Speakership: We Must Do Things The Right Way – True Democrats Insists
…Urges members to reject imposition of Tajudeen Abass
The coalition of True Democrats rose from an emergency meeting on Sunday evening with a declaration that they would not accept the imposition of a leadership on the House of Representatives which is clearly antithetical to the tenets of democracy and the rule of law.
The group while making their opposition to the ongoing moves to impose Dr Tajudeen Abass as Speaker of the 10th House known, stressed that the time has come to do things the right way saying; “We must not allow imposition of principal officers of the National Assembly on our legislators”.
National Coordinator of the group, Dr Mustapha Yusuf, who stated the position in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, urged the House of Representatives members elect to guard against any action that would compromise the independence of the legislature.
The group therefore called on members elect to freely choose from among aspirants jostling for the seat of the Speaker of the House based on their pedigree, level of acceptability, competence and experience over the years.
The group also appealed to the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to in the interest of peace, tranquillity and party cohesion, drop the idea of imposing Tajudeen Abass on members of the House.
It further stated; “The President Elect must not allow anti-democratic forces to cajole him into interfering in a function exclusively provided and legitimately assigned to the legislators by the Nigerian Constitution.
“Those behind it are doing so for their own personal and selfish biddings which is inimical to our nation’s democracy.
“For those who crafted the word democracy and indeed separation of powers, the idea is to have an independent arm of government called the legislature for the purpose of providing checks and balances in such a manner to avoid the concentration of powers in one body as this could lead to usurpation of powers and consequently degenerate to dictatorship, tyranny and operation.
“Section 50 (1a) and (1b) is clear and unambiguous as it states that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker shall be elected by the members of the House from among themselves.
“This simply implies that any other person or persons or group of persons nominating the principal officers of both houses other than the representatives themselves is Null, Void and Unconstitutional, therefore amounts to an aberration and tantamount to usurping the powers of the legislators thereby exposing the fragile democracy of Nigeria to jeopardy,” the group stressed.
