Stakeholders under the aegis of the Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) have said the 10th National Assembly will be more stable and productive with Reps Tajudeen Abbas and Ben Kalu’s leadership of the House of Representatives.
Bright Ngolo, the National Coordinator of NDRA, stated this on Monday while speaking on the position of the organization.
He said NDRA had been at the forefront of advocacy for legislative coherence, intelligence and activism in the 10th Assembly.
Ngolo said the Nigerian-styled democracy needed to strike a balance between legislative activism and achieving results in the overall interest of a largely under-developed populace and economy.
The group urged Nigerians not to fall for the age-long debate of zoning, religion, class or age, describing it sentiments and gimmicks crafted by political oppressors in order to continuously hold down the oppressed.
They said Nigerians had suffered from excuses of poor leadership as a result of ethnic, religious or other primordial sentiments.
He said having contributed immensely to the growth of the democratic process with the sponsorship of 73 bills in the 9th Assembly and 43 bills at the 8th Assembly, “we believe that the task of building bridges will be effortless across several interests to stabilize the leadership of the 10th House of Representatives and by extension, the nation.
“We reason that it would cost us more as a nation if we keep sacrificing our best brains on the altar of primordial sentiments such as zoning or religion. On the altar of merit, Hon Abbas stands tall and is qualified to lead the Green Chamber of the National Assembly.”
The NDRA national coordinator added: “Our major question for those arguing against the preference of Hon Tajudeen Abbas, member representing Zaria federal constituency in the House of Representatives is – Does he qualify to serve as Speaker of the House? Our answer is a capital yes. Hon Abbas has never been lazy ever since he joined the House of Representatives, in the life of outgoing Assembly, he ranks as one of the most useful contributors with a total of 73 Bills!
“We hereby renew our call on members-elect across divides to aggregate their support and queue behind an Abbas/Kalu leadership. We note that given the time frame left for the House to be inaugurated, alot more consultations have been made amongst stakeholders and the legislative agenda of Abbas/Kalu, two amongst the brightest members of the 9th House who by the grace of God and the electorates have found themselves re-elected by their people, it would be natural for us as a pressure group to appeal for the support of all members to ensure their emergence on the 13th of June 2023.
“On the other hand, we appeal to the National Working Committee of the APC not to renege on consulting all aspirants to ensure that the right thing is done to build iron-cast consensus and ensuring the emergence of pan-Nigerian candidate as leader of the 10th Assembly.”
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