Speaker, I have seen these documents and I have these discussions because it is being discussed among our colleagues. I have weighed it and as a lawyer, this is my counsel and, God bear me witness, I said my counsel was that right from the US where you are now announce to the whole world that you have cancelled these contracts because of the issues being raised and some of the irregularities. Tell the world that you are not an angel. Tell them that because of the possibility of some processes being inadvertently overlooked, you are cancelling the contract. So, even when you come back and somebody raises an issue about those contracts, you will say, ‘Oh is it about the contracts that have been cancelled?’”
Momodu’s Dogara: A Reed Made Flint is a must read for those who wish to understand the intrigues and power play among the high and mighty as presented by someone who has seen if not all, but a tangible bit of power tussle in the nation’s legislative chambers.
Dogara, who is studiously looking forward to greater assignment in the service of his nation, Nigeria, is happily married to his beautiful heartthrob, Gambiya, and they are blessed with two great children, Chimel and Awusong.
