Inauguration of the 8th National Assembly is taking place today and the incoming legislators would select their presiding officers, after being sworn-in by the clerk of the National Assembly.

But the talking point in today's inauguration will not be the worrying turnover of the new legislators in both chambers, which is at a level higher that what was witnessed in the past. Rather, attention has shifted to how the elected representatives would select those who would pilot the affairs of the two chambers.

After so much foot-dragging on the matter and claims to neutrality, the All Progressives Congress (APC), weekend, came up with names of its candidates for the two highest positions in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. APC's scheduled meeting with its legislators on Thursday hit a brick wall and failed to hold as serious lobbying and bargains by major stakeholders of the party continued, necessitating Saturday's primary election.

House of Representatives minority leader in the just-expired 7th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos), emerged the candidate for the speaker of the House of Representatives, after defeating his main rival, Yakubu Dogara (Bauchi), with 154 votes, against the latter's 3 votes.

Dogara and his Consolidation Group supporters walked out of the International Conference Centre (ICC), venue of the primary poll, just before the commencement of the election, in protest to what the group described as "fraud, sham and a pre-planned ambush" by the party.

Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe), on the other hand, became the party's Senate president candidate with 34 votes, while his main challenger and former Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki, received no vote. Saraki and some of his allies stayed away from the venue.

After the primary election, both Dogara and Saraki rejected the results and vowed to force and stand for elections, today, for the presiding officers. They told the party that elections of presiding officers are done within the chambers and not outside.

Shortly after staging a walk-out, the Dogara-led Consolidation Group, through its spokesperson, Abdulmumini Jibrin, issued a statement saying the party took them unawares about its plan to conduct primary. The group rejects the outcome of the exercise

"If we were coming for election, we ought to have been notified well ahead," Jibrin said in the statement, adding: "We therefore view this as an ambush, manipulative and indicative of the fact that the party's leadership came with a predetermined position which was skewed to favour Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

"We also informed the APC leadership that the process they were about doing was contrary to the provisions of the party’s constitution which did not prescribe that a primary election be conducted for the speakership, contrary to the provisions of the House Standing Orders and, above all, contrary to the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"The next speaker of the House should be allowed to be elected in tandem with the constitution."

The group cited the position of President Muhammadu Buhari who said he has no interest in who emerges the speaker or Senate president.

It insisted that the process of the selection ought to have been allowed to take its natural course since both of them are in the same party, adding: "The election of the House speaker is not an exclusivity of the APC but include all members from all political parties.

"Our position is that we are not a party to what they did and we maintain that the election of the speaker of the House of Representatives cannot be conducted outside the chamber of the House and we are ready to participate in that process on Tuesday 9th June, 2015."

No doubt, this is a difficult time for the party. The scenario that played out during the emergence of the immediate-past speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and his deputy Emeka Ihedioha, appears to be re-enacted.

In 2011, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wanted to dictate to its members who should emerge speaker. Mulikat Akande-Adeola (Ogun) was the choice of the party, against the legislators' wish, and Tambuwal emerged as speaker eventually.

All through the four-year life span of the 7th Assembly, members of the House recalled with pride, how they defied what they termed "imposition of party's will" on them, to take home their true independence as an arm of government.

But there are differences between the current logjam and what transpired in the 2011 "Tambuwal rebellion." First, PDP had not only pinpointed its candidate at the time, but the central government of Jonathan used its enormous power to make the party's candidate emerge victorious. This time, there might be little or no government's influence in who emerges either the speaker or Senate president, if Buhari's promise of staying neutral is anything to go by.

Secondly, Tambuwal and his deputy in 2011 were ordered to be barred from entering the premises of the National Assembly in order to make their nomination and subsequent elections impossible. This necessitated the duo to outwit the security personnel stationed at the entrance of the Assembly. Again, there may not be any order today to bar Saraki or Dogara from entering the premises.

Another thing is that the "rebellion" in the Senate this time may be undermined by the fact that the election process is going to be through open ballot system, and the party would know those who may go against its wish. The senators, on the other hand, may not be comfortable to vote freely against the party's wish. In the 2011 scenario at the House, the lawmakers changed the presiding officer's open election process to secret ballot system.

The lawmakers amended Order 2, Rule 4 (f) (ii) of the House Standing Orders 2014, from the open ballot voting to secret voting system, thereby avoiding victimisation by the government and PDP. This order subsists.

Therefore, the likelihood of replicating what transpired in 2011 in today's election is high in the House of Representatives than in the Senate. In fact, Dogara's group, on Sunday, claimd that many of the lawmakers who voted in Saturday's primary election did so out of fear and "intimidation" by the party, and the group hopes to turn the tide in today's election.

"After such huge intimidation, blackmail and inducement we are not surprised that they gave out such number. On Tuesday (today) the real picture of the strength of our candidate Hon. Yakubu Dogara will emerge.

"The stability of the House is very important and the House should be left alone to elect its speaker. We will never allow the number four citizen of this country to be pocketed by one selfish and greedy individual. We want a courageous speaker who is free from the apron strings of a godfather and not one that will create special bedroom in the pocket of an individual."

But Gbajabiamila still pushes for his victory today, expressing his readiness to work with Dogara in the 8th Assembly.

Shortly after the Dogara group had disclosed that it would write a petition to Buhari to intervene in the matter and ensure justice, Gbajabiamila extended his hands of friendship to the Dogara-led group.

Addressing a press conference on behalf of Gbajabiamila, member-elect from Benue State Dickson Tarkighir (APC), said they would be magnanimous in victory and carry Dogara and his men along.

"In furtherance to the genuine aspiration of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, it is appropriate for us to be magnanimous in victory and extend our hand of fellowship to the sixteen of our colleagues who purportedly left the venue as a result of their claim of unpreparedness for the mock election.

"It is unfortunate that some members sought for intervention of the party before their election into the National Assembly but suddenly realised that the unbiased intervention of the party in the mock election is inappropriate. Definitely these are not agents of change.

"We have reached out to our friends in other political parties and we are thankful for their popular response. We also agree that the next speaker of the 8th House of Representatives would emerge on the floor of the House on Tuesday and definitely members across party lines would place merit first because this is the era of change we have been waiting for."

The present dilemma has drawn the ire of some APC sympathisers, who heap the blame of the whole logjam on Buhari’s posture of neutrality concerning the issue of the National Assembly leadership. They argue that had Buhari earmarked a candidate, or even spelt out qualities of the speaker or Senate president should possess, the current situation would have been averted.

Of course, if the 2011 scenario is to be repeated today, it would be determined by the opposition PDP members, whose votes are needed by the candidates, because the number of APC members cannot produce an outright winner in any of the two chambers.