The All Progressives Congress (APC) may soon take over the leadership of the House of Representatives.
This indication emerged at the weekend with the speculation that Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and some lawmakers on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will defect on Tuesday when the House reconvenes.
Already, 37 lawmakers in the lower chamber have joined the APC, a development that has given the party a slim majority over the PDP (174-172)
Should Tambuwal eventually defect as purported, there will be a major shake-up in the leadership of the House to reflect dominance of the APC.
Since return to democracy in 1999, an opposition party has never controlled any arm of the federal legislature.
The Speaker, who was elected by his colleagues from all parties represented in the green chamber, has enjoyed massive support since 2011 after his inauguration.
Although, the PDP arrangement zoned the speakership to the South-west, most of its lawmakers and others kicked against it, on the ground that the party was scheming to impose weak leaders on them.
That rebellion led to the emergence of Tambuwal, (and his deputy Emeka Ihedioha, a South-easterner), as against PDP’s anointed candidate for the post, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola.
On the planned defection by the number 4 citizen, a source told Thisday that ‘‘By Tuesday, the speaker will be gone from PDP. Arrangements have been concluded and he is leaving along with others to achieve a comfortable majority for the opposition APC. He has been consulting and now that he has finished consulting, he feels the time is now to make the move.
“Moreover, the opposition leaders have been putting pressure on him to cross over. The timing is especially urgent to frustrate the reconciliation efforts promised by the president following Tukur’s resignation on Thursday.’’
On what the speaker stands to gain from the opposition since PDP had already promised him the governorship ticket in Sokoto for the 2015 election, the source said the APC migh have promised him a better offer.
But a lawmaker against the defection said it would amount to betrayal if the Sokoto-born legislator dumped the PDP.
“Why is he so desirous of handing the leadership of the house to APC? Is it just because he is hell bent on destroying the PDP for his own selfish interest,” he said.
‘‘We are aware he has been actively wooing his party members with juicy offers of House positions to defect to the opposition APC to pave the way for his own defection. This is the worst form of betrayal anyone can dish out to his party. His heart and soul for long have been with the opposition.
“It was only his physical frame that was with us, now he wants to unite them into one. What kind of speaker does that to his party? All the while, he appears to have been a mole in PDP. Maybe it is now time for him to reveal himself and stop the pretence. I am deeply disgusted,’’ he said.
Another lawmaker believes that that it is safer for Tambuwal to remain in the ruling party.
“I think his political future is safer with PDP than with APC,” he posited. “No matter the problems we are facing now, the party will resolve them and come out stronger. What is the guarantee that APC won’t have problems? As a matter of fact, it is already having problems, especially in states where PDP governors defected to join APC. Look at Sokoto, Kano, Adamawa and even in Ogun State, there was a serious shooting and many people were injured because of an internal crisis.
“I hope APC won’t claim it is the snipers in Obasanjo’s letter that are already at work. So defection is wrong.’’
“If it is true the speaker is set to defect, it will forever haunt him because nobody will ever trust him in Nigeria again. I think he is too smart not to see the danger to future political career because of immediate political gains.’’
Reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the party was unaware of the move.
“We are totally unaware of that and I doubt it. I think it is a rumour. He was with us at NEC last week and he was very relaxed and exchanged banter with everybody, including the president. So I don’t think he will do that. Don’t forget, he is a leader of the party and the party holds him in high esteem. The party has been good to him, so I don’t think he will do that. We are even expecting him at the NEC meeting tomorrow (Monday),” he said.
Meanwhile, Chairman, Senate Committee on the Environment, Senator Bukola Saraki, has ruled out returning to the PDP.
Saraki at the weekend, in a statement issued in Ilorin and signed by a former Kwara PDP Secretary and chieftain of APC, Yemi Afolayan, said: “Insinuations that we are pleading to come back to the PDP can only exist in the infantile imagination of those behind the rumour.
“It is crystal clear to all Nigerians by now that what we have engaged ourselves with is not the politics of the stomach as must be the pastime of those who could have sat down to author such wild rumour.”
He assured his supporters that the APC is a viable platform, adding that the resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as PDP national chairman was a reason for them to ponder over their return to the fold.
http://dailypost.com.ng/2014/01/20/tambuwal-set-join-apc-saraki-forecloses-return-pdp/
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