By Adeleye Kunle
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has described how the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, betrayed him in his previous bid to become Speaker.
Mr Speaker: The Legislative Life, Service, and Resilience of Femi Gbajabiamila,’ written by two of his aides, Dr Charles Omole and Musa Abdullahi Krishi, revealed this in a recent book.
The speaker recalled how Tambuwal, whom he had backed to become Speaker of the House in 2011, abandoned him when it was his turn.
Gbajabiamila was disappointed when Tambuwal failed to support him and instead lined up behind Yakubu Dogara in 2015.
He went on to say that Tambuwal made certain that he was defeated by Dogara in his bid for Speaker in 2015.
Gbajabiamila described the event as follows: “Not only did Gbajabiamila work for Tambuwal’s emergence in 2011, but he also stood by him through thick and thin throughout his four-year tenure.” For example, when the then-executive arm attempted to remove Tambuwal following his defection to the APC, Gbajabiamila and others had to scale the National Assembly gate to gain access to the House chamber to foil the plot.
“By 2015, with all of Gbajabiamila’s sacrifices for Tambuwal, it was assumed that the (now) Sokoto State governor would support him to become Speaker.” But the outgoing Speaker had another plan: Dogara would be his successor.”
“When the time came for the speakership election, it was taken for granted,” Gbajabiamila said, explaining how the Sokoto State Governor betrayed him.
“I didn’t give a hoot about who Tambuwal was supporting; he had become quite popular in the House at the time.
“He had a close relationship with my family.” So we were taken aback when we began to hear little things here and there. Even when I first heard that he was supporting someone else, I dismissed it as untrue until I discovered that it was. He never told me anything. When I asked him about it, he said it was impossible. Such was the height of betrayal.
“Don’t forget that, aside from speakership, there were about seven to eight of us who launched the Tambuwal presidential campaign and came very close to securing the ticket.” We were completely behind him. We got together every night until 2, 3, 4 a.m.”
The Speaker also accused Tambuwal of abandoning his bid to become House leader after losing to Dogara.
He stated that when it came time to run for speaker again, former Zamfara State governor, Yari, and Tambuwal approached him and asked him to replace his deputy, Monguno, with Dogara.
Gbajabiamila said he rejected the move and asked for a meeting with Monguno to see if he would step down for Dogara.
This article first appeared on Track News.
