Politics

10th NASS: Opposition parties plot to shock APC in secret meeting

Published

3 years ago

Race to the 10th National Assembly is heating up as th coalition of members-elect of the House of Representatives in the minority parties has finally declared their bid for the office of the Speaker.

Arising from the closed-door meeting in Abuja on Thursday night, the minority caucus stated that it was out to contest the speakership seat with the All Progressives Congress, claiming that the ruling party has lost its majority status in the 10th House after the supplementary 2023 general elections.

A prominent member of the House in the Peoples Democratic Party who does not want to be mentioned, who had on Tuesday told our correspondent that there were “interesting times ahead,” forward the resolutions reached at the meeting on Thursday night.

The resolution partly read, “Buoyed by its numerical superiority in the 10th House of Representatives, the emergent minority caucus, ‘Greater Majority,’ has resolved to gun for the speakership position. Following the outcome of last Saturday’s supplementary elections, membership of the Minority caucus has swollen to 182, one vote more than the statutory benchmark required to elect a speaker – with prospects of gaining more members.

“Already, there are permutations to promote a speakership candidate from the South-South geopolitical zone and a deputy speaker from the North-West.

“Rising from an emergency meeting of the Minority Caucus leadership held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, the caucus, made up of seven political parties, stated emphatically that it was primed to contest the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 10th National Assembly.”

The opposition lawmakers argued that the 1999 Constitution “imbues every elected member with the statutory right to gun for any position, subject to the standing orders of the House.”

The members-elect added, “Besides the issue of ranking, every member is entitled to run for the Office of Speaker, regardless of political party affiliation.

“The APC or, indeed, any political party for that matter, reserves the right to regale itself with talks about micro-zoning leadership positions in the National Assembly. But the overriding question remains, are such fanciful engagements binding of the generality of members-elect? The answer today, tomorrow – and until our current Constitution is altered to reflect that desire – is a big NO.”

According to the ‘Greater Majority,’ the issues surrounding “this all-important question” is easily resolved, in the case of the House of Representatives, by Section 50(1)(b), to wit: “There shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”

The lawmakers stated, “While zoning is permitted, as an intra-party solution to the sharing of political offices, seeking to enforce such on the generality of members would be tantamount to affronting Section 50 of the Nigerian constitution.

“Besides, political parties must not always use the National Assembly as guinea pigs for their zoning fancies. Why didn’t these governors summon the same courage, which they currently seek to flaunt, during the presidential primaries, by micro-zoning the presidency to a particular zone? If it was okay to say that the presidential ticket should go to the South, then I think they ought to follow through with that same template and propose, for instance, that the speakership should go to the North.”

The members-elect of the House on the platform of opposition parties had on April 4, 2023, formed an alliance ahead of the inauguration of the 10th Assembly, with the aim of determining not only the leadership of the minority caucus but also the parliament.

The lawmakers-elect had met in Abuja where they mooted using their numbers as a bargaining power in their negotiations with the members seeking to be Speaker of the House in the coming Assembly.