Members-elect for the 10th House of Representatives, on Wednesday night, boycotted the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for the sole aim of launching a campaign for Representative Abbas Tajudeen, who was handpicked as Speaker of the incoming House by President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and submitted to the party for obvious approval.
Tajudeen, one of the aspirants for the position of the Speaker for the 10th Assembly, is the member representing Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State.
But already, there are cracks in the campaign as Tajudeen is seen as a lackey of Gbajabiamila and that he is planning to continue holding grip of the 10th House of Representatives in order to make it possible for Tinubu to control the incoming National Assembly.
But Gbajabiamila, during a meeting organized Wednesday night by the Joint Task Force for the 10th Assembly, an umbrella body for the actualization of Tajudeen’s ambition as Speaker, denied ever influencing the choice of the Kaduna-born politician.
According to him: “North West geopolitical zone alone contributed 30% of the total votes for APC in the last elections and if you conduct a proper research, the North West zone has not been considered for the number four position in the history of our parliament.”
He was, however, shocked to see a hall filled with support groups, journalists and spectators as the target audience, members-elect, who possess the voting powers, largely boycotted the meeting.
Sensing that the little number inside the hall might not necessarily be members and members-elect, whom he has sought to address, Gbajabiamila requested for an executive session, apparently to see if he has enough numbers to make his anointed candidate Speaker; only to be bewildered that only 73 members and members-elect honoured the invitation.
The visibly angered Speaker was seen leaving the Osun Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, just two minutes after asking for an executive session.
A lawmaker who was in attendance and spoke with DAILY POST on the condition of anonymity, explained that: “Gbaja was not happy seeing the number of lawmakers in attendance and I think he has sensed danger, as an experienced politician, that his preferred candidate won’t fly”.
Asked if he was going to support Tajudeen, the lawmaker who just won his election under the Labour Party, said he was actually at the meeting, like some of his friends, who got an invitation that Rep. Gbajabiamila was going to address both returning and new Members, only to see that it was a forum to sell the candidacy of Tajudeen.
“Some of my colleagues understood the reason for the meeting, but innocent me, like few of my friends I interacted with in the hall, didn’t get the notion behind the invitation until we got here and we decided to sit and listen to whatever they had to say. I was personally disappointed seeing just a few Members in attendance because I had thought they got all the votes since it’s their party that selected this man for Speaker.
“But since their own Members cannot honour their party and most of them stayed off, is it we from the minorities that would support APC? Even though we are more than them in number, we would not be used to project mediocrity or support the composition of a rubber-stamped Assembly. The institution of the National Assembly is supposed to be an independent Arm of Government and not an appendage of another arm of Government.
“The minority caucus has been meeting lately and we shall make our stand known soon. We shall throw our weight behind anyone we feel have the capacity and independent mind to make the 10th House work for the people of Nigeria and not for an individual. We shall support such a person, regardless of any region or State he or she comes from. About 358 Members are going to cast their votes to decide the next Speaker and I don’t think, this number I’m seeing here tonight can make one-quarter of the deciding votes”, the member-elect added.
Originally published in DAILY POST