Like a ball juggler in a circus, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has found itself in a delicate balancing act. This is not because the South-North balance of president and vice president has not been met but on the accounts of the religion of both officeholders. The deed has been done. The president and his vice have been sworn in and have proceeded, as they should, to set about the business of governance.
The challenge here, and of particular interest to this column today is the House of Representatives where a pack of candidates are chasing down the leadership of the house.
Ranking members like the current Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase from Plateau, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Muktar Aliyu Betara from Borno State, the chairman of the Committee on Navy, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi from Plateau State, the Chairman of Committee on Land Transportation, Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna, Sada Soli Jibiya from Katsina State, Aminu Jaji from Zamfara State and Miriam Onuoha from Imo State are jostling for the plum seat. Although, the House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa from Kano State, Makki Yalleman from Jigawa State and Abdulraheem Olawuyi from Kwara State have withdrawn from the race, it is still a packed field, one fraught with a lot of controversies and landmines for both the candidates and the party and by extension the country.
Every observer will see the fallacy of the party in 2015 when the president folded his arms at first and watched the jostle for leadership play out with subterfuge and cunning. By the time the executive intervention came, it was ill-timed and backfired, aiding the emergence of candidates that are opposed to the government.
Governing Nigeria is a delicate balancing act, even a child with no political experience would tell you that. It is, therefore, a prudent thing that President Bola Tinubu and the party are not folding their arms about zoning the leadership of the green chamber.
Since the party decided to zone the speakership of the house to the North West region, and the president had endorsed the choice of Hon. Tajuddeen Abbas, (APC, Kaduna State) for the position, a lot of political acrobatics has come into play by others who have maintained an interest in that position.
Many Nigerians who have not paid close attention to the legislature have asked who Rep. Abbas is. Understandable, since he is not someone giving to the ostentations, spectacle and exhibitionism of political office. In many ways that is true, but far from being an obscure, passive member of the house, at a cursory glance, one would see that he is arguably the best-performing member of the house, with several awards testifying to this.
He first came into my orbit, during the chaos of #EndSARS when Nigerians turned to the lawmakers to help streamline the police and it turned out that months before, Rep. Abbas had sponsored HB 1313: Nigeria Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021. It turned out he had sponsored quite a handful of bills before then. That one was only the 70th in the 9th Assembly alone. SEVENTIETH. In the interval since, he sponsored four more bills and ended the 9th assembly with a record 74 bills, 21 of which have been assented to by the president. He also led the 8th Assembly with the number of bills sponsored. Some of these bills include the National Youths Welfare Scheme Fund (Establishment) Bill, 2019, National Universities Commission Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019, as well as bills establishing federal medical centres in Abakiliki, Owerri, Owo, Nguru and others.
To question his credential to be the Speaker of the House on his record will be a fallacy of the worst kind, to challenge it on him being a super quiet achiever, one who went about his task without fanfare and pomp is even more so.
By sheer dint of hard work, Hon. Abbas has more than earned his place in the sun and I suspect his leadership of the house will encourage productivity amongst his peers, provide guidance and be an example of meritocracy.
Is he going to be a pushover? A rubber stamp speaker for the executive such as the last house was? Some have pointed to Tinubu’s endorsement of him as a possible pointer to this. First, I don’t see Rep. Abbas as a greenhorn to positions of leadership. He was, after all, the House Committee Chairman on Land Transportation. He had also headed the banking and finance departments positions at both Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic and Kaduna State University in the departments of banking and finance. Secondly, we have seen how disharmony between the executive and legislature has caused friction that impeded governance in ways that have caused hardship for Nigerians. President Tinubu does not need that excuse and we can’t afford to give it to him. Rep. Abbas’s pedigree, as a legislator and academic, a PhD holder, a classroom teacher, a university lecturer and the Iyan Zazzau title holder, will serve him well in the first instance; the range of bills he sponsored in the house also shows him to be someone with his eyes on the ball who will do well in holding the executive to account as well as a track record of working with members across the board.
Politics is a confusing game. While it is important for the speaker of the House to emerge in a free and fair process, it is also important for that process to be free of discord. It is even better if that process is achieved by consensus. While groups like the Joint Task – 10th Assembly comprising members from all the eight parties that form the 10th Assembly like the APC, PDP, YPP and Labour and others have endorsed the zoning of the speakership to the North West and Rep Abbas’s endorsement, as have several states governors, the ruling party must also be conscious of the emergence of another group that is trying to unite all the opposition parties who, combined, have 163 seats, edging the ruling party’s 162, with some 30 or so seats still undetermined. If the party doesn’t play its cards well, as it did in 2015, the upset that occurred then might just repeat itself.
Most Nigerians hardly pay attention to what is happening in these chambers but right now, Nigeria is the farthest off track that it has ever been in its history. To get back on track, both the executive and the legislature must get their acts right. In this case, well, the obvious is obvious for a reason.
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