Contenders for Speakership of 8th Assembly to Hold Debate before Lawmakers
Some members of the House of Representatives have invited the key contenders for the speakership of the 8th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Yakubu Dogara, to a debate before the House.
The group which calls itself “The Patriots”, is made up of about 100 lawmakers from different political parties and wants the debate to be centred on the programmes of the intended speakers for the incoming legislature.
The group released a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, disclosing it had met with the contestants to “determine their confidence, competence, knowledge, experience, track records, versatility, reliability and networking among other parameters.”
The Chairman of the group’s Publicity Committee, Abdulrazak Namdas, in the statement, said: “In spite of the separate engagement with the front line candidates, The Patriots has yet to take sides with any candidate, rather it is working towards organising a public debate to provide opportunity for members-elect and indeed Nigerians to scrutinise their credentials with the view to identifying the best.
“As you are aware, The Patriots is a bi-partisan assembly of both the returning and newly-elected House members committed to transparent and improved process of leadership selection in the green chamber. The members cut across parties, states, zones, ethnicity, faiths, gender and age group.”