10th N'Assembly: Group tackles Tinubu, APC/NWC over imposition of candidates

 

A pressure  group under the aegis of Renewed Hope Professionals(RHP), yesterday 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.