As the race for the Speaker of the 9th Assembly of the House Representatives gets tough, a body of former and serving members of the Green Chamber under the auspices of Faculty Board of Initiative, has called on members – elect to jettison party and religious sentiments in choosing their Presiding Officers.
Instead, the group has told members of the 9th Assembly to follow the tradition of the House by voting for someone with the core competence, sagacity and acceptability to lead a House that will not be a rubber stamp but work for check and balances need in a democracy.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC was reported of endorsing Femi Gbajabimila, Majority Leader from South West for the office of the Speaker while there are agitations to for the position to be zoned to the North-Central and for a Christian to maintain balance in the power sharing.
But Eseme Eyibo, Dean of the Faculty Board of Initiative while briefing journalists Tuesday in Abuja asserted that; “the principle of Zoning originates from Zoning as a mechanism to redress perceived injustice and if Zoning is intended to address perceived injustice, the justice of it is the preservation of the constitution and the separation of powers. That is the justice of it. You do not need to zone to a vacuum you zone to where there exist the capacity.
“There has to be a leadership recruitment process premised on certain qualities and these qualities must be the issues of the core values of the institution, acceptability and ability to galvanized the overall interest of the membership of the House of Representatives as represented by powers vested in it in according accordance with section 4(1) of the Constitution”.
On what should be parameters for House Leadership, Eyibo said, “we have stated the issues of the parameters for who should fit into it and we have made it very clear that for those of us who are conversant with the history of the House of Representatives from Gali Naba to Bankole, to Tambuwal and Dogara, something is very consistent in this leadership.
“The issue of working together for the interest of members, the issue of acceptability, the issue of assertion of the theory of separation of powers, and of course, the issue of the independence of the legislature.
“The Constitution has made it clear, Nigeria is a secular state and section 4(1) of the Constitution which I stated said the legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in National Assembly consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, meaning that without the legislature, there shall be no law and order.
“And I said here that democracy is the issue of the rule if law and because it is so, whoever is expected to be the first among equals in the preservation and protection of the rule of law via the legislature must be somebody who is acceptable, who has a standard of behaviour, that will be able to carve a nexus between the governed and government, that will also become a bridge where there will be less conflict within and without.
“I have stated here that currently and presently, the leadership of the House of Representatives has been able to clearly demarcate the difference between politics and government. Politics is political parties and its membership. Governance is the Nigerian people who are investing regardless of any partisan consideration, whether is religious, ethnic or political”, he maintained.
