Bola Tinubu, national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that the party’s decision to choose Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila for the positions of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively must be respected and that any lawmaker who is against the party’s decision should quit.
Addressing journalists in Lagos weekend, Tinubu said that party discipline would be upheld in addressing the leadership tussle of the 9th National Assembly.
The APC leader warned against a repeat of what the APC suffered in 2015 when some of its lawmakers “connived” with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which was the minority, and elected those against the party’s choice as principal officers.
The ruling party is expected to produce the next principal officers after emerging majority in both chambers of the National Assembly; it has 25 seats more than the PDP in the Senate and is clearly ahead of PDP by 100 seats in the House of Representatives.
Tinubu further stated that the party will not tolerate what happened in 2015, while adding that party discipline was important.
“We were a little careless in 2015. We created the opportunity for serpent 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,” he said.
According to him, “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 mistake 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.”
The former governor of Lagos State further said that the party had gone through a lot of processes and must remain as one against all odds.
He also recalled his journey as a politician, saying there were lots of struggles “but my concern is about people and the future of my country”.
Iniobong Iwok with agency report
