Strong indications emerged on Sunday that the current Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Mr. Mohammed Monguno, might team up as candidates for the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively for the 8th House of Representatives.
This came as 36 out of the 48 members-elect of the House of Representatives from the five North-East states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba endorsed Monguno as their candidate for the speakership if the seat was zoned to the area by the All Progressives Congress.
However, the members made it clear that if the position was zoned to the South-West, they would file behind Gbajabiamila for a Gbajabiamila/Monguno ticket for the June 6 poll.
At a meeting held in Abuja, another contestant from Yobe State, Mr. Buka Goni, announced that he had stepped down for Monguno as part of the realignment to strengthen the chances of the latter for the envisaged Gbajabiamila/Monguno candidacy.
The North-East is the zone of another contender, Mr. Yakubu Dogara (Bauchi State), seen as Gbajabiamila’s strongest challenger yet.
Goni said, “I am one of the contestants and I have decided to join the Monguno Foundation because there is a serious issue to be resolved.
“We had a project before Yobe State. Senator Ahmed Lawan is pursuing the position of Senate President of this country. In that respect, we cannot have one state produce two candidates, one looking for the post of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and another, Senate President.”
He explained further that his decision was to strengthen Monguno’s campaign for the speakership in the event the seat was zoned to the North-East.
Goni added that should the APC zone the seat to the South-West, the 36 lawmakers from the North-East, “who are now in the majority from the zone,” would support Gbajabiamila.
Goni said, “We cannot look for any leader because even before we took over the government, he was our leader (Gbajabiamila).
“That is why we decided to take our leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, to be our speaker and for Monguno to be our deputy speaker by the grace of God.”
The statistics indicate that nine out of the 10 members in Borno State back Monguno; all six members from Yobe State support him; five out of six in Gombe support him; while four out of eight in Adamawa are with him.
In Taraba State, two out of six members are in support of Monguno and the Gbajabiamila/Monguno pairing.
Those who attended the meeting from Adamawa State were Sadiq Ibrahim, Yusuf Buba, Abdulraman Shaibu and Philip Gutuwa.
From Bauchi State were Muhammed Sani-Abdu, Lawal Yahayah, Tata Omar, Isa Hassan Mohammed, Ibrahim Baba, Mohammed Gololo, Salisu Ningi, Musa Aliyu, Ahmed Yarima, and Adamu Gupai attended the meeting.
The lawmakers-elect from Borno State were Mohammed Nur-Sheriff, Mahmud Lawan, Mohammed Sanda, Dr. Asabe Bashir, Mallam Bukar -Gana, Abdulkadir Rahis, Ayuba Mohammed -Bello, Mohammed Tahir-Monguno and Jibrin Satumari.
Gombe members were Khamisu Ahmed-Mailantarki, Binta Bello, Ustaz Yinus, Umar Barambu and Ali Isa while Yobe State had Goni Bukar-Lawan, Khadija Bukar-Ibrahim, Ismaila Gadaka, Yau Galadima, Sidi Yakubu and Sabo Garba in attendance.
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