APC, Wase And Reward For Loyalty

The jury is still out on which particular geopolitical zone of the country the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will narrow the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to. However, if the strong feelers from the close associates of the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu are anything to go by, the pendulum is going to swing in favour of the North Central. And specifically, the current Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase will emerge as the Speaker in the Green Chamber, on the 13th of next month, after the 10th National Assembly is inaugurated.

Let me declare from the outset that I am an admirer of Hon. Wase. But my admiration for him aside, any dispassionate observer of the affairs of our nation’s House of Representatives will admit that this decision of the President-Elect, which I reliably learnt has equally been tacitly endorsed by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, is the most rational action to take in this respect. And the reasons for this standpoint are quite convincing.

One, the North Central gave the President-Elect the third highest number of votes in the Presidential election of 25th February, 2023, only trailing the North West and South West geopolitical zones. The zone gave the President-Elect 1,670,091 of the 8,794,726 votes cast for him during the election. This is even higher than the 1,190,458 votes that he got from the North East zone, where his Vice President-Elect comes from.

Two, the APC won in 11 of the 19 senatorial districts in the six states that make up the zone, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The party also took away 35 out of the 51 House of Representatives seats in the six states and the FCT during the 2023 National Assembly elections. Much more so, it clinched four of the 5 governorship elections held in Benue, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara and Plateau states. The governorship poll will hold in Kogi State in November this year. And here too, the APC is quite confident of winning.

The above facts are enough to prove the extent of loyalty and faithfulness of the people of the North Central geopolitical zone to the ruling party. And this makes it imperative for the leadership of the party to cede the post of Speaker to the North Central, having been said to have zoned the Senate Presidency to the South South, and the post of Deputy Senate President to the North West.

But beyond the above facts, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase, the major aspirant from the North Central, who is also the candidate to beat in the Speakership race, has also undoubtedly proven himself to be a loyal partyman. It is widely known that Hon. Wase aspired to be the Speaker of the 9th Assembly, and had an excellent chance of winning the contest. However, he was prevailed upon by the leadership of the party to step down for the incumbent, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. He humbly accepted the decision of the party’s leaders, making it a smooth sail for Gbajabiamila in 2019.

Should there then not be a reward for such demonstrable respect for party supremacy? If Wase is jettisoned at this moment, what example will the leaders of the ruling party be setting for those that may be called upon to step down their ambitions in the future? I honestly believe that it will be disingenuous for the APC and its leaders to even contemplate withdrawing the said pledge to reward the loyalty of Wase and its other admirers from the North Central zone with the post of Speaker.

Let me hasten to state, however, that this plea for reward of loyalty is not in any way suggesting that the President-Elect and the APC leadership should sacrifice merit in the selection process. Not at all!

For sure, it is clear that if the APC and its leaders were to critically examine the strengths of each of the current 10 members-elect jockeying for the post of Speaker of the House in the 10th National Assembly, it will discover that none of the nine others possesses the excellent credentials of Wase. The member representing Wase Federal Constituency, who will be a fifth term legislator after the inauguration of the 10th Assembly, has with time built sound legislative knowledge, experience and capacity, and is by far the most qualified of the lot to lead to the House. In his four terms as a legislator, he held chairmanship of certain key committees, and sponsored at least a dozen bills.

As Chair of the Federal Character Committee, for instance, the current deputy speaker paid no attention to “connections” by ensuring that Nigerians from different ethnic and religious backgrounds get employed in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government, strictly based on merit. This endeared Wase to many children of less-privileged Nigerians.

As the Chair of the House Committee of the Whole, he was key to the passage of critical bills such as the PIB, and the amendments to the new Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), which has already been noted to be easing doing business in Nigeria. His other legislative interventions are equally remarkable. One such is the bill he proposed that saw the creation of additional National Orthopaedic Hospitals in three of the nation’s six geopolitical zones (Jos, North Central), Benin, South South) and Taraba (North East).

As the chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Wase achieved uncommon milestones. President Muhammadu Buhari has just assented to some of the bills passed in the amendment of the Constitution. Some of these assented bills will promote true federalism, devolution of powers from the centre to the states, as well as strengthen government institutions.

In addition to these credentials, he has been adjudged to be a fair-minded person, owing to his impartial and equitable treatment of colleagues.

Lest I forget, it is also important for the APC and its leaders to remember that it is only the North Central that has had the shortest stint of three months at the helm of affairs of the House, while the five other geopolitical zones have held the post of Speaker for several years from 1979 to date. The only other exception is the South South, who in this instance, has already been shortlisted for the Presidency of the Senate in the 10th Assembly.

We believe that the President-Elect’s pledge, which he re-echoed recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that he will “be fair to all” is his bond. And we earnestly look forward to him and the APC leadership keeping to this pledge.

– Ibrahim wrote this piece from Lokogoma District of Abuja.