IT is a silent but bloody war.
The Nigerian Compass can authoritatively disclose that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, are currently at loggerheads.

The war promises to record heavy casualties and may set the tone for the leadership of the chamber.

At issue are committee positions regarded by both parties as juicy.

Tambuwal is leading Northern legislators to reduce the influence of their South East colleagues. The latter, who have Ihedioha as arrowhead, are insisting that their demands are a part of the pledges made to them by Tambuwal while seeking support to be made Speaker.

Although he is reported to acknowledge that he pledged to allocate the chairmanship of those controversial positions to the South East, Tambuwal is believed to have been prevailed upon by the North not to honour it.

Committee positions are known to be a form of patronage due to the kind of financial gains expected to be made, especially through oversight functions.

Less fancied members are allocated such committees as Labour and Intergovernmental relations. The big ones are reserved for favoured persons and zones.

Since the South South zone has the Presidency, which is the biggest of them all, members from the zone are expected to accept whatever is allocated to them.

The South West can only continue to whimper in view of its poor showing at the last general election.

The war is therefore effectively between the South East and the North.

Beneath the camaraderie that Ihedioha and Tambuwal display in the public is, however, seething rage. Impeccable sources confirm to the Nigerian Compass that the Deputy Speaker is in bitter disagreement with the Speaker on that score.

The inability to resolve the disagreement has led to the delay in the announcement of the House of Representatives committee chairmanship positions by the Speaker.

He has planned to announce the positions immediately after a recent retreat by the principal officers of House in Ilorin, Kwara State.

At that retreat, the principal officers concluded work on the distribution of the members to various committees. The problem now is with the announcement of the committee chairmen.

Sources close to the leadership revealed that members from the South East are demanding the chairmanship of the committees on Works, Environment, Marine and Aviation to which the Speaker was said to have agreed.

The Northern caucus has now prevailed on the speaker to add a proviso: That the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FEMA) should be separated from the Works ministry. That, the South East lawmakers kicked against.

It was reliably gathered that the decision to separate the FERMA was taken on the floor but attempts to amend this by smuggling it into the Order Paper on Tuesday were rebuffed as the Speaker was said to have directed that a fresh Order Paper removing the matter be prepared by the ad hoc committee on Rules and Business.

Having noticed the move of some members, the Speaker directed that the status quo be maintained, reminding them that on 28th July, 2011, the House at plenary separated FERMA from Committee on Works. He therefore insisted that the votes and proceedings could only be altered on the floor of the House.

The argument of the South East members is that during campaign for the Speakership, they were promised all the committees being demanded. They are now surprised that the Speaker is trying to remove FERMA from the Works Ministry, to be given to another zone.

Following this problem and the issue of appropriation committee, it was revealed that leadership is not comfortable in coming out with the list for now. The list is, however, expected to be out today for members to know the committee they belong pending the time the issue House committee chairmanship position would be concluded.

The group that worked for the emergence of the Speaker wants Hon. John Eno, former chairman of the House Committee on Finance from Cross Rivers State, to be given appropriation committee. But the Northern lawmakers, especially from the North West, are demanding that it be zoned to them.

The argument of the Northern lawmakers is that since the inauguration of National Assembly in 1999, the chairmanship of the Appropriation Committee in the House had always come from the zone of the Speaker, citing the tenures of Salisu Buhari, Ghali Na'Abba, Aminu Massari, Patricial Etteh and Dimeji Bankole. They, therefore, argue that that of Tambuwal should not be an exception.

Also, the Committee on Environment is creating problem. Members of the South East caucus are claiming that they are the worst hit in the area of environmental degradation, insisting that the headship of a committeeon it should therefore be zoned to them.

The Northern lawmakers counter with the argument that in the previous dispensation, the environment committee was given to the South West while Works was given to the South East on the ground that roads in the latter zone are said to be the worst in the country.