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Tag: 9th NASS leadership

  • Youths demand for zoning of House Speaker to Northcentral

    Youths from across the 23 local government areas of Benue State yesterday staged a peaceful protest to the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Makurdi, demanding the House of Representatives Speaker to be zoned to Northcentral.

    The youths argued that it would amount to injustice and inequality, if the APC national leadership failed to zone the Speaker position to the zone.

    REad also: 9th NASS: Elders Forum tasks Buhari, APC on zoning speakership

    The youths, who were drawn from different political parties, carried placards with various inscriptions, including: “Benue supports Northcentral for Speakership”, “Northcentral deserves Speakership”, “Northcentral has not produced Speaker or Deputy Speaker since 1999”, “APC must stop this injustice”, among others.

  • APC chieftain to Saraki, Dogara: stay off selection of NASS leaders

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has asked Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to stay awayfrom the processes leading to the emergence of the leadership of the 9th Assembly.

    Nabena told newsmen in Abuja that the APC has learnt its lessons from the outgoing Assembly when those he described as impostors took over the leadership of the legislature, frustrating efforts of the Buhari government to effect positive change in the country.

    The APC chieftain who is also the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC said the decision of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) on the selection and zoning of principal offices in the incoming 9th National Assembly is supreme and must be respected by the party’s legislative caucus and opposition federal lawmakers.

    He said “The APC has learnt its lesson from the outgoing National Assembly when impostors masquerading as party men sabotaged our party and hijacked our mandate. Affliction shall not rise up the second time.

    Read Also: Saraki, PDP ploting to hijack Ninth National Assembly, Nabena alleges

    “The efforts by the Adams Oshiomhole leadership of the party are commendable in achieving a fair selection and zoning arrangement that appeals to a greater section of the party stakeholders.

    “APC is the overwhelmingly majority party in the National Assembly and has a legitimate right to make its choices on the selection and zoning of principal offices. The APC family is in agreement on the party’s supremacy and the PDP and other opposition parties should focus on their minority positions.”

    He stressed that outgoing Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the PDP NASS caucus has been moving from pillar to post to frustrate the plan of APC by through a hidden evil plot to interfere in the emergence of incoming National Assembly leaders.

    “We are aware of the scheming by Saraki, Dogara and the PDP caucus to interfere with the emergence of the incoming National Assembly leadership. Their plans are bound to fail as the APC is a strong party with unity of purpose,” Nabena said.

  • How 9th NASS leaders will emerge, by Tinubu

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Sen. Bola Tinubu, on Friday emphasised leadership of the incoming 9th National Assembly will be decided through party politics.

     He stated that party discipline would be upheld in addressing the leadership tussle of the 9th National Assembly.

    Tinubu spoke with newsmen in Lagos on Friday after a Prayer Programme organised by Islamic and Christian clerics to mark his 67th birthday.

    He said: “Party discipline is key. We must be discipline in the party. We were a little careless in 2015.

    “We created the opportunity for serpents to get into our party and that did not allow Nigeria to make the desired progress.

    “You have seen the result of it and we are not going to allow that to happen again. We are going to respect our party and we are going to apply the whip.

    “It is either you stay with us or you follow us or you leave. You have the freedom to choose but the freedom does not give you as a minority to go and collaborate and protrude our mandate given to you to another party who was our opposition and who is still our opposition.

    “We would not take that this time, no matter who you think you are. That is how it is built. Why do you want to deviate from what has been structured?

    “We look at our reward system equally, zone by zone,” he said.

    Tinubu said that his life as a politician at 67 had been a fulfilling journey.

    “When I joined politics, there were a lot of uncertainties because it was during the military regime. There were lots of struggles but my concern is about people and the future of my country.

    “My mother stood by me when I told her then that I was joining politics. She told me to be ready to take all sorts of insults whenever they cross my way. May her soul rest in peace.

    “The struggle was tough. It created a justice on June 12 election of MKO and some people deserted the camp, the struggle, the spirit.

    “We have stayed with this struggle. We know democracy is not easy but it is the only system of government that we chose.

    “Ever since, it has been a very fulfilling journey. There is always the twist and turns in politics.

    “Today, we endure, we persevere, we think, adjust, collaborate, merged and became single party just like yesterday,” he said.

    Tinubu said that the APC party was in government for the common man.

    Read also: Party discipline will be upheld in 9th NASS leadership, says Tinubu

    “You will think that APC had been on for twenty years but is not up to six years. We went through compromises because we know that if we form a good alliance of progressive thinkers and believers in the ideology of common man, we will be able to serve the people.

    “It is not by criticism alone. You have to have the opportunity to even change the life of the people and quality of their standard of living.

    “So, we stood by it, we persevered persistently, uttered our voice, offered our recommendations, and then we are here.

    And today I am extremely happy that we are in government for the common man.

    “The only way to change Nigeria from penury is to fashion out our own organic economic strategy and plan that will continue to cater for all,” he said. (NAN)