The decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to handpick Tajudeen Abass as its anointed candidate for the Speaker of the House of Representatives is no longer going as planned as the lawmakers are already shopping for another candidate, some members of the National Assembly have revealed.
Some of the National Assembly members stated on Tuesday that the President, Bola Tinubu, and party leaders, would be forced to abandon Abass and might already be considering another lawmaker from the North-West region.
“Even in the Aso Rock, the move to install Abass over the House of Representatives differs from a consensus of lawmakers from the North West, which the party zoned the position to,” one of the sources revealed.
SaharaReporters had on Sunday reported that some federal lawmakers-elect revealed why the APC zoning arrangement for the leadership of the National Assembly could not stand.
The lawmakers-elect in separate interviews had said they were not consulted before the announcements, which signalled the President Bola Tinubu government’s disposition of trying to handpick the leaders of the National Assembly and make them rubber-stamp.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Tinubu amid the National Assembly leadership crisis had been scheduled to meet with the lawmakers-elect from opposition political parties over the intensifying tussle.
The meeting is expected to be attended by opposition senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), among other opposition parties at the State House in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers, it was gathered, are planning to sponsor another lawmaker against the party’s wish.
Sources also hinted that the President was looking in another direction to balance positions in the national legislature in order to avoid the 2015 experience where the party did not endorse the then Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
“The handpicking of Abass by the APC has bred a cold war between President Tinubu and former President Buhari, where the latter was said not to have been consulted before the APC NWC decided to pick Abass for the role,” one of them said.
“The lawmakers-elect met in Kano State and did not hide their feeling that they were disappointed and ready to scuttle the party's zoning arrangement,” another source continued.
“The conclusion is that the President and his predecessor needed to be adequately consulted before the decision. The lawmakers-elect have met our colleagues from the opposition and are not backing down. They are mounting pressure on President Tinubu.
“The lawmaker they are preparing to face Tajudeen Abass is Aminu Jaji from Zamfara State, where Senator Abdulaziz Yari comes from; some of the party leaders have concluded to go for Aminu Jaji, who comes from the same state as Yari,”
"We will see what happens when the President meets everyone this week. Everybody is putting their cards on the table. They may later disregard the President if his decision does not suit them."
Jaji, a House of Representatives member from Zamfara State, is a ranking supporter of President Tinubu and his predecessor, Buhari.
He reportedly served as the contact and mobilisation director of the Bola Tinubu Campaign Council for the North-West region.