Following his appointment as Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today, June 2, 2023, the outgoing Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has assured the President of his unalloyed dedication and loyalty to the job.

The lawmaker made this known in an appreciation message to the President on Twitter after the announcement of his appointment.

The PUNCH reports that Tinubu had also appointed a former Deputy Governor of Jigawa State, Sen. Ibrahim Hadejia, as Deputy Chief of Staff and former Minister of Special Duties, George Akume, as Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Gbajabiamila, who has spent the last two decades in the Nigerian parliament, expressed profound gratitude to the President for finding him worthy of the appointment.

Pledging his allegiance to the service of the President, the new Chief of Staff stated that he will put in his best effort to ensure that the herculean task ahead of him is discharged with due diligence.

He wrote, “Thank you Mr. President, Bola Tinubu, for finding me worthy of being your Chief of Staff. Having spent the last 20 years in the Nigerian Parliament, and after winning my 6th term election into the National Assembly, I shall work with Mr President in discharging the enormous task ahead of him for the peace and progress of the federal republic of Nigeria. I shall give my best when I take office on June 14 2023 as reflected in Mr. President’s official letter.”

The Lamidi Apapa faction of Labour Party on Friday told the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi, to step down his case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal over what they described as “lack of seriousness”.

According to the faction, the advice became necessary following the incident which happened at the Tribunal on Thursday where the court stepped down hearing in the petition filed by Obi and the LP against the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on fuel subsidy removal, the LP faction knocked the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria for rejecting new pump price of petrol.

They insisted that the position of the LP on removal of fuel subsidy during the campaign has not changed, saying “we cannot reverse that position because it was not our candidate that won the presidential election.”

The factional National Publicity Secretary of the LP, Abayomi Arabambi, raised these issues during a press conference in Abuja.

He told journalists that Obi has not been able to provide any concrete evidence to back this claims since PEPT began sitting.

Arabambi alleged that Obi went to court to challenge the victory of Tinubu because he (Obi) and his co-travellers had different motives as against the wishes of the Nigerian masses who freely offered their supports to LP.

He said, “We have followed with keen interest the shameful developments and approach by the so-called legal team assembled by Peter Obi challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission and we have, like many Nigerians, come to the conclusion that Obi is not only taking Nigerians for a ride but would continue to waste the hard earned resources donated by Nigerians for this purpose to even enrich himself the more.

“All of you here who have been following this case can recall that the day we had altercation in court with (Julius) Abure’s group, that INEC announced that Peter Obi could not pay for CTC form EC08 and other documents. That now compelled them to only present 30 per cent of the materials they would need for the hearing at Election Petition Tribunal.

“How would any right thinking person go to election tribunal with only 30 per cent of documents where none of all them would be accepted or agreed to be tendered by other political parties?

“Three days ago, they said two of their counsels were sick and yesterday (Thursday), they could not even file a single process with the array of SANs with Obi. This is what we have been saying that they are just trying to hoodwink the public, deceiving the Obidients and giving them false hope that they have something at the tribunal.

“It’s evident from the attitude displayed by them when they wrote a letter to INEC that Obi could not pay N1.5 million. Who are they deceiving? Counsel were sick?

“That’s why we have consistently maintained that Obi is not serious. He came in to the party with nothing. He didn’t fund the election, he didn’t fund the party, he didn’t do anything for the party. He only came to mess of the entire process and to deceive Nigerians that he has something to offer to them.

“Labour Party is thereby calling on him to step down his selfish ambition and stop messing up the party if he has nothing serious to present to the tribunal.”

Fuel subsidy

Arabambi said, “Whatever we have agreed on during our campaign, and as a party that promote peace, equity and justice in Nigeria, then we can’t be found approbating and reprobating at the same time. Our position is that, once Obi has said he would remove fuel subsidy from his first day in office, the same organized labour who stood on that position must not be seen working in cross purpose on the same thing that Tinubu, Atiku and even Obi said they were going to do.

“Obi said subsidy was an organized crime that must be stopped. The NLC can’t call for any strike. If they do, it is obvious that they are just being mischievous for a reason best known to them or maybe they have something against the President that they should come out open to tell Nigerians. That is our position as Labour Party.”

Punch

Former governor of Kano State and senator representing Kano Central, Ibrahim Shekarau, has decried Nigeria’s high cost of governance.

Consequently, Shekarau, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday night, advised President Bola Tinubu to cut down the number of federal lawmakers.

He said: “Left to me, we don’t need to have the two chambers, the two houses. It’s costing the country. I agree, a democracy means getting as many involved as possible, but the way it is going on now, it’s almost 500 legislators nationwide; I don’t think we really need this much at the moment.”

The two chambers of the National Assembly is made up of 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members, bringing the total number of federal lawmakers to 469.
He, however, expressed doubt if President Bola Tinubu could muscle the political will to do this and other constitutional amendments that would be beneficial to the country.
Shekarau argued further that cutting the number of parastatals would affect the number of oversight assignments, reducing the burden on the nation.
“Then you’ll discover that the legislative arm will also have to be downsized because if there isn’t much to do at the centre, you don’t need all of this sea of hundreds of people really to do oversight assignments.

“I have been subscribing to the idea of devolution of powers. The Federal Government should really cut its own costs by devolving a lot of these responsibilities down the line, to the states and to the local governments,’’ he said.
According to him, the Federal Government is spending “so much” at the centre and creating too many agencies and parastatals.
He said: “Unfortunately, we’ve not had leadership that has the courage. There was the Oronsaye report during Jonathan’s time, which has yet to be implemented.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not implement it; former President Muhammadu Buhari did not implement it.
“The moment you create a parastatal, you’re already talking of board members, chief executive, directors, departments, and the overhead cost of running all these agencies add quite a lot to the expenses of running the government.”

He said cutting down on the number of federal lawmakers and reducing the number of parastatals and agencies would save the country money to be ploughed into areas, including education, health and other social services.