In what seem to affirm the popular political phrase: “There is no permanent friend or enemy, but only permanent interest in politics” is the scenario between Abdulmumin Jibrin and Femi Gbajabiamila, both House of Representatives members from Kano and Lagos states respectively.
It will be recalled that in the build up to the election of house speaker in 2015, Jibrin who represents Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency had kicked against the emergence of Mr. Gbajabiamila as speaker, noting that it was the responsibility of the house to elect its speaker.
He also opposed the then decision of the All Progressives Congress, APC to pick a consensus candidate, which could have presented Gbajabiamila as the candidate of the party.
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He however, admitted that Gbajabiamila was eminently qualified for the office but sided with Pro-Dogara members who insisted the house must be allowed to choose it leaders.
He added that the popular candidate was Yakubu Dogara who represents Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa. Jibrin, who was the arrow head of the Dogara campaign, supported Dogara for the top job.
But four years down the line, the pendulum has swung, and he is now spearheading the Gbajabiamila campaign for speakership in the 9th house.
Jibrin Battles Dogara
After the inauguration of the 8th reps, Jibrin and Dogara fell apart. The House of Representatives on September 28, 2016 suspended Jibrin, at the centre of the alleged budget padding scandal, for 180 legislative days.
Jibrin had petitioned the EFCC, the SSS and the police with alleged evidence of fraudulent manipulation of budget by Mr. Dogara, his deputy Yusuf Lasun, House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, and nine others. He said the speaker and other principal officers should resign for the budget padding.
He was earlier eased out as chairman Appropriation Committee.
He accused the house principal officers of illegally inserting and allocating projects worth over N20 billion to their constituencies in the 2016 budget.
Gbajabiamila Is The Man
Gbajabiamila represents Surulere Federal Constituency.
The APC on April 16, 2019 officially adopted Gbajabiamila as its consensus candidate for the top reps job, in a bid to foil a repeat of the mistake of 2015 that threw up Saraki and Speaker Dogara as leaders of parliament.
During the official declaration of Gbajabiamila for the office of Speaker in March, Jibrin had called on all lawmakers to uphold democracy and bring back civility to the Nigerian legislature.
“The candidacy of Femi is not about him, it is about our democracy, bringing back civility, adopting what we always preach, and global best practice. Why is it that when it comes to Nigeria, we are good in preaching but very bad in practice
“I will not be making a mistake if I say Gbajabiamila stands out as the best candidate we can offer for that position; experience, brilliance, astuteness, organization, relationship,” he said.
He urged all APC lawmakers to adhere to the position of the party.
“Some of us were guilty of what happened in 2011 and 2015, but for the fact that it happened then, does not mean we cannot correct it. It is the responsibility of all of us to see that we bring back this tradition to existence.
“We are not taking the situation for granted and we will not because we understand that within and without, there are other people interested. We will respect every other person, run a very clean campaign, not interested in throwing mud.
“We will continue to work hard, consult, reach out to everyone and we call on everybody, all members-elect, across party, that they should all come and join hands, we are giving them the guarantee that Gbajabiamila will be a speaker for every member of the House of Reps,” he added.