National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has expressed delight with members-elect of the House of Representatives who ran for their election under the platform of the party, for the way they conducted themselves at the party’s mock primary held to choose its Speakership sole candidate and the deputy. He stressed that they have made him proud as chairman of their party.
Oyegun stated this yesterday in Abuja shortly after the conduct of a mock in-house election superintended over by the APC National Working Committee, NWC, to determine the sole candidates of the party for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions in the 8th National Assembly.
Out of the 213 APC members in the forthcoming House of Representatives, 183 signed attendance register for the shadow primary election which eventually produced Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and Hon. Tehir Monguno, as the party’s sole candidates for Speakership and Deputy Speakership.
According to Oyegun, “More than anything else, I congratulate all of you, honourable members, you have been exemplary today. You have been patient; you have been long-suffering. What is important today is that you, the incoming members have freely elected your principal officers. This is what the APC stands for. Fortunately, you have done this under the glare of cameras. So, everybody knows that you were virtually all present and everybody will know in this nation that you voted in a transparent atmosphere that was a very level playing field. This is the example that this party stands for”.
He urged the incoming lawmakers to continue practising internal democracy in all that they do, adding that, “I want to promise you one thing: the party will work and interact very closely with you at every stage. Not from the point of view of dictating to you; but from the point of view of letting us be on the same page on all key issues that face the nation. We need to know what you are doing; you need to know what the party is thinking”.
Turning to the Speaker hopeful, Oyegun said, “I want to charge you, Hon. Femi Gbajagbiamila, that from the minute you leave this hall, you must reach out to all the members of the APC; those that voted for you and those that did not. So you must be the speaker and leader of our members in the National Assembly. Not just that, you should also stretch your hand to the other side such that you will unify the total House of Representatives behind the change programme of Mr. President and behind the difficult decisions that we must have to make”.
Noting that the House he is vying to lead has received a lot of bashing from the Nigerian public, Oyegun urged Gbajabiamila to institute a reform agenda that will restore the faith of the people in the House of Representatives, emphasising that he would be contributing to the restoration of the faith of Nigerians in the National Assembly through that means. He pointed out that, “This will need sacrifice, this will need hard work, this will need leading by example. We need a new orientation, we need a new morality. We need to cut down on waste, we need to plug all loopholes in this nation. If we can, we should put ourselves in the position to meet the onerous and heavy but justified demands of the Nigerian people”.
In his response, the anointed candidate of the APC for speakership appreciated the party for putting together “what in my opinion is perhaps the first time in the history of this country that democracy will be showcased in such a manner that members of the House of Representatives will seat down under the atmosphere of internal democracy and elect their presiding officers”. He described what took place at the venue as APC’s part payment of the change which Nigerians have asked for.
Gbajabiamila went on to state that “There are about 20 members of the APC that could not make it here today, those members are party myself and Monguno’s group.
“So if we add those members to have been registered here today, it is sufficient for the APC members on their own to win the election to the office of the Speaker. But that is not the type of mandate that I seek.
“Legally yes, we need 181 members to be the speaker and the deputy speaker. But that is not the mandate that we seek. It will be legal but it won’t be a legitimate mandate. Legitmacy is found only when you get the votes across board of all the members of the House. Both the PDP, the Labour, the APGA. Both the North, the South, the East and the West. That is legitimate mandate and that will be what myself and Hon. Monguno will be seeking when we get to the House,” he assured.
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