BY Samuel Akpan
Abubakar Nalaraba, a member of the house of representatives, says Tajudeen Abbas, the nominated candidate for the speakership position, is not the acceptable choice among the lawmakers.
Nalaraba, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Nasarawa, spoke with journalists on Wednesday.
The APC had anointed Abbas and Benjamin Kalu as the preferred candidates for the positions of speaker and deputy.
The nominations have been met with pushback from six aspirants who have allied to ensure the speaker is elected from among them.
Nalaraba alleged that Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house, is “single-handedly” imposing Abbas on the lawmakers.
He claimed that Abbas who is not a popular candidate among the lawmakers would become Gbajabiamila’s stooge if elected.
“Their preferred candidate, Abbas Tajudeen, we all know, is not somebody that is known in the house. He is not somebody that integrates smoothly with other members of the house,” he said.
“We hope they (APC) will review their decision and allow a smooth election come June 13 when the house will be inaugurated.
“The issue of Abbas Tajudeen is certainly coming from Gbajabiamila single-handedly without consulting other co-stakeholders.
“Look at what happened. You are zoning two principal offices of the national assembly to a particular zone. What about the north-central that gave the second-largest votes to APC during the last presidential election?
“What about other zones — the north-east that also contributed to where the presidential candidate of the PDP emerge from? Despite that the zone has a presidential candidate (Atiku Abubakar) they gave the APC the votes.
“These are what should be considered. You cannot just single-handedly impose a candidate on 360 members just because you want to install a successor.
“Why do you even want to install a successor? It has not been done in the history of legislative activities in this country. It has never been done for an outgoing speaker to single-handedly impose a candidate that will succeed him.
“We are going to resist that and we will do that with every strength we have in the 10th assembly.
“Why is he trying to impose someone that we don’t know? Why is he trying to impose on someone that has not interacted freely and smoothly with other members? Why is he bringing someone that will serve as a stooge to him? It has never been done in the history of the national assembly.
The lawmaker said his colleagues should be allowed to “choose freely” who will lead them and ensure there is stability and unity in the house.
“We need someone that will bring peaceful coexistence and mutual relationship between the legislature and the executive,” he said.
The lawmaker said Muktar Betara is the most competent and experienced aspirant in the race and should be supported by other hopefuls in the race.
“Their coming together (alliance) is a perfect development for democracy. In every democracy, you need the alliance to succeed, you need the alliance to win the election,” he said.
“Let’s determine who will lead us, not someone imposing a candidate on us.”
Idris Wase, Betara, Sada Soli, Aminu Jaji, Yusuf Gagdi, and Miriam Unuoha, who are speakership hopefuls, had allied in a bid to nominate a consensus candidate among them to challenge Abbas.
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