Speakership: ‘We Feel Betrayed,’- Wase, Betara, Onuoha Speak On Why They Reject Consensus Candidate

The choice of Hon. Tajudeen Abass as House of Representatives speaker for the 10th National Assembly by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress has been rejected by other top aspirants for the speakership position.

The aggrieved aspirants who met with the Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC at the party’s National Secretariat on Wednesday include Miriam Onuoha, Idris Wase, and Muktar Aliyu Betara among others.

At the meeting, the aspirants explicitly rejected the choice of Abass as the party’s consensus candidate.

The aspirants accused the party of betraying them after compelling them to shelve their speakership ambition in 2019 for Femi Gbajabiamila.

They condemned the decision of the party to release a consensus list without first consulting with all the aspirants, warning that hierarchy cannot be destroyed in parliamentary positions.

The aggrieved aspirants urged the party leadership to take another look into the matter saying the consensus list produced “cannot stand’

APC Should Avoid Repeat Of Saraki Incident — Wase

The current deputy speaker warned that the APC does not have a comfortable majority to be arrogant and take people for granted.

He warned against a repeat of the situation the party found itself in 2015 when Bukola Saraki defied party directive to emerge as senate president.

He called on co-contenders to step down for him to avoid a lopsided distribution of top positions.

He said, “We do not want a repeat of what has happened in the past. We should not forget about the Tambuwalisation of what happened in the House of Representatives. We should not forget how Saraki became the Senate president. The party as of today we do not have the majority to be that arrogant, and we should not take people for granted.”

He went on to say, “We saw the spokesman of our party confirming that there was negotiation or consultation and that was why those lists were produced.

“This is a party that we’re expecting to galvanize us and bring us into one entity called Nigeria to serve better.

“We feel betrayed by that action of the publicity secretary. We feel that if our contributions are not recognized, we are not members of this family. We feel that we have given our best but now the best is no longer needed.”

Continuing he said, “my brother Betara is eminently qualified but he should step down because we have a vice president from there. Why then are we having lopsided distribution? Is it because those of us from north central are taken as slaves? Four years is not too much, let’s not destroy this party before we go into the next election. We should build this party on the spirit and trust of equitable distribution of resources.”

Tinubu Begged Me To Step Down For Gbajabiamila In 2019 — Betara

On his part, Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara recounted how the president-elect prevailed on him to step down for current speaker Femi Gbajabiamila

He said he granted Tinubu’s request and stabilised the house for Gbajabiamila, “I was called by the President-elect (Tinubu), and he told me I want you to allow Femi to be the speaker because Femi is retiring from the National Assembly. From there we moved on to support Femi to become the speaker.

“After our election in the 9th Assembly, the President-elect still called me and said, Betara I want you to hold the House for Femi and I said Daddy, I work for Femi for four years I am not going to turn if Femi really is ready to work with us with an honest mind.

“He said go ahead I will talk to Femi. Femi appointed me as Chairman House Committee on Appropriations where I worked well with him.

“Everybody here can testify that it is in the 9th Assembly that we have a good running with the appropriations without any hitches. I have done well for the House and I have done well for the party.

“Our colleagues here can testify, I have done well for the National Assembly. When I was Chairman Army, Chairman of Defence, and now Appropriations. Sir, I have 38 members including me and my deputy chairman of the Appropriations committee but for me to stabilise the House, I co-opted 100 members to my committee just for me to stabilise the House for Femi.

APC Must Include Women In Top Positions – Onuoha

The only female contender for the speakership position, Princess Miriam Onuoha said the APC must keep to its promise of women inclusion as contained in its presidential manifesto.

She said the party is headed for anarchy if it fails to accommodate women in top government positions adding that the actions of the party in choosing a consensus candidate without due consultation was demoralizing.

“The party presented us with a manifesto which is brilliant. It encapsulates and clearly articulate the need for women’s inclusion. We mobilize women to get interested in politics and politicking because over 49.5% of Nigeria’s population are women

“If we disregard this junk population, then we are headed for anarchy. When a woman is with a project, she commits her time and life, at the time when they were divergent interests, I stuck with us, and ensured that we had seamless voting of an election process which produced our president-elect today

“Working for the APC in the South East where I was treated like a leper during an election where a strong candidate of the Labour Party, from the southeast emerged. Taking such risk, and losing the lives of my beloved ones all in loyalty and defense of my strength and alignment with the party is proof of loyalty and the reward is what I seek.

“If we stuck our necks and lost lives when it is time for reward, I believe is the state that has delivered that should be given the right of first refusal,” she added.

Adamu Calls For Calm, Says Consultations Are Still Ongoing

Reacting, APC National Chairman Abdullahi Adamu, sued for peace while promising the aggrieved aspirants that consultations are still ongoing.

He said the NWC will still reinvite the aspirants to discuss the controversies surrounding the zoning arrangements.

“As leaders of the party, you are part of the people that elected us; we cannot but listen to you, we cannot but try to understand you. We have listened to you, we don’t intend to open discussions right now with you in respect of your submissions. Like some of you who listened to the release from this office, we did say very clearly, that we would endeavour to do more consultations so that we can carry along members of this great

“I plead with you in good conscience to give us a little time to take a good and better look at your presentation and open our ears and our eyes to hear more and see more before we can come with the finality of your submission and the outcome of it.

“We will re-invite you in due course. This is a controversial subject matter for every national assembly regime. We lost time because we could not talk of sharing power in the National Assembly without our president-elect. He is the person who will run the government that we are inaugurating on May 29 and it’s only fair that we wait for him. He was out for 5 weeks and he got back a day before we had this meeting. So, I assure you we would do all the consultations and we would get back to you,” he told the aggrieved aspirants.