Immediate past deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Ahmed Idris Wase, has congratulated the new speaker of the Green Chamber Hon. Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu.
Abbas and Kalu emerged the presiding officers of the Lower Chamber on Tuesday when the 10th National Assembly was inaugurated.
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Wase had contested against Abbas, the All Progressives Congress (APC) anointed candidate but lost to him having scored only three votes against the 353 pooled by Abbas.
In his formal reaction to the outcome of the contest, the former deputy speaker said although they were on different sides of the political space, they remain partners in the project of deepening parliamentary democracy.
The member representing Wase federal constituency of Plateau State in the House made his position in a statement he personally signed.
Wase said his contest in the speakership election was about making a case for what he considered a lack of equity and fairness in the manner in which APC’s zoning was done much more than it was about winning.
“As a politician who has been engaging in elections since 2007 and has returned to the House for the 5th term, I verily understand that every contest must generate its necessary contentions.
“However, in the end, we have to come together to confront the bigger matters of stability of the Parliament and enriching Legislative Governance to deepen our collective democracy.
“In this light, I wish to once again congratulate the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas and Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu on their victory and urge my supporters and well-wishers, as well as my fellow contestants to give them all the cooperation required to achieve a stable and united 10th House of Representatives,” he said.
The 5th term lawmaker expressed his intention to fervently and actively participate in all legislative business of the 10th Assembly and proudly represent not only the people of his constituency but Nigerians at large.
“I thank my mentor and leader, the president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, for his continuous fatherly support and counsel which he has sustained from my early days in ACN till date. I am immensely indebted to you sir and will continue to be.
“I thank my constituents who have consistently demonstrated their unalloyed faith in and support for me by continuously returning me to the Green Chambers now for the 5th term to represent them. I will continue to represent you well.
“I assure all my colleagues that I will continue to, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, show ‘Charity towards all and malice towards none,’” Wase added.