The Gbajabiamila
Speakership Campaign has said President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All
Progressives Congress have bemoaned leaving lawmakers to determine the
leadership of the 8th National Assembly.
Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Khajidat
Bukar-Ibrahim, who is a spokesperson for the Gbajabiamila Speakership Campaign,
said this on Sunday when she featured on Sunday Politics, a current affairs
programme by Channels Television
When asked a question on whether the APC was shopping for a
pliable National Assembly leadership, Bukar-Ibrahim said, “No, certainly not.
It is not a rubberstamp; the parliament is not a rubberstamp. Everybody was
voted in independently and through free, fair and transparent elections.
“I’m sure that the President is not using members to gain
popularity among the legislators. But he wants to see that there is unity
within the party so that we can use our numbers to win the speakership position
and to endorse the proposed candidate, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila.
“Once you go back to
the 8th Assembly, there is a lot of regret over what happened. And things
didn’t go the way they were supposed to go. I think the President is
intervening now. Before the 8th Assembly, he said he could work with anybody
and that the members should choose their leaders. But when it came out, it did
not augur so well for the party.”
The former minister, who is now a member-elect, advised
lawmakers to respect the supremacy of the APC’s choices on National Assembly
leadership. She noted that the party regretted losing the leadership of the 8th
Assembly to those not endorsed by it.
“I think that our dear President who canvassed the entire
Nigeria – the 36 states and Abuja – to give us all the necessary supports
deserves to be respected, and his views respected on who to adopt, seeing what
happened in the 8th Assembly. It is something that we all have regretted. I
think that basically, the party has supremacy over any self interests. If they
propose a candidate for us, I think we should respect the party more than
anything else,” she said.
Asked if she saw the possibility of a leadership struggle in
the National Assembly, Bukar-Ibrahim said since the President and the APC had
chosen Gbajabiamila, other aspirants and members were meant to support him.
She said, “We were invited to a meeting with Mr President
and it was announced that Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila would be the candidate.
In the countries around the world, you know that things like this happen; when
a party gathers and decides on a candidate, that candidate is who all the other
members will support.”
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