Sokoto Member-elect Opposes APC Choice For Speakership

A newly elected member of the House of Representatives for Gada-Goronyo federal constituency of Sokoto State, Bashir Usman Gorau, has faulted the endorsement of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly by the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The president-elect and the ruling APC have endorsed Senator Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin for Senate president and deputy Senate president of the 10th National Assembly respectively. They also endorsed Tajudeen Abass and Benjamin Kalu for speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.

Reacting to the development, the 33-year-old who won the election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the country’s constitution has given the mandate to the members of the National Assembly to choose their leaders, adding that endorsement will not yield any positive results.

The member-elect who spoke in Abuja, said both Tinubu and outgoing speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, should allow the members of the 10th Assembly to select their leaders, as they will not be around when the leadership will perform its activities in the House.

“Tinubu, being the president-elect, has no constitutional right to choose for us. This is not their business. This is an issue and affair relating to the members of the House of Representatives and Senate respectively.

“By this endorsement, they are literally intruding into the National Assembly, which will likely undermine the statutory conduct of the legislature and we will not accept that,” he said.

Gorau said majority of the members-elect are not supporting the endorsement by the president-elect including members of the APC.

He said although APC is the ruling party, it lacks the power to impose any body as a speaker in the House, adding that they are the greater majority as they have members from the opposition parties twice that of the APC.

“The ruling party doesn’t have the capacity and number to decide who is who in the House of Representatives. We the new members are 243 out of 358 members that we have presently. So, there is no way they can just endorse someone and we fold our arms and watch, is not possible.”

Gorau said as far as they are concerned, 90% of the new members of the House have endorsed Mukhtar Aliyu Betara as the new speaker and that he has gone far in his mobilisation.

According to him, with the number of greater minority and other members from the ruling party, Betara will be the next speaker of the House with or without endorsement of the APC.