Amidst rising tension over the zoning of presiding officers positions in the 10th assembly, by the All Progressives Congress (APC), an aspirant for the office of speaker of the House of House of Representatives, Yusuf Gagdi, has said that aspirants for the speakership position are yet to hear from the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on the issue.
Gagdi, who stated this, on Tuesday, in Abuja, while speaking on the controversy surrounding the zoning of the positions Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, said he is convinced that the zoning arrangement as announced by the APC is not Tinubu’s idea.
The APC had last week named Godswill Akpabio(South South), Jibrin Barau( North West), Tajudeen Abass (North West) and Benjamin Kalu( South East) as its preferred candidates for the positions of Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively. In protest, a group of seven speakership aspirants formed a coalition code named G-7 to fight against what they described as an attempt to impose a speaker on the Green chamber.
Gagdi, who is also a member of the G7, noted that the group is committed to ensuring that one of them becomes the next speaker of the House. He stated that “when you zone and tie the zoning to an individual, you make a mockery of the system.”
According to him, it is unjust to cede two presiding officers positions in the North West, while the North Central has none despite the contribution of the zone to the ruling party in the 2023 general elections.
He added “up till today, I don’t believe that what is happening; the president elect is aware of it. Or it is his own idea. No. That is why we kept attacking , challenging the party. It is the party that issued the thing. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised that he will reward loyalty and commitment. He won only one local govt in Kaduna State out of the local government. Birnin Gwari.
” In a state where you won only one local government. You are giving speakership to that state. I think it negates the principles of the President- elect. What the party did has contradicted the promise and commitment and way of politics of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Because he looks at what you bring to the table and reward you.”
“We are not against anybody. We are not even against the President elect, because as far as we are concerned, we have not heard anything from him. We have not heard anything from him whether he has zoned , whether he has endorsed a particular candidate..”
The speakership hopeful, responding to questions, whether the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima and Abass, has reached to the aggrieved aspirants, noted that ” I don’t think Tajudeen Abbas even has my number. I don’t think so. I don’t think he wants to get it. If he says he is reaching out to us, tell him I said he is not reaching out to us. And I’m not using this to plead that he should reach out to me.
“For the VP-elect, yes, he is my father! I think I reached out to him. Before he made this comment; there was an appointment that I was going to meet with him and he didn’t tell me to step down. I met him as a political leader of the north to equally tell him my intention to contest for speaker , because hither to this moment I’ve not officially declared that to him and I told him and he prayed and wished me well. So, if there’s any engagement regarding to who becomes speaker, weather reaching out to us support to Tajudeen Abbas, I have not discussed that with the VP-elect yet”.