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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
National Consciousness Movement has told the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and other powerful forces that an imposition of the leaders of the House would be resisted.
The Movement claimed that it got information from the grapevine that some persons were planning to install the Chairman, House Committee on Land Transportation, Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna State as Gbajabiamila’s successor.
Already, about 9 members of the House of Representatives have indicated interested in the seat, namely; the current Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, Aliyu Muktar Betara, Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado – Dongwa, Yusuf Gagdi.
Others are Olaide Akinremi, Benjamin Kalu, Tajudeen Abbas, Abubakar Yalleman, and Abdulraheem Olawuyi.
The group’s President, Ibrahim Gidado, Vice President, Olanrewaju Nurudeen and National Secretary, Obinna Kalu, in a statement, yesterday and titled: ‘House of Representatives Principal Officer and wicked desperation to install a successor’, said the process must be transparent.
Gidado said: “The trend is unbecoming and must be checkmated. All they desire is a stooge to take instructions and report to them prevailing developments in the office they are vacating, and as well coverup murky dealings while in office.
“In this 4th Republic, past presidents, state governors and other public office holders, have consciously tried to impose their minions as successors, without recourse to the robustness and competence of the individual and his acceptance by colleagues and the citizens.
“The 2023 elections had come and gone, winners are presently squaring off subterranean to occupy offices at both the National and State Assemblies.
“Though the 10th National Assembly has not been inaugurated, there are, however, feverish underground contentions to install House Officers before the game even begins.
“As it is, nine elected members of the Federal House of Representatives, are on the gallery hoisting their flags of interest to occupy the House Speaker’s seat.
“And, this is despite the party with the majority of elected members, the APC, not presenting its zoning template for distributing the House offices, yet.
“All those indicating interest for the office are old members of the House, they currently hold various principal offices and committee positions in the green chamber.
“Of the lot, an outgoing Principal Officer is up in arms to impose his preferred choice, Tajudeen Abbas, Kaduna State, North West, who is the present Chairman, House Committee on Land Transportation.
“The exiting Principal Officer, is fighting tooth and nail to ensure no one else but Tajudeen Abbas becomes the speaker.
“His trump card, is the regular dropping of the name of the President- Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to blackmail resisting house members, laying emphasis on his closeness to the Asiwaju to intimidate them.
“This is unfair and not acceptable.
And there are indications that the President- Elect is not with him on this selfish and misguided trip.
“Was he imposed by his predecessor? His fate was decided by the House and the party, APC, which has an overwhelming majority and control of the Green Chamber.
“What is he hiding that he desired to keep from the public? What wrong has he done that he needs the protection of his successor?
“He should allow the House to decide who becomes speaker, his meddling is a barrier to strengthening democratic paradigms. It is needless.
“He is not bigger than the House. He should not be permitted to set this self aggrandizing precedent.
“It must be shot down and frustrated by the House members. How can he say he is only comfortable with Tajudeen Abbas? Does the House belong to him?
“Is it now that he realised that the Vice President and Speaker cannot come from the same state? The permeating culture of imposition of successors must not be tolerated in the Green Chamber.
“The President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, already has enough troubles of his own to contend with, the said Principal Officer should therefore not parade nor drag his name into his self-serving imposition bid.
“He should not attempt to shift the goal post at the tail end of the game, through factoring in extraneous reasons to deny duly elected members their rights and privileges as bonafide honourable members of the House.
“The Principal Officer’s prevarication and sinister obscurantist antics are not good enough, they border on ego-centricism, a feeling of being superior to others and a myopic sense of entitlement.
“The elected House members are in the best position to decide who should be their Speaker and other Principal Officers and they will do the needful when the 10th Assembly is freshly inaugurated, and the rampaging Principal Officer will be consigned to the archive.”
