Ranking Lawmakers of Nigeria’s Ruling Party Vow to Challenge Party’s Choice for House Speaker

Senior lawmakers of Nigeria’s ruling party have vowed to challenge their party’s choice for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had announced its adoption of Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna as its choice for the position, but five ranking APC lawmakers who had also declared their intention for the position said they would work together to challenge their party’s candidate.
At an event held at Transcorp Hotel in Abuja, current Deputy Speaker Idris Wase stated that five of the aspirants, including himself, Muktar Betara, Sada Soli, Alhassan Doguwa, and Ahmed Jaji, have resolved to work together to oppose the APC’s consensus arrangement. They rejected the endorsement of Mr. Abbas, and four of the aggrieved aspirants held a meeting where they agreed to challenge him. The current Majority Leader, Mr. Doguwa, later joined the group, according to Mr. Wase.
“We are here for the independence of the parliament. To ensure that we work as a family. What we are witnessing today, I have never seen that kind of moment in the parliament. That is why every parliamentarian must rise to the occasion to defend the institution,” Mr. Wase said. “We will work as a team to prevent the parliament from being hijacked, to be made a lame duck. We will defeat those forces that think Nigeria is in their pocket.”
Mr. Doguwa emphasized that the business of selecting the leaders of the parliament should be left to the lawmakers, not outsiders who did so without consultation. “Members that are equal among members must be respected,” he said.
Mr. Soli, a lawmaker from Katsina State, was very direct in his speech, noting that the sanctity of the parliament must be respected by all. He said the reports lawmakers are getting regarding the consensus arrangement will spell doom for the legislature. Meanwhile, Mr. Betara expressed his willingness to work with the other aspirants in the interest of the parliament, stating that “we are moving as a group to get back the institution.”
The intense politicking to come in the next few weeks is indicated by lawmakers elected on the platform of minority parties, who said they would challenge the APC for the position of speaker. The lawmakers-elect, drawn from the seven minority parties, said they would use their numerical strength to produce the presiding officers of the lower House.
In a statement, the parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), and the Young Progressive Party (YPP) – said, “Since emerging as the ‘Greater Majority’ with a combined members-elect tally of 183, as against the APC’s total of 177, history beckons on us to constructively and creatively chart the path towards the deepening of our nation’s democracy.”