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Jubrin, Monguno, Iriase Join Race For Speaker’s Seat

By Adamu Abuh and Terhemba Daka, Abuja
19 April 2015   |   9:00 am
The campaign became heightened last week when the chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumini Jibrin, indicated interest in the coveted seat.

THE Nigerian Parliament reconvened last Tuesday, April 14, 2015 for the last lap of the 7th National Assembly, and the race for the Speaker of House of Representatives has become keener and intriguing.

The campaign became heightened last week when the chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumini Jibrin, indicated interest in the coveted seat.

This is even as a pro-democracy group under the aegis of Change Vanguard has called the All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to the South South geo-political zone of the country to reflect the principle of federal character required by the 1999 constitution (as amended) during the incoming 8th Assembly. 

The pro-democracy group, which made the call in a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Mr. Tayo Bello,‎ and issued to newsmen in Abuja, has raised the alarm over the possibility of the three northern geo-political zones producing the President, Senate President‎ and Speaker, House of Representatives.

Jibrin, from Kano (North-West), will be slugging it out with five other lawmakers — Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi (North-east), Femi Gbajabiamila from Lagos (South-west), Mohammed Monguno from Borno (North-east), Pally Iriase from Edo State (South-south) and Israel Ajibola Famurewa from Osun State (South-west) — for the speakership position.

Consequent upon the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, the six lawmakers, all of who are returning to the House, won their re-election bid under the APC, which won majority of seats at both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

House Minority Leader, Gbajabiamila, and his counterpart and Chairman, House Services and Welfare, Dogara, were the first to show interest in the coveted seat. The Guardian gathered that Iriase and Monguno have also commenced quiet campaigns among their colleagues, waiting for the party to zone the seat to a particular region. 

Monguno, like Dogara, has been in the House since 2007. He is the chairman House committee on agriculture, while Iriase, who first came to the lower chamber in 2011, is the Deputy Chairman, House committee on legislative outreach. 

But the chances of Gbajabiamila, Minority Leader, who has been at the Green Chamber since 2003, and also eyeing Tambuwal’s seat, appears shaky, as his zone has already produced the vice president. 

Though, it is still not clear where the party will zone the seat to, Adbulmumin Jibrin last week Wednesday officially declared his intension to run for the position of the Speaker in the 8th House of Representatives with a vow to cut down the cost of running the Chamber, publish lawmakers’ take home pay and promote economic diversification among other core national issues.

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