President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has declared that he does not have preferred candidates for incoming leadership of the 10th National Assembly. He made declaration yesterday in Abuja, while addressing new members-elect at a meeting, organised by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Also, the ruling party has charged its legislators-elect not to rest yet on their electoral victories, urging them to work harder for another round of impressive outcome at this weekend’s governorship and legislative polls.
Tinubu’s stance was communicated by Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, during the closed-door parley.
There had been speculations that the gathering may have been informed by the need to sort out distribution of leadership offices in the two chambers to avert a repeat of the 2015 scenario when the party lost control of the legislature despite having the most seats in both hallowed chambers.
Fielding questions after the meeting, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, observed: “The meeting was to bring members-elect, both Senate and the House together to assure members that in spite of all the odds against the party, we were able to overcome.” He confirmed that the forum did discuss issue of zoning, which had dominated discussions recently.
Also speaking, Senator Ali Ndume submitted: “The meeting ended well. We did an assessment of our performance and also to go back home to ensure that we take the victory to the end. Nigerians have spoken and elected APC, and we have some ups and downs as usual every electoral process.
“The party appealed to NASS members-elect to play down the leadership issue and focus more on ensuring that we take the election battle to the end. And that is to ensure that we win our states. So, the party has charged us and agreed that interactions like these should be frequent to allow us go in the same direction to avoid bad experiences of 2015 and 2019.”
The lawmaker said zoning did not form the crux of deliberation during the meeting.
THEGUARDIAN
