10th NASS: Shettima Meets Gagdi Over Speakership Position

The Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, has met with one of the aspirants for the Speakership position in the 10th National Assembly, Yusuf Gagdi.

Naija News reports that Gagdi and six other aspirants have rejected the zoning formula for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly released by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The APC NWC had picked Tajudeen Abbas (Kaduna/North-West) for the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and Benjamin Kalu (Abia/South-East) for the Deputy Speaker.

Speaking with The Punch, Gagdi disclosed that he reached out and met with the Vice President-elect regarding the zoning arrangement and his ambition to become the next Speaker.

The lawmaker stated that the meeting was not related to the visit of Abbas and Kalu to Shettima recently and was not about reaching out to aggrieved aspirants, popularly known as the G-7.

The speakership aspirant, however, said the former Governor of Borno State did not ask him to step down.

He said, “I reached out to him before he made this comment (when the Joint Task led Abbas and Kalu to Shettima). There was an appointment that I was going to meet with him and he did not tell me to step down. I think my meeting with him had a relationship with me contesting to be Speaker, but no discussion whatsoever is related to the visit of the so-called anointed candidate and reaching out to members of the G-7.

“I met him as a political leader of the North and to tell him about my intention to run for Speaker, because up till that moment, I had not officially declared that to him. I told him and he prayed and wished me well. If there was any engagement regarding the issue of who becomes Speaker; whether reaching out to us to support Tajudeen Abbas or not, I have not discussed that with the VP-elect yet.”

When asked about Tinubu reaching out to the G-7, Gagdi said, “The group had resolved that we must produce one person among us and that is our stand.

“And if Asiwaju (Tinubu) calls me, not them, my own struggle, no matter how expensive it looks, I am not struggling for myself; I am struggling for the common Nigerians. Being a Speaker is not a do-or-die affair. I will only listen if justice is done to my zone.

“If the APC had consulted widely with leaders of the party as well as members-elect of the National Assembly as it did in 2019 when it adopted Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila for President of the Senate and Speaker of the House, respectively, you wouldn’t have this problem. But when you think everybody is nobody, people begin to show that within their little powers, they are powerful.”