Keep Off Reps Leadership Tussle, Political Parties Told

Former members of the House of Representatives have asked political parties and other individuals to steer clear of the leadership tussles in the House.

The members, who spoke on the platform of Faculty Board of Initiative, a group made up of serving and former members, said all external interferences in the House leadership election process would be resisted.

Yesterday, Dean of the Initiative, Eseme Eyibo, former Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity in the 6th Assembly, said the concept of the separation of powers and independence of the legislature must be upheld and that since the elections marked the end for party politics, governance had set in.

Going down memory lane, Eyibo applauded the process that produced former Speakers Ghali N’abba, Dimeji Bankole, Aminu Tambuwal and Yakubu Dogara, saying it typified the independence of the legislature.

He insisted that members of the House of Representatives of the 9th National Assembly must be given a free hand to elect their leaders, adding that Nigerians want a House leadership that must reflect the wishes of the people.

He said: “There has to be a leadership recruitment process premised on certain qualities and these qualities must be the issues of the core values of the institution, acceptability and ability to galvanise the overall interest of the membership of the House of Representatives as represented by powers vested in it in according accordance with section 4(1) of the Constitution.”