Speakership Race: Jaji May Replace Tajudeen Abbas As Speaker Candidate

Amid ongoing debates about the leadership of the National Assembly, there are signals of a new preference for Hon Sani Jaji over Hon Tajudeen Abbas for the speakership of the House of Representatives.

Sources that spoke with Leadership suggest that the All Progressives Congress (APC), the governing party, may announce Jaji as the new candidate this Thursday, barring any last-minute changes.

This move, thought to be the outcome of deliberations over the deadlock surrounding the speakership race, is seen as an attempt to find a compromise between the disagreeing factions while still keeping the speakership within the North West.

Both candidates are from this region, with Abbas hailing from Kaduna and Jaji from Zamfara.

There are also discussions that Abbas and Hon Idris Wase might be offered ministerial roles as a means of pacifying them.

The sources revealed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had separate meetings with both individuals recently.

The President has reportedly sent envoys to several G-6 aspirants to encourage them to accept the party’s zoning arrangement.

This initiative is seen as an effort to repair the damage caused by the National Assembly leadership selection process.

Concerned about the drawn-out deadlock, the President is looking to pacify the G-6 members.

A source said, “He (Tinubu) wants to have a stable administration once he kicks off with his cabinet. The president sent independent hands to secretly find out the strength and weaknesses of each of the aspirants, including the G-6 and the Yari group.

“It will shock you that the outcome is negative because if we don’t break the G-6 by appeasement, we will not go anywhere; so also the Yari and Kalu alliance.

“For the G-6, I think we have made tremendous progress because the president has conceded to drop the choice put forward by the outgoing speaker, I mean Abbass but he still insisted that the northwest must produce the speaker.

“So what he has personally proposed that will be unveiled on Thursday is that he would return to his original plan of Sani Jaji because that was his choice initially and originally before the surprise recommendation came from Gbajabiamila.

“His argument is that Jaji is well known to him, he belongs to the G-6 and since they have resolved to support one of them, he prefers him and that may be announced on Thursday evening.

“And by way of having an inclusive arrangement, Abbass and Wase are likely to come on board as ministers to represent their states.”

In the APC’s zoning arrangement, Hon Abbas had been endorsed by Tinubu and the APC for the Speaker position, with Hon Benjamin Kalu as his deputy.

However, the G-6 group of APC lawmakers-elect had strongly resisted this zoning arrangement, branding it as “an unconstitutional imposition of the leadership of the 10th Assembly by forces outside the National Assembly.”