Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal is expected to be defecting to the All Progressives Congress, APC on Tuesday, October 28, 2014. This shall be the first time in Nigeria’s political history since 1999, that a presiding officer of the National Assembly would belong to another party apart from the PDP.
Tambuwal’s defection will enable him to acquire the necessary party qualification to contest in the governorship race in Sokoto under the platform of the APC, which by re conditional permutation, is to amend its constitution on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 so as to allow last minutes decampees like Tambuwal and others from the PDP to contest for elective offices under the wing of the new found party.
The APC convention intends to scrap the constitutional provision in its document that stipulates a 30-day membership duration for anyone seeking to use the party’s platform to run for public office.
The speaker, who is expected to make his first public appearance and speech at an APC gathering at national convention on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 would remain in office till next June.
According to associates of the speaker, who confirms the plan ahead of the sitting of the House of Representatives, stated that the speaker’s defection would not in any way affect his position as speaker or a member of the House.
“He is going to announce it in plenary and he will not resign as speaker and he will not resign as member,” he said.
“Every politics is local and the direction of Sokoto is towards the APC and because he is representing some people in Abuja, he has to move along with the dictates of the people and it cannot be said that the people in his constituency are in a particular party and he is in another party.”
On the political justification of Tanbuwal’s defection, he said, “The justification is that there is a faction in Sokoto PDP and if there is no faction, Anenih would not have led a reconciliation meeting to Sokoto last week and secondly, Wamakko would not have decamped if it was a party that is in peace,” he added.
According to reports, Tambuwal’s defection to the APC is to concretize his bid for the Sokoto State governorship. The speaker, who had earlier been speculated to be in the race for the 2015 presidential race, change direction towards the governorship in Sokoto, given the conditions that were established to favour him.
Speaking with Tambuwal’s spokesman, Mallam Imam Imam, he assured that Tambuwal would soon make known the outcome of his consultations on his political future.
“I wish to say that on every issue, Nigerians know where Tambuwal stands. On every issue, politics, policy Nigerians know Tambuwal, he is not a man who hides his feelings on anything,” Imam said.
“The issue of defection or no defection or his political future is not something that is different. He has said it severally that he is consulting, however, what I have to concede to you is the fact that the outcome of the consultations will be made public sooner rather than later,” Imam stated.
