Speaker: Tambuwal, Others Move Against Gbajabiamila

The re-election of Aminu Bello Tambuwal is causing disquiet in in the camp of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over who becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 9th Nigeria National Assembly.

Tambuwal, a former Speaker of the House is still believed to be very influential among many lawmakers, particularly, returnee members of the 365 members of the Assembly.

Therefore, his election for a fresh four-year -term in office also came amidst struggle among lawmakers for the successor of current Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.

No fewer than 17 lawmakers, including the current Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, representing Surulere Federal Constituencyin Lagos are vying for the important position.

Others are Olusegun Odebunmi (South-West), Garba Datti (Kaduna), Ado Doguwa (Kaduna), Babangida Ibrahim (Katsina), Sulaiman Kawu (Kano), Sulaiman Aminu (Kano), Tahir Monguno (Borno) and Abdulrazaq Namdas (Adamawa).

The aspirants also include Yusuf Buba Yakub (Adamawa), Mohammed Bago (Niger), John Dyegh (Benue), Idris Wase (Plateau), Abubakar Lado (Niger), Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia), and Chike Okafor (Imo).

Already the All Progressives Congress, APC the party with the majority members in the house, the magazine learned has endorsed Gbajabiamila for the position.

Several meetings have been by the APC in the past few days on how to prevail on other lawmakers from the party to support the aspirant from Lagos.

As a follow up, Gbajabiamila last week publicly declared his interest in the position following what one of his backers, said was the outcome of high level consultations between the lawmakers and other APC big hats.

While reeling out his credentials, the lawyer turned politician said he was the most qualified among the aspirants considering that he had occupied important positions since he was first elected in 2003.

“With all sense of humility, I seek this office with a rich legislative background and pedigree and having just won a historic 5th term mandate to the House.

I have in the last 16 years dedicated my life to the service of my constituents and Nigeria.

I have studied and understood the intricate workings of the legislature. In these 16 years, I have been a principal officer for 12 years.

It is this wealth of experience and a burning desire for good governance that I bring to the table,” he said during the declaration in Abuja.

He said further “I seek the office of the Speaker to bring our tendencies together and unite us as a country. I seek the office of the Speaker to bring governance even closer to the people.

I seek the office of the speaker to mentor the next generation. I seek the office of the Speaker so I can use the bully pulpit to galvanize members to make life more abundant for every Nigerian irrespective of tribe, religious background or political persuasion.

There is much work to be done by way of legislation in many areas of our life including bit not limited to education, health, power, infrastructure and alleviation of poverty.”

According to him “historically, the House of Representatives was established to be the people’s House and for the people’s business.

It follows therefore, that the Speaker must be the people’s speaker elected to do the people’s business and champion their cause and in doing so fulfilling their hopes and aspiration. This is the Speaker I intend and hope to be and the House I intend and hope to lead, a People’s House.”

Apart from the Speakership position, the party has also settled for Ahmad Lawan, the Majority Leader, for President of the Senate.

While the APC seems to be succeeding with some turncoat in the Senate on the reason to install Lawan, same cannot be said of the House where more opposition to Gbajabiamila has increased in the last few days.

Thus following intervention by the party’s leaders strong aspirants such as the Senators Danjuma Goje, Adamu Abdullahi have dropped their ambitions to support Lawan.

The magazine was told that some lawmakers in the house from the northern part of the country have enlisted the support of Governor Tambuwal, being a former speaker and very influential in the lower chamber.

Recall that the Sokoto governor was among those that worked for the emergence of Dogara in 2015 after expressly working against Gbajabiamila.

Just few months ago the governor said the reason why the Lagos lawmaker lost to his opponent four years ago was because of his closeness to Asiwaju Tinubu and that Gbajabiamila was very unpopular among his colleagues.

The opponents of Gbajabiamila are working on two possibilities.

One is that two national positions cannot be ceded to the southwest. The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is from the region.

The other is the religious sentiment that Lawan and Gbajabiamila are muslims and therefore, should not be allowed to occupy the Speakership and Senate President.

Recall also that some Christian groups in the country had last week urged President Buhari to make sure that the two major religions in the country are ably represented in his government.

Another factor that could work for the Tambuwal group is the division in the south west caused by the ambition of Senator Oluremi Tinubu to become Deputy Senate President.

Senator Tinubu representing Lagos Central is the wife of Asiwaju Tinubu.

One lawmaker from Kano who spoke with the magazine at the week end said some of his colleagues are poised to destroy any influence of the former Lagos governor in the National Assembly.

”it would mean that the former Lagos helmsman is allowed to impose the Senate President and Speaker on the National Assembly,” another returnee lawmaker from Zamfara also told the magazine.

The PDP on its part seems to be waiting on the wings to cash on the division within the APC.

Last week, the party spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan said its members will contest the two top posts in the national assembly.

According to him, the APC will not be allowed to impose any candidate and that the positions should be thrown open for all interested candidates across party lines.

But Tinubu has warned rebels in the party that they would be expelled from the party if they worked against the emergence of Lawan and Gbajabiamila.

Nigerians are waiting to see if the angry lawmakers will be whipped into line by this riots act.