The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the House of Representatives members-elect on its platform for the 10th Assembly to put the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on its toes.
The PDP Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, who made the call at the inaugural meeting of the party’s caucus in the 10th Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday also enjoined the members-elect to be firm in lawmaking.
Damagum formally welcomed and congratulated the lawmakers on their electoral victory and reiterated that putting the ruling party on its toes was one of the ways of making them work for the country.
He said: “You have a daunting task before you because of the state of the nation. You have been elected at a time when the country is no longer what we used to know. It has been bedeviled by so many vices and people are looking up to you to correct the rot.
“When you make laws, it is expected that you are helping the society and in act of making laws you should be mindful of the fact that the society is no longer what you use to know and you have to be firm. You have to be loyal to your country first and then the party. Loyalty to the country because it is only when you have a country that you can even exists as a lawmaker.
“Most of you that have spoken have been grateful to the party for giving you the platform to be here today. We don’t expect anything else from you rather than to be a loyal party member. Most of you will be concerned about the current situation of the party, it is always like that. When you have an election year there will be a lot of crisis.
“If you look at from your primaries up to the time when you were elected, you have gone through a lot and I know the party is going through the same kind of situations. But one thing I want to assure you is that PDP has the mechanism to solve its own problems.
“The initiative you have taken upon yourself before we even called upon you to make this gathering possible is also one of reasons why I said we have the mechanism. You have done well, I have interacted with some of your leaders towards being up this gathering and I don’t expect any PDP member to be less in terms of that acumen and capacity, we have always been known to be full of capacity in terms of what we want to achieve.
“I don’t expect less from you. I want to reiterate like some of you have said here that this 10th Assembly should come and make sure that it gives the right opposition that is expected of you.
Earlier, the convener of the meeting, Frederick Agbedi (PDP, Bayelsa) in his opening remarks said the meeting was to seek a direction from the party on how to proceed in the incoming 10th assembly.
He said the PDP had the numerical strength of 116 to achieve its objectives in the parliament.
In a related development, a group of the members-elect across different political parties under the aegis of “Joint Tast-10th Assembly” said it will abide by the zoning formula of APC.
Usman Kumo (APC, Gombe), chairman of the forum made the pledge at the inauguration of the forum in Abuja on Tuesday.
He however said the forum had no preferred candidate for the office of the speaker of the 10th House but to ensure that the expectations of Nigerians were met.
“As you can see from our banner, the name of this coalition is ‘Joint Task – 10th Assembly.’ We are a multi-partisan forum of the eight political parties that have won seats for the 10th House of Representatives. Although our logo displays the names of the political parties that make up this forum, it is pertinent to list them individually.
“Our driving force is ‘Nigeria’s Unity and the Stability of the 10th House of Representatives. In ensuring the above, we have resolved to go by the decision of the majority party, which is the APC, in deciding which zones produce the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. We believe that the APC would do the right thing, and once the zoning is done, we would decide on the next line of action. We would be guided by capacity, competence, experience and other leadership qualities,” he said.