APC Leadership will Decide Next Speaker | Nairalaw

The Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi
Gbajabiamila, has hinted that the leadership of the ninth assembly
will be decided by the leadership of the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC).

Though Gbajabiamila, who gave the hint immediately after a
meeting of the APC caucus held at Room 1, House of Representatives
wing of the National Assembly, said the issue of the next
leadership is not yet in the front burner among members of his
party, he expressed assurances that APC members will abide by any
position taken by the leadership.

“We are not focused on that right now. It is very important but
we have left that. The party will take a decision on which way it
will go. This is something that obtains in the international best
practices. It is something that obtains everywhere in the world;
the party will decide and we believe that all party faithful in the
House will concede. As we conceded to emergence of democracy, we
will concede to party supremacy of the party,” Gbajabiamila said,
acknowledging that his party will have majority in the next
assembly.

However, referring to the recent 2019 presidential and National
Assembly, governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections,
which he noted have come and gone, he noted that they were keenly
contested, hard-fought but largely free and fair.

“We condemn those who perpetrated violence in pockets of places
and regret the loss of lives. One life that is lost is one life too
many. We do not believe that contests such as these should ever
lead to the loss of any human life. We regret the loss of anyone.
Naturally, we regret the loss of our colleague for whom we have
today, in tradition, adjourned the sitting of the House. That is
Hon. Temitope Olatoye (Sugar).

“Our caucus believes strongly that there is no victor and no
vanquished, and victory only belongs to democracy and the Nigerian
masses. We congratulate the president, all players and
stakeholders. We congratulate our party, the APC. We congratulate
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties for their
remarkable showing and competitiveness. Our democracy is better for
it. We congratulate INEC. Despite the hiccups, the electoral umpire
gave us fairly credible elections,” he said.

Toeing the path of international observers, most of whom
canvassed for reforms in the electoral process, Gbajabiamila
assured Nigerians that there will be improvements to the electoral
laws as a way to improve future elections.

“As a country, we must strive for perfection and try to do
better. In this regard, the legislature is key in retooling the
electoral laws and processes, and perfecting them going forward,”
he said.

He congratulated Nigerians for keeping faith with the country’s
democracy and electoral process, which he said can only get better
as the nation progresses.

“It is our understanding that some elections in some areas were
declared inconclusive. We hope INEC will do the needful and
speedily re-conduct elections in those areas so that we can look
forward.

“There have been many disappointments on all sides as many of
our colleagues have lost out across the divides during this
electoral process. However, we must bow to the emergence of our
democracy as the supremacy of the will of the people. We have lost
good legislators with whom we have formed strong bonds and enduring
relationships. But we urge them to accept the loss as good
democrats, and as men and women with abiding faith in God’s will,”
he urged.