The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has urged the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, to constitute reconciliation committees that would unite aggrieved members of the party nationwide.
The speaker noted that a deliberate move to woo aggrieved members of the APC would augur well for the party.
He stated this while speaking at the APC stakeholders’ meeting for the North-West zone in Kaduna on Sunday.
Tajudeen argued that some members of the APC are not happy, hence efforts must be made to bring them back to the fold.
A statement issued on Sunday by the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Musa Krishi, quoted Abbas as saying, “I want to call on the National Chairman and our party executive to ensure peaceful coexistence among all party members. We are bedevilled with many issues in different states, and every local government.
“It is time to draw a line. Elections are over; this is the time for governance. We should forget what has happened, Forgive one another and one another.
“I want to suggest to the National Chairman, and by extension, the National Vice Chairman, to, as a matter of urgency, constitute reconciliation committees for the zone and for every state to constitute the same reconciliation committees so that we can make peace and bring those that we may have offended back to the party.”
Speaker Abbas also urged Ganduje to use his office to address the high turnover rate of National Assembly members, saying APC members who perform well should be allowed to return in 2027.
“On the issue of the high turnover of members of the National Assembly, this is a golden opportunity under your tenure to ensure that you do everything humanly possible for current APC members of the National Assembly and States Houses of Assembly to return in 2027.
“Some people may say others are waiting. But I need to emphatically mention that the National Assembly is an institution where the older you are in the system, the better you become.
“Today, the North-West, based on the 2023 elections, is worse off. That is the reason, perhaps, we did not get the kind of prominence we should have gotten. So, let’s ensure that only the worst of us do not get re-elected. We should allow the competent ones to return to the National Assembly,” he pleaded.