Why North-West Deserves Speaker Position

A candidate for the position of Speaker in the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas on Sunday insisted that the North-West geopolitical zone is the rightful place to produce the Speaker.

He explained his reasoning during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stating that the North-West contributed the most votes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election and has 26 per cent of the House’s total members.

Abbas mentioned that the North-West has always been a significant contributor of votes in presidential elections and that its representation in the House is another factor to consider.

He argued that if the president and vice president come from different regions, the Senate President position should ideally go to the North-West.

Abbas said, “The North-West has seven states and in the last election, we gave the President-elect more than 2.7 million votes. In every presidential election before now, the region that gave the highest votes is almost always the North-West. Secondly, the North-West has 93 members out of 360 which is almost 26 per cent of the entire members of the House of Reps; that is another factor that needs to be considered.

“And thirdly, if the president comes from the South-West and the vice president from the North-East, if not because of the peculiarity of the Muslim-Muslim ticket, I am sure based on the contribution of the North-West the Senate President would have been what we will ideally ask for.”

The Zaria Federal Constituency representative asserted that the House members he has spoken to agree that the North-West is the rightful place for the next Speaker.

He also rejected the idea that he would be a “rubber stamp” if elected, highlighting his qualifications and experience.

The lawmaker said, “What makes them think that I am weak? The fact that I don’t come out to insult anybody? The fact that you are a team player? You play along with everyone? You live along with everyone in the House, you don’t have enemies, you have only friends?

“The fact that you contribute more than any other member in the 9th assembly? You are qualified based on public and private sector experience. Does that make me weak? What people need to understand is to go and look at the pedigree and the antecedent of every member, the issue of being rubber stamp is neither here nor there.”