Tension have risen among lawmakers in the 10th House of Representatives Minority Caucus as they disagree on the ruling party’s zoning arrangement for Speaker and Deputy Speaker roles.
The Joint Task-10th Assembly pressure group was inaugurated at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, with approximately 60 lawmakers from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and seven opposition parties present.
The meeting was also attended by a handful of members-elect drawn from the six minority parties namely: Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Young Progressive Party (YPP).
Meanwhile, some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members-elect, who oppose the APC zoning arrangement attended a separate meeting at the same location, led by acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagun. Members of six other minority parties were also present.
Speaking at the event, Hon. Usman Kumo (APC-Gombe) denied the Joint Task 10th Assembly was initiated by incumbent Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, and emphasized that the group’s members joined voluntarily.
He said: “On the question whether Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila is the one sponsoring what we are doing, the answer is capital no. but mind you, Femi is an elected member belonging to the 10th National Assembly as we are speaking now.
“He’s a Nigerian and it is his franchise to tow any line he wishes. As we are speaking by the Assembly of gentlemen you are seeing here, take it for free, nobody, and I repeat in capital letters, that can manipulate all of us here; no that individual.
“The combination you are seeing here, if you carefully observe, we have people from all the six geopolitical zone, and we have members of all the political parties – eight of them and each of them, every one of us here won his election on merit and before we partake and won the election, we rose through the ladder of prosperity gradually and patiently. And it is in view of this that I’m telling you Femi did not constitute this group; Femi is not behind this group, not to my knowledge.
“In the 10th Assembly, we have men of integrity that are perceived to be the wise men in every Assembly. And these wise men might not naturally opt for any positions but they would stay behind, provide direction and ensure that it’s a stable house.
“That House we are going to discuss Nigeria and in discussing Nigeria, it’s a cosmopolitan society. We are so divergent and we were keeping faith that some of us have to ensure that that Nigerian project sees the light of day, so, Femi is not behind this project. But he may join us willingly f he so desires because he’s part of us because he needs and is free to exercise his franchise.”
When asked about the number of the forum, Kumo said: “As politicians, when you are partaking in a war, you don’t get busy counting how many people you kill because somebody will come and kill you. You keep the causalities till after the war. So, we will move on until we install and ensure that our own people, our own interest became the Presiding officer because we have the numbers, we have the strength and in this game, we are like footballers no matter how much you dribble in the game, whether you score and get that three points, that’s what qualifies you to be a good footballer.
“So, we will cross the bridge when we reach the bridge. So far, we are keeping the number to our chest because we are in a political field, we are politicking and we are not only politicking for the sake of making names, but we are doing that to succeed and ensure that our names are written in gold.
“The last question is whether the members that are in this group are whether cajoled or coerced or induced, look at the faces of these gentlemen, we are seated here humbly, we are confident in ourselves and we are willingly seated here because we believe in the project called Nigeria.”
Some lawmakers, however, claimed they were “forced” to join the group.
During the PDP caucus meeting, Ambassador Damagun encouraged members to be loyal to their country and party and expressed hope that they would provide a credible opposition in the 10th Assembly.
Damagun, speaking at the meeting, said, “I know most of you would be concerned about the current situation of the party.
“It’s always like that when you have an election year, there would be a lot of crises, if you look at your primaries, how you were nominated up to the time when you were elected, you’ve gone through a lot. And I know the party is going through the same kind of situation but one thing I want to assure you is that PDP has the mechanism to solve its own problem.
“The initiative you’ve taken upon yourself before we even called upon you to make this gathering possible is also one of the reasons why I said we have the mechanism.
“You’ve done well, I’ve interacted with some of your leaders towards the build-up to this gathering and I don’t expect any PDP member to be less in terms of that acumen and capacity. We’ve always been known to be full of capacity in terms of what we want to achieve. I don’t want anything less from you.
“I want to reiterate like some of you have said here, that this 10th Assembly should come and make sure that it’s giving the right opposition expected of you.
“I’ve always had hope in the House of Representatives. I’m not saying the Senate is not doing much, but you are the people that are directly closer to the constituencies and so much is expected of you and I hope that ours is going to be a very credible opposition and we will give it to them, we’ll put them to task, we’ll put them on their toes to make sure that right thing is being done in this country because that is what we need in this country at this moment.”
