Idris Wase, the Deputy Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, recently stormed the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with other aspirants for the office of Speaker in the 10th National Assembly to show their displeasure over the zoning template released by the party.
The convoy of Wase got to the secretariat around mid-day and headed straight to the office of the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Apart from Wase, other aspirants that stormed the APC national secretariat were Chief Whip of the House, Alhassan Doguwa; Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Muktar Betara; Yusuf Gagdi; Aminu Sani Jaji; Mr Sada Soli and Princess Mariam Onuoha.
While speaking at a meeting with the Adamu-led NWC, Wase said the incumbent Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila cannot alone be tasked with the responsibility of producing the speaker and deputy speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.
Also, Wase accused the party leadership of betraying other contestants, having initially told them to slow down their campaigns and allow consultations.
Wase said: “You would recall at one of the meetings, Your Excellency, where you summoned us to the Villa and the vice president was there. You told us to step down, wait for a zoning arrangement. While doing that, as politicians, of course we had to slow down but continued the fight because everybody stands to showcase and ensure that he gets the favour of our colleagues.
“Some of us have tried also to reach out to members of the NWC to express our aspirations. We may not have reached all, but we will also try to do that and we have tried also to reach out to all or most critical stakeholders around the country to ensure that we have the buy-in of our leaders.
“But unfortunately, Your Excellency, when you told us to slow down further, we will go for the supplementary election of the governorship, so that the party will not be distracted and thereafter, that there will be another meeting that will be convened. That meeting didn’t come to fruition with us. What actually happened was that those of us, who are here aspiring, were not called for that meeting.
“What was on social media, again, was the zoning and the micro-zoning to particular individuals to say these are the people that have been picked by the party. As I speak to you sir, I want to say categorically that none of us here was approached or consulted to get our opinions and thoughts on what was going to be done or what has happened.
“That is the crux of the matter and we feel betrayed by that action. We feel that our contributions are not recognised, we feel as if we are not members of this family. We feel that we have given our best but now the best is no longer needed.
“Unfortunately, among the criteria that were used for the emergence of the persons is the number of bills. We don’t know when the National Assembly has turned to that. We don’t know when such criteria had been set.
“It may interest the chairman and members of the NWC while we are doing the campaign an attempt was made by the Speaker (Gbajabiamila) to call us. We respectfully went there, we sat and when he said he wanted us to come up with a consensus and build with him. We said ‘yes, fine, we are willing to do that.’ We took pictures we sent to the world and we agreed.
“But after that meeting, there was another meeting and in that meeting, I made bold to tell the speaker, ‘we are told you are rooting for this particular person’ but he swore to us and swore to God that it was not so. I said, ‘no, it is in the public domain’. He said, ‘no, it’s not true.’
“The Speaker, alone, cannot produce speaker, and deputy speaker. I came into the National Assembly in 2007. By the grace of God, I am into my fifth term. I came in as a member of AC to ACN and now APC. I have run election on opposition without governor, councillor, nothing, no assistance. And I think I have seen it all in terms of resilience and they say perseverance conquers difficulty. We have persevered to keep unity.
“I want to tell this congregation about what I asked the speaker in one of our meetings with him. When the whole team was released, he came to us, he came to my house. I said ‘What makes you think that what you have done will stand the test of time?
“I think I am a better person in touch with leaders of the Asiwaju family because I came under AC from 2007 until when we had the merger. I have served you as deputy leader of the House, now serving you as Deputy Speaker of the House. If you are going to do anything, what makes you think that we are not qualified? And if you’re going to look sideways, what makes you think Ado Doguwa is not qualified? Having served us as Chief Whip of the House for four years now, Leader of the House for four years, and then you think hierarchy can be destroyed? Not in parliamentary practice. It’s never done anywhere.
“And I said to him, ‘you are misleading our leader because the leader we know is not what you are trying to show and I am referring to the President-elect. And I don’t want to believe till this moment that the President-elect is the one behind this. I don’t want to believe it. And I said to him, ‘you’re going to do this, you have the Chairman of Appropriation in ranking after the leadership. You (Adamu) are a senator and so if you are doing that, what is making you think that you cannot go and pick Betara? Did you work and succeed only as a person, Femi Gbajabiamila? It is because we are able to stomach a lot of things that we didn’t allow the House to go into rancour. So, we have sacrificed. We have worked assiduously for the party.
“We are here to protest and to appeal to you to go again and look into this matter, that what had been pushed out will not stand. We are disciplined party people. I have demonstrated that when, in 2019, I was going in for speakership, I was pretty sure I was going to win. Leaders of the party called me including the president and appealed to me to step down for Gbajabiamila. I did that and that was how I came in to take the position of deputy speaker. I want to say that with what has happened, I think that they are taking us for granted.
“Why are we having lopsided distribution? Is it because those of us from North-Central are taken as slaves? Four years is not too much, let us not destroy this party before we go into the next election.
“We do not want a repeat of what has happened in the past. We should not forget about the Tambuwalization of the House of Representatives. We should not forget about how Saraki became the Senate President. The party, as of today, does not have the majority to be that arrogant.”
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