Opposition parties endorse APC House of Reps speaker and deputy candidates Abbas and Kalu

SIXTY three members-elect of the 10th House of Representatives representing opposition parties have endorsed the anointed candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu for speaker and deputy speaker respectively.

Over the last month, president-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has been involved in s series of meeting with members of both houses of the National Assembly, where the party has agreed on the leaders of the two chambers. Senator Godswill Akpabio from Akwa Ibom State has been agreed upon as the senate president, while Hon Abbas Tajudeen from Kaduna State has been adopted as the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Hon Kalu, who represents Bende Federal Constituency in Abia State, has been adopted as the candidate for deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. However, there has been opposition from some members of the National Assembly who say they were not consulted before these candidates were agreed upon.

There has also been a lot of opposition from the north central geo-political zone which is unhappy about the fact that it did not get any of the leadership positions. Faced with such fierce opposition, the anointed candidates have had to mount a charm offensive, wooing their colleagues and it appears that in the House of Representatives, they have successfully done this.

Ikenga Ugochinyere, the spokesman for the Coalition of United Political Parties, representing 62 other members-elect of minority political parties, announced the endorsement in Abuja earlier today. Hon Ugochinyere, the member-elect representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency, called on other speakership aspirants banking on votes of the opposition members-elect to contest against the Abbas/Kalu ticket, to withdraw from the race.

Hon Ugochinyere said: “It is on this note that I call on my colleague members-elect who are still in the race to stop and join the prefect of the class, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, to steer the ship of the 10th Assembly to beat the records of the other Houses in performance and achievement for Nigeria. Our common goal now should be beyond party and partisan politics and totally focused on Nigeria and her greater good.

"We want the best and we have selected the best and importantly, the selection is by merit. I do not speak for myself alone. I speak for the 63 like-minded honourable members-elect of the opposition family, who have agreed on a common vision for the 10th Assembly.

He added that Hon Abbas possesses all the needed qualities to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives. Hon Ugochinyere noted that with 43 bills in the eighth assembly, Hon Abbas had the third highest number of bills, while in the ninth House, the speakership candidate sponsored 74 bills.