Bankole to Reps-elect: Make your tenure rancour free

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, on Wednesday, enjoined members-elect to ensure their tenure ended well as legislators.
Bankole, whose tenure will end midnight, June 4, gave the piece of advice as he met with the members-elect at the National Assembly in Abuja.
The newly-elected lawmakers met with him under the aegis of the Seventh Assembly Group.
He said their first assignment upon inauguration was to choose their “leaders wisely”, as Nigerians expected so much from them.
“Whatever you do here, remember that the end matters more than the beginning,” the speaker added.
The meeting later went into a closed-door session, which lasted close to three hours.
When the meeting rose, the Chairman of the group, Alhaji Abdulmumini Jibrin, claimed it discussed “issues of mutual interests and to learn from the experience of the leadership.”
“Politics is about dialogue, understanding and compromise”, Jibrin added.
Investigations, however, showed that the group used the meeting to negotiate on the sharing of positions in the House between returning lawmakers and members-elect.
Findings indicated they complained of being “neglected” by the House, as no efforts had been made to integrate them into the operations of the legislation since they were elected on April 9.
It was gathered the group was angling to present a member-elect for the position of the Deputy Speaker of the House.
“For this reason, they are challenging the rule of the House, which gives priority to ranking members in the race for leadership positions in the House”, a National Assembly source informed The PUNCH after the meeting.
The development came as the North-East caucus of the House declared support for the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party for the sharing of political offices.
By this position, the caucus insisted the seat of deputy speaker (currently held by the zone) would be retained in the North-East.
The Chairman of the caucus, Mr. Tony Madwatte, told a news conference on Wednesday the zone met on Tuesday and resolved it “should be allowed to produce the next deputy speaker, a position the zone currently occupies (Alhaji Usman Nafada).”
Madwatte, who read the communiqué of the meeting, signed by the Zonal Secretary, Adamu Gurai, said, “The caucus supports in-to-to, the zoning arrangement of political offices at the national level, which cedes the deputy speakership to the North-East Zone.”
By John Ameh, Abuja                        Courtesy Of: Punch