House Leadership: Gbajabiamila Dangles Carrots, Promises PDP 60 Committee Chairmen
Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Saturday, dangled carrot to members elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who have thrown their weight behind his aspiration to be Speaker.
Gbajabiamila, who is a strong contender and the party’s candidate for the position of Speaker, House of Representatives, said that he had to his support base.
The leader noted that the PDP Caucus had been factionalized ahead of the election of the House principal officers at the House inauguration on Tuesday, saying that to compensate his PDP supporters after the election, he would give 60 committees for them to chair, just as he said that of the number, those who cannot become Chairmen of standing committee would be Vice Chairmen.
The Director – General, Femi Gbajabiamila/ Idris Ahmed Wase Campaign Organisation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, Bebeji Federal Constituency, Kano, said that with the number of supporters they had, Gbajabiamila will win and become the next Speaker.
Jibrin, who noted that Gbajabiamila will win the election whether the election was through secret or open voting system, said, “It has never looked so bright.
It has never looked so sure, so clear to us that we are going to win the election. Though we cannot take anything for granted; we cannot allow ourselves to be victims of once bitten twice shy and the good thing is that we are all coming from the background of the experience of 2015”.
“So, we have taken every measure humanly possible to ensure that by the grace of God we are going to win the election.
“In 2015, there was a bit of complacency because APC was only guiding its votes. We believed then that we had the number to win the election, so we weren’t bothered about the PDP, but PDP were concentrating on how to poach the APC and that was how the election was won. But this time around, APC is much more comfortable because we have more number. We have 223, but even at that, our campaign is more aggressive more PDP than the aggression of PDP members trying to poach our members.
“As it is today, the reality of the matter is that the PDP has been split into two factions. We have closed down a deal with one of the factions and for the other faction we are still talking. But also understand that we are only doing that as a safety net. We do not need the whole of the PDP to win our election”.
