From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President-elect, Bola Tinubu, yesterday, said he has no preferred candidates for principal officers’ positions in the 10th National Assembly.
He stated this during a parley he called to meet with All Progressives Congress (APC) senators and House of Representatives members-elect at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
The last two weeks have witnessed intense lobbying by lawmakers-elect, regional and interest groups for leadership positions in the Senate and House of Representatives, particularly for the posts of Senate president and speaker of the House of Reps.
There were, however, speculations that yesterday’s meeting by the APC, which enjoys the majority of members in both chambers of the National Assembly, was to sort out the likely distribution of leadership offices to avert a repeat of the 2015 scenario in which the party lost control of the affairs within the chambers, despite having the most seats in both Houses.
Though Tinubu was absent at the meeting, vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, who stood in for him, said the president-elect has no preferred candidates for the leadership of the incoming 10th National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the ruling party has charged its legislators-elect not to rest on their oars, but to go back to their constituencies and work for the victory of the party’s candidates in Saturday’s governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, said it was an understatement to say the ruling party was the clear choice of the people.
“Three times we asked the people to give us the thumbs up; and three times they did not hesitate to do so. They did so in 2015, did so in 2019, they have now done it again in 2023. It reminds us that to whom much is given, much is expected. It is an understatement to say much has been given to us and we must reciprocate by giving much more to the people and our dear country.
“It is not an understatement to say our presence at this meeting, points to our preparedness to join hands with the president-elect as he works on his plans to renew our hopes and rebuild our confidence in our government.”
He told the president and vice-president elect that they are the new team Nigeria.
Adamu also admitted the poll was not flawless.
“It is fair and honourable to admit that the February 25 elections were not perfect. We did not set out to conduct perfect elections. World history has no instances of perfect elections.”
Like all other democratic nations, we set out to conduct free, fair, and credible elections. This we did. I am proud to say we achieved this feat and delivered on the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari to the people.”