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From Jonas Ike, Abuja
There is no gainsaying that the election of the Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the two chambers of the National Assembly has come and gone with intrigues and permutations now laid to rest.
With the emergence of Sen.Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as the third and fourth citizens of Nigeria, there are high hopes that the nation is matching in its destined path to greatness.
Lawan and Gbajabiamila are not in any way two strange bed fellows. The duo who are the All Progressives Congress APC anointed candidates for the headship of the two chamber legislature have overtime demonstrated qualifications to head the apex parliament.
The two presiding officers of the apex parliament are undoubtedly experienced legislators who have held sensitive positions in the previous assemblies of the apex legislature.
Prior to the election that led to the emergence of the two lawmakers as presiding officers, they had held the position of Majority Leader in both the upper and lower legislative houses of the apex parliament.
Gbajabiamila a fifth term Lagos born lawmaker had previously held the position of Minority Leader, Majority Leader and having polled the highest number of votes in the speakership contest is now the Speaker of the 360 member House.
He was the Minority Leader in the 7th National Assembly, Majority Leader in the 8th, and now Speaker of the House in the 9th National Assembly.
Gbajabiamila narrowly lost the speakershilp position to Hon. Yakubu Dogara who won the election with only a difference of 8 votes in 2015 is no doubt an elated man.
Whereas Dogara polled 181 votes in the 2015 contest, Gbajabiamila lost narrowly with 172 votes. His loss threw the leadership of the APC into confusion at that time.
The APC the ruling party at the national level anointed Gbajabiamila for the exalted position twice but he only clinched the position this time with tacit support from leaders of the party.
Prior to the election, there were campaigns, endorsements, permutations, meetings of both group and individual lawmakers for the speakershilp election.
It was said that the National Leader of the APC Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the brain behind the APC endorsement of Gbajabiamila for the position.
There were closed door and party caucus meetings, party leadership meeting and high wire intrigues that culminated in the choice of the lawmaker by the ruling party.
These meetings were what cleared the coast for the fifth term lawmaker to go into the speakership contest with almost 100% assurance of victory as most of his colleagues that indicated interest in it withdrew from the contest.
And so on the 11th June 2019 when the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari proclaimed the 9th National Assembly, and there was election of the presiding officers of the parliament, the erstwhile House Leader coasted home to victory.
He polled 281 votes to defeat his opponent Hon.Umaru Bago another All Progressives Congress APC lawmaker who polled 76 votes to come a distant second in the speakership election.
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