March 26, 2019
Press Statement
Loading ...The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says its elected senators and members
of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible and can
seek election into any presiding office of both chambers of the National
Assembly
The PDP notes that the position of the President of the Senate, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the Deputy Senate
President and the Deputy Speaker are not the exclusive preserves of any
political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in
both chambers.
It is therefore laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and
self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the factional National
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to
posture as if the presiding offices and Committee Chairmanship in the
National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.
President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the
National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians,
who exercise their control through their elected representatives.
For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear
in providing that “There shall be:- (a) a President and a Deputy
President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that
House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of
the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of
that House from among themselves”.
Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker
and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.
The PDP, therefore, does not only have a constitutional say in the
process of the emergence of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly,
but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into
presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.
The PDP wishes to remind President Buhari and Oshiomhole that the APC
had in the past benefited from the provisions of section 50, with the
defection of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon.
Aminu Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without
relinquishing the speakership of the House to the PDP; a development
that was applauded by President Buhari, as then opposition leader as
well as the APC, through its then National Publicity Secretary, Lai
Mohammed.
In fact, the former Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi
Gbajabiamila, echoed the Constitutional provision that “the constitution
requires only that the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of
Representatives shall be elected by members of that House from among
themselves”.
Moreover, in June 2015, Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange and Hon. Peter Azi, both
of APC, were elected Speakers of Benue and Plateau State Houses of
Assembly respectively, though their party, the APC, was minority in both
Houses.
The PDP notes that the party offices in the legislature are the Majority
and Minority Leaders and Deputy Leaders as well as Majority and Minority
Whips and Deputy Whips, and our party will take decisions on this in due
course.
The PDP therefore cautions President Buhari, Oshiomhole and the APC to
respect the independence of the legislature, end their imposition plot
and sowing of seeds of discord among the lawmakers, as such is directly
against our overall national interest.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
