Speakership: Gbajabiamila lobbies Dogara, others

The House Leader and front -line contender for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), says he is lobbying incumbent Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, to support him ahead of the June 10 inauguration of the 9th Assembly. Director-General of Femi Gbajabiamila Speakership Campaign Organization, Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano), stated this in Abuja yesterday while briefing newsmen.

Jibrin said although Gbajabiamila had garnered a comfortable majority among the lawmakers, and was sure of landslide victory on 10 June, they could not afford to take anything for granted. He said the need to ensure that they were not taken unawares had made them extend their

lobbying beyond the incumbent speaker to former speakers of the House.

According to him, all the lawmakers who would vote Gbajabiamila for speaker on 10 June had been made to submit a written letter of intent, including members of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“On the June 10 inauguration of the 9th Assembly, I can confirm to you that we are lobbying the incumbent Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, for Femi Gbajabiamila and Idris Wase as speaker and deputy speaker.

“Although we have arrived at a comfortable majority of lawmakers required to win, we are just being realistic because the speaker controls a powerful bloc within the House. We are also lobbying past speakers.

“This decision involved extensive lobbying and wide consultation to ensure that no member will contest against Gbajabiamila/Wase.

“In fact, members were required to write those they would vote, and a good number of them, including those from the opposition PDP, have written that they would vote our candidates,” Jibrin told journalists.

The Kano lawmaker argued that even as there were other “qualified contenders” for the office of speaker, the odds were clearly against them because Gbajabiamila was not only the most qualified, but also merited the position by ranking, capacity and leadership experience.

On Muslim/Muslim joint ticket, Jibrin further contended that there was already an established precedent in the House of Representatives, when Dimeji Bankole and Bayero Nafada, both Muslims, emerged speaker and deputy speaker respectively, in the 6th Assembly.

He said the agitation for equity and federal character in the allocation of principal officers of the 9th Assembly only required that that the positions of House Leader, Deputy Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Whip, be shared among South East, South South, North East and North West zones of the country.