Newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has dismissed insinuation that the 10th National Assembly would be a rubber stamp to executive whims and caprices, saying that under him, the House would resist any moves that would be in conflict with the public interest.
He spoke to correspondents on Tuesday after visiting President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja moments after his inauguration as Speaker.
Joined by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Ben Kalu, he had been asked about his view on the fears expressed in some quarters about the 10th assembly becoming a rubber stamp.
He said “Well if you talk about rubber stamp, look at the acceptance rate, those who have elected us, those across party lines, almost all the whole entire PDP, SDP, ADC and all other minority parties voted us.
“So, if they felt that we are going to be rubber stamps, do think they will elect us? No. They believe that we will safeguard the sanctity of the National Assembly, the legislature. We will always separate our independence and we will relate and be able to harmonize with the executive where necessary.
“But where if there is a conflict of interest where we feel that the executive is or wants to do something that is not in the interest of the public, they know that we’ll stand up against that.”
The Speaker also maintained that there was never any doubt that he would be elected given the amount of support he enjoyed among his colleagues, saying, “What I can tell you is that right from day one, when we started this campaign, it was always good. But the impact of social media propaganda on some of the contestants distorted the entire picture of what was on the ground.
“But to God be the glory, today, people have seen our level of popularity and acceptance by our members and it has put to shame those who always thought that we were imposed by the party and that we don’t have the numbers.
“Today, people have seen that we established a record that has never been established in the past, 353 out of 359 members electing us. It is unprecedented. It has never ever happened in the history of parliament.”
In his remark, the Deputy Speaker, Kalu said while campaigning, they had promised Nigerians that they would ensure that they worked jointly with other arms of government for nation-building.
Kalu said: “We promised that we are going to be there to make sure we’re at our own bricks to the nation-building wall. And this extends to the creation of jobs, reduction of poverty, policies that go into enhancing our energy sources and policies that will help us create more local content used in this country.
“Manufacturing now help us reduce importation and increase exportation that will stimulate our economy. And as you see in the past 15 days, Mr. President has been taking the right decisions you know, on issues.
“We want to sustain that through legislative support, legislative intervention to make sure that together, we build a nation we will be proud of.”
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