Gbajabiamila: Time To Wield Gavel Of The 8th Assembly

With Nigeria’s general elections over, the spotlight has moved to the National Assembly and all eyes are on the frontline candidates aspiring to occupy principal positions in the 8th Assembly.
Expectedly, some members of the National Assembly are positioning themselves, holding consultative forums outside NASS and also meeting with House caucuses while wooing the new members-elect. One candidate, however, stands out; he stands out neither because of his debonair looks nor because of his strength of elocution, not even is it because of the enormous respect he commands in the Lower Chamber. The 8th Assembly in my humble opinion will benefit from the wealth of experience that Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila brings to the table and will ultimately bring when he wields the gavel.

Having been a member of the House of Representatives since 2003, Gbajabiamila has since written a letter to his colleagues on April 24 and said he was offering himself for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 8th Assembly. In the said letter he wrote “having worked with four Speakers and as I prepare for my fourth term, I will be one of the few members with the longest service in the House. I encourage you to see me as a steadying hand, a custodian of institutional history and a strong bridge builder between the House and the Executive.”

However, such modest wordings of his letter are not commensurate with the many battles he has fought or his efforts as solidifying legislative oversight.

This piece shall highlight some of the positions Gbajabiamila has taken in his sojourn in the House in order to show why he is the most appropriate candidate to be considered in the race to lead the Lower Chamber. Going down recent history, one is accosted by the third term debacle. Femi Gbajabiamila didn’t consider ethnocentric sentiments as he is one of the few lawmakers who considers Nigeria’s interest before self. In the fight against third term he went all out to protest and register his misgivings against it; thus opposing former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007, with several law suits challenging the thoughtless executive lawlessness of that time.

He also brought new thinking and suggestions to Nigeria’s defence expenditure when he protested against President Goodluck Jonathan’s $1 billion request for arms to pursue the Boko Haram offensive. It was his opinion that the request for an additional $1 billion loan by the President after the N3 trillion allocated to the Nigerian defence budget in three years (with nothing to show for it), was evidence that the President and his advisers had a huge disregard for Nigerians. If the Federal Government was insistent on acquiring military hardware he advised them to explore trade by barter option in its effort to step up military hardware and train military personnel instead of piling up debts for the country.

He then further advised his colleagues in the National Assembly to restrain them from granting the “perfidious request” and implored the Federal Government to try exchanging oil for military hardware like other needy countries have done in the past if truly Nigeria has weak military equipment considering the country’s previous budgets for defence.

Also just before Nigeria’s 2015 general elections Femi Gbajabiamila filed the suit before Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking a declaration that deployment of soldiers during elections is illegal and unconstitutional. Gbajabiamila said President Jonathan lacked the power to deploy soldiers for the conduct of election without the approval of the National Assembly. Such is the length he often went to defend Nigeria’s democracy.

But perhaps Gbajabiamila’s litmus test as a lawmaker and progressive came when he said that President Jonathan had failed the nation. There was an ensuing campaign of calumny against him, even to the extent of questioning his credibility and integrity. “I like my President but I like my people and country more; if…there is no 100% budget implementation, we would begin to move articles of impeachment against Mr. President”, he said at that time. There is hardly a barometer of personal courage and integrity like the aforementioned action.

With the ongoing imbroglio concerning oil revenue and the opaqueness of the oil and gas sector, Gbajabiamila’s experience as the head of the ad hoc committee investigating claims by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) that N140.9bn owed by Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited and Forte Oil Plc. will play a huge role in providing the necessary oversight to eliminate or at least reduce the secrecy in the oil sector and the allegations of monumental leakages that pervade the industry.

There is more than promise in Gbajabiamila’s aspirations; there is commitment and a bankable experience especially in his pledge to build a vibrant and accountable legislature and legislative process. The time to entrench our democratic culture is now, members of the Lower Chamber and APC House caucus and chieftains should come together with a consensus opinion to hand Femi Gbajabiamila the gavel of the 8th Assembly if we are to reinforce the bricks of our democratic experience.