National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Monday accused the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of going against what he described as the basic tenets of democratic practice by seeking to investigate the voting pattern in the election of presiding officers of the National Assembly.
Oshiomhole spoke just as the National Working Committee of the party settled for former Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa as the House leader, laying to speculations that the chairman was trying to impose another person as Leader of the House.
Receiving lawmakers and party leaders from Kano state, Oshiomhole said while the PDP were insisting on the use of secret ballot for the election of presiding officers of the National Assembly, they proved not to be satisfied with the outcome and are now conducting investigations to know who voted for who which is against the tenets of secret ballot.
He said “I was particularly excited when, in violation of a court order the Speaker insisted that the election be conducted through secret ballot and our members in the two chambers proved their complete loyalty to the party by voting in the manner that they did.
“They voted such that the PDP that was calling for secret ballot because they didn’t want people to know how they voted and are now the ones conducting enquiries to find out who voted for who. That is a complete violation of the essence of secret ballot.
“The idea of secret is that nobody should know who voted for who. Now PDP is going down in history as a party that seeks to investigate how people voted in a secret ballot and that is a gross violation of the most basic principle of democracy. That is why we are better and different and I am very proud of all of you.”
Giving reasons why the party selected Doguwa as House leader, Oshiomhole said after due consultations with relevant stakeholder settled for Doguwa as the most senior member from the state and due to his wealth of experience and loyalty to the party.
Oshiomhole said the party also considered the contribution of Kano state to the overall development of the party and the victory of the President in the last election, adding that whatever comes to the state should not be considered too much.
He said: “We have tried our possible best to learn from the errors of the past and try to proactively intervene and interface with the APC caucus in the two chambers of the National Assembly. We believe that this kind of engagement is the way to go because people are elected from various background. They have full mandate and when they arrive at the two chambers, they are all equal.
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“But the rules impose obligations on us to elect leadership and whatever criteria up, you will find more than one person who are qualified either by reason of formal education or by reference to ranking or loyalty and experience among others. Yet, we can only select one person for each of these positions.
“We have done our best as a party to try and have broad consultations across various shades of opinion within the APC family so that we can build consensus across board. I have been extremely excited by the level of cooperation that members of the two chambers have extended to us. It could have been impossible if people insist they want to go and fight to finish. It is that mutual respect and loyalty to the party and indeed to our President that has made this relatively easy.
“I am particularly appreciative of the fact that we have very senior people in the two chambers of the National Assembly who could have aspired for any of those positions that has already been determined.
“When you look at the voting pattern of the country, there is no doubt that Kano delivered the highest number of votes throughout the country. This is a fact that nobody can wish away and we cannot over emphasis the importance of those numbers because politics is a game of numbers. It is those numbers that made us to win the Presidency and without number, we will not be in office.
“No one can down play the value of the support that this party has enjoyed from Kano state. As we were having conversations, we had to ask ourselves questions and we knew that we had obligations to ensure that the six geopolitical zones are well represented. But in doing so, we recognise that if we were not in power, we would not be talking about representation.
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