Buhari, Gbajabiamila
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, caucus in the House of Representatives on Sunday disclosed that its members were in shock to hear that President Muhammadu Buhari in reality supported the emergence of Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila as the Majority Leader of the 8th Assembly.
Gbajabiamila, from Lagos State, had aspired for the office of Speaker of the House but lost the position to Yakubu Dogara from Buachi State. After his loss, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, forwarded his name to the House as its nominee for the position of Majority Leader of the House.
However, the PDP lawmakers said they were shocked by the latest revelation that the President was backing Gbajabiamila to be the Majority Leader, as it went contrary to his initial public declaration that he would remain neutral in the choices of the principal officers of the National Assembly.
The lawmakers stated this at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja last Friday.
Gbajabiamila had disclosed how he wanted to opt out of the race for principal officers but was prevented by the President.
The Minority Whip of the House, Mr. Yakubu Barde, speaking on behalf of the caucus, said that it would appear that the President did not tell Nigerians the truth when he earlier said that he was not interested in whoever emerged as principal officers in the legislature.
According to Barde, the majority leader’s revelation had also thrown up the question as to who between Buhari and Gbajabiamila had lied to Nigerians.
The caucus whip stated: “However, with the latest revelation by Gbajabiamila, we are not sure who is telling the truth between the two men.
“It is either one of them lied to Nigerians or both men jointly and separately lied.
“If as Gbajabiamila claimed, Buhari did influence his emergence as House leader, it will rather be unfortunate that the President is not a man of his words and Nigerians should now begin to scrutinise every word that emanates from him.
“We are alarmed by this development because it portends grave danger for our democracy and the independence of the legislature.
“The President must resist the temptation to use his power and influence to compromise the institution of the National Assembly by directly involving himself in the process of emergence of the principal officers of the House.”
The PDP caucus said the development also suggested that the President belonged to “a few people” as against his inauguration declaration of “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”
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