The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may have bitten more than it can chew with its sustained silence on the zoning of the principal officers of the 10th National Assembly. After its interactive session in March with the lawmakers that won in last February National Assembly elections, the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) has since remained reclusive, thereby turning the race to the leadership of the National Assembly into a free-for-all. Among the APC national officers, only the national Vice-Chairman (North West), Salihu Lukman, has raised his voice against the perceived indifference of the NWC and other stakeholders. In one of his statements, Lukman expressed concern over the silence of his colleagues occupying the APC national secretariat whom, he noted, should give the direction on the zones to pick the presiding officers that would emerge after the June inauguration of the 10th National Assembly. Indications are rife that the party’s organs will continue to dilly-dally in driving the process on zoning until the arrival of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu who is presently out of the country. Though by virtue of provisions of the APC Constitution, Tinubu is not a member of National Executive Committee (NEC), his input on which zone gets what and is crucial.
The North East, North West mix
The failure of the APC NWC to seize the initiative may have rekindled the cold rivalry between the North-West and North-East. Ahead of the June 10th inauguration of the National Assembly, chieftains of the party from the North-West have joined the race for principal officers of both chambers of the parliament. Not left out in the race are also aspirants from the North-East region of vice-president elect, Senator Kashim Shettima. From the North-West, aspirants for the Senate presidency include Senators Barau Jibrin (Kano) and former Zamfara State Governor, AbdulAziz Yari. Equally from the zone seeking to succeed incumbent Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila are Honourable Tajudeen Abass, who represents Zaria Federal Constituency in the present 9th National Assembly and Honourable Aminu Sani Jaji from Zamfara State. Also in the race are Honourable Abubakar Makki Yalleman (Kano) and Sada Soli (Katsina). Yet to declare intention is Honourable Makki Abubakar Yalleman (Jigawa).
From the North East are incumbent president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume for the office of Senate President. The North-East only parades Honourable Aliyu Mukhtar Betara, Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, as aspirant for the office of Speaker. Incidentally, both Senator Ali Ndume and Honourable Betara are from same Borno State as vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima. In seeking simultaneously for the office of Senate President and Speaker of the House, chieftains of the APC from the North-West have continued to push the narratives of the region role in the resolution of the APC Northern Governors Forum which declared aspirants from the North ineligible for the APC presidential ticket. National vice-chairman, (North West), Lukman has however urged aspirants from his zone to let go their ambition to succeed Lawan as Senate President.
In a statement, which has courted the anger of party chieftains and supporters of some of the aspirants, the former Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum declared that it would be wrong for the ruling party to allow another Muslim to occupy office of Senate President after the public anger that trailed the single faith ticket of Tinubu-Shettima.
But for the office of Speaker, other contenders have continued to argue that the fact that the North-West had occupied the exalted seat four times since the inception of democracy in 1999, should preclude it from the 2023 race for same seat. Checks revealed that Honourable Salisu Buhari, Ghali Umar Na’ Abba, (both from Kano state, Aminu Maisari and Aminu Tambuwal, present governors of Katsina and Sokoto States, respectively have occupied the seat from the region.
Betara: The beautiful bride?
The seats of presiding officers to be contested include: president of Senate, deputy Senate president, Speaker and deputy Speaker of the House. In the list of contenders from the North-East, only Honourable Betara appears not to have a rival from his region. The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation represents Biu, Bayo, Kwaya Kusar, Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State.
Betara, who got elected into the Green Chamber in 2007 on platform of the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) has been re-elected three times, emerging as one of the few members to have served in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth assemblies.
In his first stint, Betara was Chairman of the sub-committee on NDIC, Banking and Currency and equally served as a member of the House Committee on Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office
From the sixth Assembly to the current 9th, he has been Chairman of House Committee on Army, Defence and Appropriations. Like his counterpart in the Senate, Betara continues to beat his chest that his Committee on Appropriation has played a key role in the restoration of the January- December Budget cycle. The Appropriation Act 2022 and the 2022 Finance Act 2021 were also passed in the course of his tenure.
Despite yearnings for Betra, Nigerians say zoning may be his biggest encumbrance towards realising his dream to succeed Femi Gbajabiamila: Betara is from same North East, same state as vice- president elect, Kashim Shettima.
Tajudeen Abass
Among the many contenders for the post of speaker, Honourable Tajudeen Abass, who represents Zaria Federal constituency of Kaduna state, is said to be a rallying point for members-elect and key political stakeholders. Abass, a three-term member, has exuded uncommon excellence in pursuing his primary responsibility as a legislator, which is lawmaking. Popularly referred to as ‘Mr. Bills’ by analysts, the Abass has shown that he is not a run-off-the-mill lawmaker but one who is prepared, knows the road, follows it and lives it. Thus far, the lawmaker has carved a niche for himself and explicitly demonstrated capacity, competence and unwavering commitment to meeting the aspirations of his constituents and Nigerians at large. In the 8th Assembly, Abass emerged as the third highest sponsor with 43 bills and 13 motions. Presently, he is the highest bill sponsor in the 9th Assembly with 78 bills and seven motions to his credit. Of these bills, Mr President has assented to 20 of them. It is on the crest of this achievement that Abass stepped forward to contest for the position of speaker. Born 57 years ago, Abass is well educated and holds a Ph.D in Business Management from Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto. He began his primary education at LEA Primary School, Lemu in Zaria in 1970 and got his First School Leaving Certificate in 1976. He was at Government Secondary School, Makarfi between 1976 and 1978 but was later transferred to Katsina Teachers College in 1978 and passed out in 1981 with the Teachers Grade II Certificate. He later obtained a diploma in Accounting at the Ahmadu Bello University in 1984. He would later return to ABU in 1985 and graduated in 1988 with a B.Sc. in Business Administration and capped it up with a Masters of Business Administration in 1993 at the same university.
Abass began his public service career as a primary school teacher in 1981 and left thereafter to join Kaduna Cooperative Bank Ltd as a clerical officer where he worked for one year between 1984 and 1985 before joining the services of Trust Acceptance Limited as an Investment Officer. He also left after a year and joined Kaduna State Polytechnic (Now Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria) Bursary Department as Accountant II. He transferred his services to academics as Lecturer II in 1989 with the Finance and Accounting and was in fact the founding Head of Department and taught until 1993, when he became the Area Marketing Manager with Nigeria Tobacco Distributors Company (British-American Tobacco). Between 1998 and 2001, he served as the General Manager of the Jos Tobacco Distribution Company.
Desirous to pursue knowledge, Abass returned to the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria as a Senior Lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department in 2001 until 2005. When Kaduna State University was established, he joined the services of the university as a Lecturer I in the Department of Accounting, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, where he was also the founding Head of Department until 2010.
Abass cut his political teeth in 2011 when he was elected to the House of Representatives to represent Zaria Federal Constituency on the platform of the Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Apart from being deputy chairman, committee on legislative compliance between 2011 and 2015, he also served on different standing and ad hoc committees of the House. Due to his excellent outing, he was reelected in 2015 and was made Chairman, House Committee on Solid Minerals by Speaker Yakubu Dogara. He was reelected for the second time in 2019 and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila named him Chairman, House Committee on Land Transport.
The lawmaker has been the caucus leader, Kaduna State, House of Representatives since 2019 and chaired the Sub Committee on Constitutional Review Conference for North Central geo political in 2021. He also served as the Treasurer, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (African Chapter), Governing Council member Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies, 2019 to date, (NILDS) representing North-West geo-political zone.
Most importantly, Abass is believed to be popular among his colleagues in the House because of his antecedents and reach. Consequently, many of the lawmakers-elect are rooting for his candidature.
Yusuf Adamu Gagdi
Many stakeholders are also paying a keen interest to Honourable Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, the lawmaker representing Pankshin/Kanam/Kanke constituency in the 9th National Assembly, who has a network of friends and associates across the board. . His rise to prominence affirms the truism that hard work, diligence and commitment to the welfare of the masses will take a politician to the top. Though a first-term lawmaker in the current House, his achievements already dwarf those of his colleagues who have been privileged to do four terms in the National Assembly. Gagdi set a record as the first first-term lawmaker to have six self-sponsored bills accented to by the president. Two of the bills are for federal universities, while the seventh bill awaits accent. The list of the bills include: bill for the establishment of the Federal University, Pankshin, Plateau State; bill for the establishment of Admiralty University, Edosa, Delta State; And as the Chairman, House Committee on the Navy, he established the university for the Navy to improve its capacity. He also initiated the bill for the repeal and re-enactment of the Police Act. The Nigerian Police Act had been in existence since 1947 (during the colonial era). To underscore the significance of the bill when passed by the National Assembly, President Buhari accented to it on September 16, 2020. This new Police Act addresses the flaws in the old Act in a number of ways, as the old practice of arresting the wives of crime suspects has been outlawed. A relative of the crime suspect shall not be arrested until the suspect himself is found. Secondly, women now have equal rights as men in the new Police Act, and can even rise to become the inspector-general. The new Police Act has given power to communities, having recognied Community Policing. Paramount traditional rulers will co-chair the community policing committee with the commissioner of Police. This is cascaded down to senatorial and federal constituency levels. His footprints on the sands of time also include the bill for the establishment of the National Hydrographic Agency. The agency shall relate with the ports authority to give nautical information about activities on our waterways. The agency shall be headed by Hydrographer- General of the nation, who shall be a naval General. The major strides of Gagdi are also evident in the bill for the establishment of Federal Polytechnic, Nyak in Shendan, Plateau state; a bill for the establishment of Federal College of Education, Dengi- Kanam, in the state; another bill for the establishment of a Maritime Security Trust Fund for the Navy. This will enable the Navy to acquire modern platforms to boost its capacity to combat piracy, oil theft, vandalism and other maritime-related crimes. Given that the Nigerian waterways constitute a cash cow, the importance of this bill cannot be over emphasised. He has built 24 palaces and befitting offices for traditional rulers and secretaries to the traditional councils at a cost of over N100 million each. He also built 28 units of classroom blocks in 28 locations in his federal constituency. Besides, he constructed 14 modern primary health care units and built three befitting police posts in the constituency. His enviable records also include the building of six town halls and skill acquisition centres in his constituency. He constructed 23 roads across Pankshin, Kanke, Kanam, including township roads in the three local government areas. Gagdi provided 2100 units of solar street lights and drilled 264 boreholes (hand pump and motorised) with the boreholes present in almost all polling units in the constituency. Apart from boreholes he has done eight culverts and bridges, and constructed two secretariats for the community development associations in the constituency.
On education, the lawmaker paid NECO, UTME, WAEC fees for all SS3 students of his constituency amounting to N324million, just as he placed premium on the security of lives and property of his constituents. For example, he procured Hilux vans for three local police divisions and provided 1,618 motorcycles, 80 tricycles and 118 cars so far, to empower young people in his constituency.
It would be recalled that during the Coronavirus pandemic, Gagdi supported the downtrodden with about N36 million, in addition to the distribution of food items worth about N54 million to his constituents. Only last December, he distributed 14 trailers of rice to the three Local Government areas and 77 cows to Christians and Muslims in the communities making up his constituency. He also donated cars to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Jammatul Nasril Islam (JNI) across the constituency. It is no surprise that Gagdi is very popular with both Christian and Muslims. Of course, thanks to his fair-minded nature, as he does not discriminate against any religion. His constituency is 70 percent Muslim, yet because of his generous and detribalised nature, clerics across religious divides preach that their adherents should vote for him, as he is the sort of person Nigeria needs at the helm of affairs. In addition to his impressive six bills that got presidential accents, he brought 18 motions on the floor of the House, largely security-related. In his oversight functions as chairman of the House Committee on the Navy, Gagdi visited all naval formations in the country three times. This was meant to put them on their toes, ensure discipline in the service and ensure that the rights of junior officers and men were not trampled upon. Interestingly, a lot of what he achieved above was done using his personal resources.
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