By Olugbenga Salami
Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, two contenders for the office of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives have stepped down and endorsed Hon. Benjamin Kalu for the position and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas for Speakership.
Recall that Kalu, who was earlier contesting for the speakership position, jettisoned his ambition in respect of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) zoning arrangement, which had him nominated as the consensus Deputy Speakership candidate.
Speaking at a meeting of the aspirants with some opposition members-elect at the instance of Joint Task-10th Assembly, a group of members-elect from across the eight political parties, one of the aspirants for the Speakership and Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Alhassan Doguwa, also announced his withdrawal from the race in support of Hon. Tajudeen Abbas and Kalu’s ambition.
He was accompanied by two other aggrieved aspirants, Hon. Abdulraheem Tunji Olawuyi, from Kwara and Hon. Makki Abubakar Yalleman from Jigawa State.
The lawmakers passed a vote of confidence on APC’s choice of Abbas and Kalu for Speaker, Deputy Speaker respectively.
A statement by the Media Unit of TBK Group on Thursday reads: “I am here to put on the record that not just from today, that right from day one that the NWC, the National Working Committee of my party put it on the table that they have come up with their zoning arrangement, and after zoning with all sense of morality micro-zoned it to the North-West, and micro-micro-zoned it to my brother Tajudeen Abbas, representing Zaria Federal Constituency of North West Nigeria.
“As from that day, I therefore called my bid to contest for the speakership of the 10th House of Representatives off. I had to do that because I’m a man of the establishment. I had to do that because I’m also a beneficiary of the same kind of arrangement.
“I have benefited from party arrangements, I have personally benefited from this zoning arrangement. That was what gave me the position of the Chief Whip of the 8th House of Representatives even when there were issues, still the zoning helped me.
“Today I’m the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives courtesy of the National Working Committee of my party. My great brothers and sisters, courtesy demands that it’s only fair that I also stand by the position of the National Working Committee of My party. It’s not like the table is turning against m, no. It’s just that time has come for me to also pay back. And I think paying back in this circumstances is a great responsibility that I must oblige.
“I rise before you this evening my colleagues and Rt. Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila, and flanking me are Rt. Hon. Abdulraheem Tunji Olawuyi and Rt. Hon. Makki Abubakar Yalleman. We are here individually and collectively stepping into the shoes of this great campaign.
“We all wanted to be Speakers not because we knew there could be so many Speakers at every given point in time, there can be only one Speaker and we have individually and collectively decided to come and surrender our bids to be Speaker to our great party, and we also defer on record to our great gentleman that was picked by the party to run for the Speakership officially on behalf of our great party, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.
“We are also of the opinion that the selection process of Hon. Tajudeen Abbas and Hon. Benjamin Kalu was not in any way bias. We are also quite aware that the person of Tajudeen Abbas and his running mate, Kalu are qualified to hold their respective offices.”
