10th N’Assembly: Group Tackles Tinubu, APC/NWC Over Imposition Of Candidates

A pressure group under the aegis of Renewed Hope Professionals(RHP), on Tuesday took a swipe at the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu over their
recent endorsement of some candidates for leadership positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The leadership of the APC had on Monday, announced Hon Tajudeen Abass and Godswill Akpabio as consensus candidates for the positions of Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate respectively. The decision was said to have had the imprimatur of Tinubu and other party leaders.

Coordinator of the HRP, Kinu Kabirwa, said the endorsement was not only an affront on democracy but a clear violation of Section 50(1b) of the 1999 Constitution. Kabirwa said that what had happened in the current leadership recruitment process in the parliament was nothing but an attempt to impose candidates on the lawmakers. He accused the outgoing Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila of being behind the plot to impose Abbas on the House as a compensation to Governor Nasir el- Rufai of Kaduna State for his support towards Tinubu victory at the polls.

In a statement released by the group, Kabirwa warned that the current move by some powerful forces to influence the leadership of the 10th Assembly posed a grave danger to democracy and could further compound the dire political situation in Nigeria.

“The question bothering us now is how did the NWC and their cohorts carry out the selection process and what yardstick did they use to arrive at an Abass that his state delivered just four Reps?

“Was competence, equity and fairness considered in the scheme of things or it was just an outright imposition to further truncate our shaky democracy?

“The above questions are begging for answers and we want our leaders to truly look into this as the position of Deputy Senate President too has been zoned to North West. Automatically, the North West is going to control two powerful positions in the next political dispensation.

“It’s an aberration that must be quickly checkmated before it develops into an hydra headed monster capable of turning the legislature into an unwarranted war zone,” he said.

The group appealed to the President-Elect to immediately nullify this “organised imposition” on lawmakers and allow a level playing ground for the legislators to pick their leaders.
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