Political News in Nigeria Today
10th NASS: Abbas says Reps will not be rubber stamp under his leadership
House of Representatives candidate for speaker Tajudeen Abbas claims that if elected, the 10th assembly won’t be a rubber-stamp.
After meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential palace on Thursday, Abbas briefed the media.
Abbas and Benjamin Kalu were put forth by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as candidates for speaker and vice-speaker of the house of representatives, respectively.
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According to Abbas, the ninth assembly—which was viewed as a “rubber-stamp”—was “the best” in the history of the country because it collaborated with the administration for effective governance.
He said previous assemblies where the presiding officers were not nominated by the ruling party did not perform more than the ninth parliament.
Femi Gbajabiamila and Ahmad Lawan were the preferred candidates of the APC for the ninth national assembly leadership positions.
“The ninth assembly is by far and I say it with all sense of humility, the best national assembly, that the legislature and the executive had a very mutually beneficial relationship,” Abbas said.
“So many things were accomplished. So many things that ordinarily we would not have thought or contemplated would be achieved, were achieved.
“So whoever is talking about the rubber stamp national assembly does not know the workings of the national assembly.
“Nobody, speaker or senate president, deputy speaker or senate president — nobody can manipulate the 360 members of the house of representatives to make them do what is not in the best interest of the public.
“We have shown from our conduct in the ninth assembly that for the very first time, even with the cordial relationship between the executive and the legislature, we had cause for the very first time to summon Mr President (Muhammadu Buhari) to come to the national assembly to address some issues of security as at that time.”
