JUST IN: Tajudeen Abbas Earns Tinubu’s Endorsement, Set To Be Reps’ Speaker

The APC holds a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
The majority puts the party in pole position to produce the next Speaker of the House.
The president-elect has revealed his preferred choice for the position.

Eko Hot Blog can authoritatively report that President-elect Bola Tinubu has endorsed Tajudeen Abbas, a member of the House of Representatives for Zaria Federal Constituency, to be the next Speaker of the lower chamber of the 10th National Assembly.

It was learnt that the decision to endorse the Zaria lawmaker was finalised Thursday night, and the president-elect was expected to notify the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of his choice on Friday.

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During a telephone conversation Friday afternoon, Abbas personally confirmed to Eko Hot Blog that he has earned the president-elect’s endorsement in the intense race for speaker.

“Yes, it is true. We thank God. It [endorsement] came as a surprise,” he replied to a question by our correspondent seeking information about the latest development in the speakership race.

Representative Tajudeen Abbas is set to be the Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives

The lawmaker also informed Eko Hot Blog that he and his team will pay a courtesy visit to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu next week or the upper week.

Abbas is a ranking lawmaker from Kaduna State and the current House Committee Chairman for Land Transport.

He has been in the House of Representatives since his first election in 2011.

The representative, a member of the APC, narrowly won reelection to the House in the February 25 election.

He secured 49,595 votes to defeat his closest rival, Shuaibu Musa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 47,419 votes.

Legislative Contributions/Accomplishments

Since Abbas was elected into the House of Representatives in 2011, he has distinguished himself as the only federal lawmaker from the North-West who has thus far sponsored more than 70 bills.

The 59-year-old has served in various committees of the House that include National Planning and Economic Development, Public Procurement, Defence, Social Duties, Finance and Commerce. He also served as the Vice Chairman of the Legislative Compliance Committee from 2011 to 2015 and Chairman of the House Committee on Solid Minerals from 2015 to 2019.

Currently the Chairman of the House Committee on Land Transport since 2019, Abbas has earned legislative honours within and outside of Nigeria.

In 2019, he was made the Treasurer of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (African Chapter). The same year, he was made a Governing Council member of the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) where he represents the North-West geopolitical zone to date.

Abbas also served as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committees on four different occasions from 2015 to 2022.

Furthermore, the lawmaker from Zaria, Kaduna, sponsored 43 Bills and 13 Motions in the 8th Assembly, which was the 3rd highest number of Bills from any member.

In the 9th Assembly, he equally sponsored 78 Bills and 7 Motions, which turned out to be the highest by any member in the House.

Also, 20 of the Bills sponsored by Abbas have been assented by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Academic Qualifications

The experienced legislator is a doctorate degree holder in Business Management from Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.

He was awarded his Ph.D. in 2010. The lawmaker had, in 1993, obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the same university in 1988.

Earlier, Abbas obtained a Diploma in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University in 1984.

Before that, he attended Kaduna Teacher’s College (KTC), where he obtained a grade II certificate in 1981.

Work Experience

Before the lawmaker’s election to the House of Representatives in 2011, he was in the private sector and academia.

Abbas worked as a primary school teacher from 1981 to 1988 with the Education Department of Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

He subsequently worked with Trust Acceptance Limited as an Investment Officer from 1988 to 1989. He also worked at the Bursary Department of Kaduna State Polytechnic as Accountant II in 1989.

Abbas picked interest in academics when he took up employment as Lecturer II and equally doubled as the pioneer Head of the Department of Accounting and Finance Department of Kaduna State Polytechnic Zaria from 1989 to 1993.

He, however, left the academic environment to pick up employment with the Nigeria Tobacco Distributions Company Plc, now known as British–American Tobacco, as Area Marketing Manager from 1993 to 1998.

The future lawmaker also worked as the General Manager of Jos Tobacco Distribution Company Limited from 1998 to 2001.

Meanwhile, he found his way back to academics in 2001 when he served as the Head of the Department and Senior Lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic Zaria till 2005.

Afterwards, Abbas moved to the Kaduna State University, Kaduna, in 2005, where he worked in the Accounting Department as Lecturer I and the pioneer Head of the Department until 2010, when he decided to trade the classroom for politics.

He successfully published 13 academic papers in international journals and also attended more than forty national and international seminars and conferences while working as a lecturer.

Abbas’s backers contend that he is the most qualified candidate for the job of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, noting that he will use his wealth of experience in the public and private sectors to effect positive changes.

Despite President-elect Tinubu’s endorsement, the ranking lawmaker will need the vote of all lawmakers in his conference and at least three votes from members of opposition political parties to emerge in a two-horse race.

The opposition parties have the majority in the Green Chamber with 180 representatives, while APC has 178. Two seats; one in Akwa Ibom and another in Ondo State, are pending.