Tajudeen Abbas speaks to press as he becomes House Rep’s Speaker

Tajudeen Abass

 

Your emergence was looking bleak at a time but now you have emerged speaker of House of Representatives, how about that?

I don’t know what you mean by bleak but 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 of 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 were established 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.

What do you tell Nigerians because already some people are afraid that the 10th National Assembly might be a rubber stamp in the hands of the executive, being that you already favoured right from onset?

Well, if you talk about rubber stamp? Look at the acceptance rate those who have elected 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 legislator, we will always separate our independence and we will relate and be able to harmonize with the executive where necessary. But where 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.

Deputy Speaker

What are you promising Nigerians looking at the chances we have?

Well, we promised during the time we went to all the constituencies in the Federal Republic, canvassing for votes. The promise that we’re going to ensure that nation building remains a joint task that will not be left only for the executive, the judiciary to handle. We promise that we are going to be there to make sure we’re at our own bricks to the nation building wall.

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And this extend to creation of jobs, reduction of poverty, policies that goes into enhancing our energy sources, policies that will help us create more local content usage 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.