Abbas and His Wives’ Drama

Notes for File

A mild drama ensued at the House of Representatives on Tuesday as the wives of the new Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, shoved each other aside in their efforts to take what each considered as her rightful position during the swearing in ceremony. The incident occurred after Abbas had been elected speaker by a landslide.

Abbas had defeated Idris Wase and Sani Jaji to win the election after polling 353 votes, while each of the other two contestants got three votes.

All seemed to be going well when Abbas was ushered to the stage to take his oaths of allegiance.

The Deputy Clerk of the House, Kamoru Ogunlana, recited the oaths for the new speaker to respond to.

Abbas was flanked on his left by one of his wives and a lawmaker representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada federal constituency in Kano State, Alhassan Ado Doguwa. 

The routine event was, however, interrupted by another wife of Abbas, who barged to the podium and attempted to shove the other wife aside for her to take a position beside her husband.

But her co-wife resisted her and with the intervention of Doguwa, who shifted a little, the wife that came first moved to the left hand side and stood between Doguwa and the speaker, leaving the other wife at the right hand of the speaker.

The action appeared to have embarrassed Abbas, who halted his oath rendering to exchange heated words with the wife who came last.

Abbas, a prince from the Zazzau emirate who holds the traditional title of Iyan Zazzau, was a primary school teacher, a polytechnic and university lecturer before his foray into politics in 2010. He holds a master’s degree and a PhD in business administration.

What the video clearly portrayed to many Nigerians is that despite his accomplishments, he does not enjoy peace at home. For the wives to put up such embarrassing behaviours in public showed that their animosities started from home.

The new Speaker needs to warn his wives not to bring domestic squabbles to public functions to avoid embarrassing him.