…By Joseph Benjamin for TDPel Media. Reports suggest that four leading contenders for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria’s 10th National Assembly have held talks to engage in alliance talks.
This follows reports of the endorsement of Tajudeen Abbas for the position of Speaker by President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The endorsement has faced opposition from other federal lawmakers in the race for the leadership of the National Assembly who are not willing to give up their ambitions.
According to Leadership, front runners for the position of Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, Aliyu Murktar Betara (chairman, House Committee on Appropriation), Sada Soli, and Sani Jaji, met on Saturday night at the private residence of one of them in Maitama District, Abuja.
At the meeting, it was reportedly agreed to work together and present a common front, although it was unclear who among them was likely to be backed for the speakership contest.
The four lawmakers directed their supporters to attend the declaration of each of them, and a joint committee involving their confidants has been set up to harmonize positions and present a workable template within seventy-two hours.
This development appears to have deepened the crisis over the race for the Senate presidency and speakership of the House of Representatives of the 10th National Assembly.
In a related development, Abbas from Kaduna State has reportedly been adopted as the preferred choice of what a source described as the ‘Lagos cabal’ led by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
However, the purported adoption and endorsement of Abbas as the preferred choice of Tinubu was reportedly rejected by the secretary of the now-dissolved presidential campaign council, James Faleke.
At a Lagos caucus meeting, Faleke disclosed that Tinubu’s actual choice for the position of Speaker remained Sani Jaji from Zamfara.
He reportedly accused Gbajabiamila of deliberate misinformation on the speakership issue, saying the Abbas adoption was his (speaker’s) personal agenda and not a decision of the party nor Tinubu’s.
Gbajabiamila later held secret meetings with Deputy Speaker of the House, Idris Ahmed Wase, and the chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Aliyu Mukhtar Betara.
The outcome of the alliance between Wase and Betara against Hon Abbas is unclear, but reports suggest that Gbajabiamila is jittery about the possible outcome.
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