I owe my triumph to Buhari, party leaders, says Gbajabiamila

House of Representatives Majority Leader,  Femi Gbajabiamila,  yesterday reviewed the 49-day leadership crisis in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly and said he  almost called it quits.

Gbajabiamila, who was named to the position only last Tuesday  following high level politicking, said the intervention of  President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress hierarchy  persuaded him to remain in the battle to the end.

He told reporters that  Buhari and the APC leadership prevailed on him to  continue with his aspiration to be part of principal officers  of  the 8th House of Representatives.

Gbajabiamila,  who was the party’s official candidate for the Speakership, was surprisingly defeated by  Mr. Yakubu Dogara  in the  June 9 election on the floor of the House.

He subsequently   entered  the race for the position of  House Leader only for  Speaker Dogara and his loyalists to oppose him on the grounds that the Southwest  could not have  the positions of Deputy Speaker andHouse Leader.

The matter was  resolved on Tuesday.

Gbajabiamila, speaking at a media parley yesterday, said  he was pained that the stalemate  was manipulated to centre around his person.

His words: “A lot of people do not  know this: a   long time ago, I saw the President, I saw my party; I explained to them that this thing has been framed to be about me.

“So I said I wanted to withdraw for the sake of the House and the country. I told them I would leave this thing in a heartbeat without even thinking about it and I would go and sit on the floor of the House, without even accepting anything, not even chairmanship.

 On why he continued with the struggle despite his resolve to withdraw from  the race, Gbajabiamila said the issue got beyond him at that point.

He said President  Buhari and the All Progressives Congress  (APC) rejected  his offer to withdraw from the race.

“On principle, the President did not accept it; my party did not accept it and I thank God for the kind of confidence they have in me to be able to deliver the goods for the party. Who am I to say no? It was on principle that we stayed the course,” he said.

He  said he was all for  full disclosure of lawmakers’ remunerations.

Such disclosure, according to him, would enable  the public to know  what  each   lawmaker earns and will also go a long way in deepening  transparency and accountability in government.

“For instance, if you  say for transportation, this is how much a lawmaker gets, the public can determine whether that X amount is too much for transportation or not.

“But to roll everything up in a ball park is not helping at all. There are a lot of conflicting figures, you leave yourself vulnerable to speculation as a legislator.

 “I am for the National Assembly to open up its book to the public”.