•Give lawmakers free hands to choose their leaders, NEF tells APC
By Lukman Olabiyi
Chairman, Progressive Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo, Hope Uzodimma, has said the forum is behind speaker aspirant, Tajudeen Abbas (All Progressives Congress (APC)-Kaduna State)
In a statement by the Abbas Campaign Team, Uzodimma also said the governors resolved to support Benjamin Kalu (APC-Abia) for deputy speaker.
According to the statement, Uzodimma made the disclosure when he hosted the campaign team of the Abbas/Kalu joint ticket, led by a group of lawmakers from different parties under the auspices of ‘Joint Task –10th Assembly Coalition’.
He said the party has made the best choice of presiding officers for the House, and the least the governors could do was to ensure the party’s preference and vision is actualised on June 13.
The governor commended members of the coalition who are drawn from the eight political parties that won seats in the 10th House, saying they made the right decision to support the joint ticket.
“I congratulate you once more for the success you achieve in the last election and commend you for coming together to form an alliance towards the speakership race.
“You have taken a good decision to support these two gentlemen. What we are practicing today is democracy and APC is the ruling party and you have a responsibility now to help the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to succeed.
“We all know that the most sensitive arm of government is the legislature and if we make a mistake with it, the other two arms will be affected.”
He urged aggrieved aspirants to close ranks with the party’s preferred candidates and work together to determine a purposeful legislature for the interest of Nigeria.
Earlier, Abbas who is the APC preferred candidate commended the forum for their support.
He reiterated his readiness to ensure a united 10th Assembly that would work towards actualising the programmes and policies of government.
On his part, Kalu said his candidature was not an individual recognition, but a mandate of the entire South East.
He said the zone had been recognised to be on the new team of leaders upon whom the task of providing positive change in the lives of Nigerians has been entrusted.
On May 8, the APC National Working Committee zoned the positions of the Senate president of the 10th National Assembly to the South South and the speaker of the House of Representatives to North West.
The ruling party has also agreed on a consensus as the former governor of Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio, has been anointed as the next Senate president of the 10th Assembly, while Abass from Kaduna State has also been anointed as the speaker of the House.
Meanwhile, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spokesman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has disagreed with the APC’s zoning of the National Assembly leadership.
He argued that lawmakers should be allowed to elect their leaders. Baba-Ahmed told President Bola Tinubu and his party (APC) that it is unconstitutional to dictate legislators on who to choose as their leaders. He held that the executive arm of government or party has no right to dictate to legislators on their internal affairs and implored both the ruling party and the executive arm of government to allow the legislators to have free have to make their choice on who becomes their leaders.
When asked on issue of faith of who becomes the next Senate President, he noted that issue of Muslim or Christian has nothing to do on who becomes what.
Baba-Ahmed stated that issue of religion consideration was making of politicians who were using religion to defraud and deprived Nigerians of good governance.
“We had a Muslim president for eight years in this country. The North has never been as bad as it. It did nothing to the North”, he said.
He added that North West region of the country deserved to produce the Senate President based on their contribution to the President Tinubu’s victory at the poll.