- Honourable Garba Mohammad said Femi Gbajabiamila is the best qualified candidate to become the next speaker of the house
- Mohammad explained that Gbajabiamiila ordinarily should have been elevated to the position of Speaker without any issues
- According to him, Femi he has been in the leadership since 2007, he has performed wonderfully well
A member of the House of Representatives, Garba Datti Mohammad, representing Sabon Gari federal constituency in Kaduna state has declared support Femi Gbajabiamila to become the speaker of the incoming 9th assembly.
The Nation reports that Mohammad, the ranking member in the green chamber, said Gbajabiamila ordinarily should have been elevated to the position of speaker without any fuss.
He said: “That is because it is the normal convention in all democracies of the world. The majority party will always constitute the leadership and whoever is the head of that party in parliament that has the majority party automatically becomes the presiding officer.
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“It happened in recent time. Just last November after the midterm election in US Nancy Pelosky became the speaker. She was the Minority Leader but once they became the majority, she automatically became the Speaker.
“And this is the second term she has emerged as the Speaker; not even through election! It was just automatic. There was no election, although we have some slight differences in our constitution.
“To me, the decision of the party leaders is right. These (Gbajabiamila and Lawan) are two leaders that have done a lot for this party, so they deserve to lead.”
On the argument of the North Central lawmakers that they contributed more to the emergence of the President through their number of votes, he said: “Well, anybody can argue whatever he wants to argue but the hard fact is, these are our leaders and we have majority now, so automatically they should take over because they have never been found wanting in their positions.
“They have played very vital roles. Like Femi, he has been in the leadership since 2007 as Minority Whip, Minority Leader to Majority Leader and he has performed wonderfully well.
“Then you can never take away experience in this system; competence, experience, doggedness, everything you are looking for and he has paid his dues, so to me, there is no issue.
Speaking on the position of some PDP lawmakers that Gbajabiamiila can never be their speaker, he said: “The minority can always have their say; the majority will always have their way! You can say whatever, the only thing is to try and unite as a party. Once we unite, PDP has no mouth to talk.
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“They cannot decide who becomes the presiding officer. They can decide who becomes the Minority Leader and the Minority Whip but they cannot decided the Speaker; that is we put our house in order. I don’t think there will be much problem.
“Yes. I think the party has started doing that.I know of a person that even the President himself talked to him. I know of another person who his governor will talk to him either today or tomorrow to step down.
“So, I am sure we will have it right when the chips are down. Some are just flying kites, some are serious and some are not serious. We know that.”
Recall that Legit.ng reported that the APC explained why it settled for Senator Ahmad Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as Senate president and speaker respectively.
The party leadership said its decision was because the duo are the highest ranking members in both chambers of the National Assembly.
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Source: Legit.ng
