You’re Not Speaker Yet, APC Chairman, Adamu, Tells Abbas

•Insists party leadership still consulting

Adedayo Akinwale and Udora Orizu in Abuja

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdulahi Adamu, has told one of the speakership aspirants and the consensus candidate of the party, Hon. Tajudden Abbas, not to parade himself as the speaker of the 10th Assembly yet until he waselected by the members on June 13th.

Adamu stated this yesterday in Abuja, when Abbas led other members-elect of the Joint Task Force to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

The Joint Task Team is made up of House of representatives members-elect selling the candidacy or Abbas to ensure he emerges as speaker of the 10th Assembly.

But Abbas has pleaded with Adamu to deliver him the same way he delivered the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, just as The Joint Task–10th Assembly has told the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party that over 250 members-elect were currently working with them ahead of the June 13 inauguration.

However, Adamu, has also insisted that the leadership of the party was still consulting on the recently released zoning template that was causing acrimony in the party.

His words: “I want to make one correction so that we will not be misrepresented. A quite number of you have referred to Hon. Abbas as the speaker. Please, please he is one of the aspirants. He will become a speaker on the day of proclamation.

“The laws guiding that office are very clear, he will earn that on the day of proclamation by the president and Commander-in-Chief of the 10th National Assembly.

“The Clerk to the National Assembly will conduct the election, there is no option other than the election. When he comes out of that election and they raise his hand and when he is sworn in as the Speaker, that nomenclature becomes most appropriate.

“After reporting to the National Working Committee, the discussions we had with the President-elect and leaders like the Vice President-elect, the Senate President, the Speaker; my humble self, the National Chairman of the party, my Deputy North (Senator Abubakar Kyari), Deputy South (Emma Eneukwu) and the National Secretary of the party (Sensor Iyiola Omisore), I reported our deliberations. It was clear in our declaration that there is need for further and better consultations.”

Abbas, while commending the NWC for the  role it played that led to their emergence as candidates of the party for the June 13th election, stated categorically that the party has chosen the right people for the leadership position of the 10th Assembly.

“We  will do everything humanly possible to protect the interest of the party, to protect the interest of the government and to protect the interest of the Nigerian populace. You can take it to the market Mr. Chairman that we are together.

“I want you to use this opportunity Mr. Chairman to use it to complete one item in your resume. You have conquered parliamentary several times; you were a party man several times; you were in the executive several times; you have delivered the president-elect of our party this time around. What is only outstanding to complete your resume is to deliver the leadership of the National Assembly 2013.

“Finally, Mr. Chairman, I also want to urge you as our leader – the leader of all the contestants both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, we are all your children, we want to urge you to use the position God has given you and all the members of NWC to do whatever you can to call all our co-contestants to the table.

“We are more than willing to sit down and agree on a mutual basis what we need to do to move the National Assembly forward. We want your leadership to be in the driving seat, we will cooperate, we will do everything humanly possible to  make sure that we operate as one from June 13,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Chairman of The Joint Task–10th Assembly, Hon. Usman Bello Kumo, from Gombe, has said both Abbas and Ben Kalu “are parliamentarians par excellence. They are qualified to win even without zoning. All the eight political parties are represented here. From the moment the NWC took the decision, we said this is the way to go. This is a parliamentary best practice.”