Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass says the lower house will not be a rubber stamp in the hands of the Executive.
He assured that the legislators will move against the Executive if it is seen as working against public interest.
Abbas stated this while speaking with newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, adding that the wide acceptability, depicted by the cross-party support during his election put a lie to the picture previously painted picture that he was being imposed by the ruling All Progressives Congress
Abass in company with Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu visited President Bola Tinubu at the Villa after their emergence a few hours earlier.
Responding to a question about the House they would be presiding over being a rubber stamp, Abass said, “If you talk about rubber stamp, look at the acceptance rate, those who have elected those across party lines, almost all the whole entire PDP, SDP, ADC and all other minority parties voted us.
“So, if they felt that we are going to be rubber stamps, do you think they will elect us? No. They believe that we will safeguard the sanctity of the National Assembly, the legislature.
“We will always separate our independence and we will relate and be able to harmonize with the Executive where necessary, but where there is a conflict of interest, where we feel that the Executive is or wants to do something that is not in the interest of the public, they know that we’ll stand up against that.”
On his eventual victory as Speaker, he said, “What I can tell you is that right from day one, when we started this campaign, it was always good but the impact of social media propaganda of some of the contestants distorted the entire picture of what was on the ground.
“To God be the glory, today people have seen our level of popularity and acceptance by our members and it has put to shame those who always thought that we were imposed by the party and that we don’t have the numbers.
“Today, people have seen that we have established a record that has never been established in the past; 353 out of 359 members, electing us. It is unprecedented, it has never ever happened in the history of Parliament.”
