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A top contender for the speakership of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, in this interview with journalists speaks on his aspiration as well as the issues that may determine the choice of the leadership of the National Assembly. MUYIWA OYINLOLA was there for LEADERSHIP
Some people say that the problem with your aspiration is that you’re from Kano State and the president-elect is from Katsina State in the same North-West; how do you marry the aspiration with this?
In the first place, I think we are getting the interpretation of the zoning completely wrong. The president is not supposed to be zoned; he is the president of Nigeria. General Buhari was never presented as the candidate of the North West; he was presented as the candidate of Nigeria. He is supposed to be neutral and not show bias to any zone.
The whole idea was for the president to emerge first. After the emergence of the president, then the six geo-political zones will now sit down and distribute whatever positions that are left, particularly those of the parliament. I think we need to get this properly right.
You’re going to have seven segments, six are that of the zone and one is that of the president. This is really going to help the country when people realize that the president is not supposed to be included.
If the president is included in the zoning, Rochas Okorocha wouldn’t have contested against General Buhari.
So, it was never zoned to the North-West. Yes, of course Mr President will be very proud that he is from the North West, but this idea of trying to exclude the North-West from other offices because the president comes from the zone is very unfair and is tantamount to blackmail and I don’t think anybody should blackmail the North-western part of the country.
We have the largest contingent of state assemblies’ members, the largest contingent of senators and the House of Reps, and we gave the highest number of votes in the presidential election. Now if you exclude us, what do you want us to tell our people? What do you want us to go back and tell all the people that gave all those votes to the president? The president is for the entire country, So, we want other offices that we’ll take back to our people for them to be able to hold back to something. We don’t want to see the president-elect as that of the North.
I’m calling on every eligible senator and House of Reps member from the North-West to come out and contest for the leadership of the National Assembly. It is our right like every other zone. We shouldn’t be boxed into a corner; this is blackmail against the North-West, and we’re not going to allow it. It is not about Abdulmumin; it is about the North-western zone. I know the challenges we have in that zone. I know the population we have in that zone; I know what people went through to bring the APC on board. We have six zones and we should sit down and share these offices among them. That is why I’m in this contest, and I believe that at the end of the day, I’m going to win.
Looking back at history, has it always been like that?
History is a continuous process, and for every historical stage, there are circumstances and every segment of our history comes with its own peculiarity. So, this particular situation comes with its own peculiarity. We don’t have to say what happened in 1979, 1989 or in 1960 has to happen now, no. We have to look at the present reality, the maturity of our democracy, the nature of the merger that was consummated, the need for equity and have a Nigerian president and not a zonal president etcetera, all these issues combined to form my opinion that it is the right of every eligible lawmaker to aspire to these positions.
Won’t there be a repeat of the Tambuwal scenario where Namadi Sambo became vice president from Kaduna and the speaker from Sokoto both in North-West? Are you not playing the same drama?
I didn’t talk about every member. I’m calling on eligible senators and eligible members of the House of Reps to all come out and contest for leadership positions of the National Assembly.
I want to say it without any contradiction that the Tambuwal scenario cannot happen under the present circumstances. In 2011, it happened. I was in the tick of everything that took place. We did everything that we did, and we have no regrets of apologies. But it is not going to happen this time around.
In 2011, we were in PDP, and we were not happy with the party. We had issues with the president then, but the scenario now is completely different. We’re happy with our party and we have a strong president-elect who is a well-respected man of integrity, no nonsense president and everybody respects him.
The psychological feelings among members is completely different.
Everybody has respect for the party and the president-elect. If you look at it in 2011, there were no sufficient candidates from where the majority party wanted to bring the speaker from. But in this case, there are a lot of competent people who are gunning for the position of speaker. I think we’re not going to have any challenge choosing anybody to come up as the new speaker. So, I strongly believe we cannot have the Tambuwal scenario.
Some aspirants that are flying that flag of the Tambuwal scenario I think they’re only trying to play to the gallery; they cannot go against the party. The party is strong enough; everybody respects the party. I think the party will deal decisively with anybody who tries to set it at collision with members of the House.
If the party comes out to zone, it is very dangerous if you go against it, because it is going to lay a very faulty foundation for the Buhari administration and we don’t want to do that. It is in the interest of everyone to support the zoning arrangement of the party. I believe they’re going to do it with fairness and justice, we will respect the zoning formula. I know of an aspirant that came out to say he is not going to respect the zoning formula of the party, and I think the party has taken note of that and they should take the necessary action.
Someone mentioned that that particular aspirant took to that position because he wants to seduce members of the PDP to come and support him, but I know members of the PDP; I’ve been with them for four years.
Emeka Ihedioha is a fantastic leader; Leo Ogor a consummate lawmaker and an excellent personality, and of course you have very good lawmakers and people of integrity like Nnenna, Tajuddeen Yusuf and so on.
All these people will support an APC candidate base on his capacity to deliver, his integrity and ability to lead, not because he is a rebel against his own party. If you think to be rebellious against your own party is the only way you can use to lure PDP to support you, I wish you good luck, but I think the PDP is smarter than that.
Based on what you said, will it be save to say your aspiration is now subject to the zoning formula of your party?
Of course, I have said that and maybe if you want an emphasis, I have said it very clearly. Every right thinking leader and member of the APC should support whatever zoning formula of the party, because if you don’t, it is going to set the party on a very wrong footing, and the foundation is going to be faulty; we’re going to have all sorts of problems. That is not what we want.
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