PUSH NEWS 24 INTERNATIONAL : May 5th, 2023
TAJUDEEN ABASS : ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE QUINTESSENTIAL SPEAKER OF THE 10TH ASSEMBLY
The 10th National Assembly, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives, is expected to be inaugurated by June, 2023.
As expected, the race for who will be the next Speaker and Deputy Speaker is already gathering momentum, as aspirants and their supporters are consulting politicians and relevant stakeholders that may help them realize their ambition.
For the Speakership position, no fewer than 10 persons have indicated interest to take over from current Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila. The position just like the three other presiding offices in both chambers are expected to be zoned to the various geopolitical areas of the country.
As it is now, the President-elect is from the South-west while the Vice President-elect is from the North-East. In line with existing arrangement, South East, South South, North Central and North West, are expected to fill other positions in the Assembly.
There are also calls to balance the religious faiths as both the President-elect and Vice President-elect are Muslims.
However, lawmakers are divided over the geopolitical zones to produce the presiding officers of the federal parliament.
Push News 24 International cannreliably report that the President-Elect has given his blessings to the Chairman of the House Committees on land transport, Hon. Tajudeen Abass.
Abass also has been researched widely to have the highest chances of becoming the speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.
The choice of Abass is the outcome of a survey conducted by Legislative Trends Assessors, a parliamentary research-based organisation.
In the Report released by the organisation and signed by the Director, Communication, Research and Strategy, Dr. Abubakar Tijani, in Abuja at the weekend, the poll conducted among members-elect gave Abass a clear lead.
He said that 292 members-elect were interviewed, out of which 188 voted in favour of Abass while 10 other candidates shared the remaining 104 votes.
Indeed the race to produce the Speaker of the 10th House Representatives is more intense as the lifetime of the current 9th Assembly is gradually winding down. The contest is interestingly throwing up different individuals that are in their own rights deemed qualified.
Meanwhile, a few of the reelected ranking members of the House of Representatives with geo-political advantage to succeed the current Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, have equally made their intentions known. However, the most outstanding of the lot is the lawmaker representing Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen.
The Iyan Zazzau is undoubtedly an outstanding lawmaker who has naturally earned the love and respect of the majority of his colleagues at the green legislative chamber. He has, over the years, proven himself as a natural leader that is innately built to be the first amongst his equals at the House of Representatives.
Tajudeen is the House Committee Chairman for Land Transport and he has convinced every of his colleagues that he is the best prepared and most qualified person to be the Speaker of the 10th Assembly. The Iyan Zazzau can be readily likened to a very good product that markets itself.
Tajudeen’s speakership ambition has indeed been faithfully endorsed by several professional bodies and a large majority of the newly elected and reelected members of the House of Representatives.
Tajudeen possesses all the needed qualities to be the next Speaker of the 10th Assembly. He is enviably educated and eminently experienced to preside over the affairs of the House. The highly resourceful Kaduna born lawmaker is manifestly of unblemished integrity which has earned him respect amongst his colleagues at the National Assembly.
He has distinguished himself as the only federal lawmaker from the North-West who has thus far sponsored unprecedented 74 bills. Abbas also stands out as a man that is most suitable in character, experience and academic qualifications to preside over the House. He is a man of impeccable character and his moral standing as well as intellect depth is far beyond any trace of doubt.
The 59 year-old is a man that is awesomely cool, calm, calculated and highly experienced in the business of lawmaking. He has served in various committees of the House that include National Planning and Economic Development, Public Procurement, Defence, Social Duties, Finance and Commerce. The Iyan Zazzau also served as the Vice Chairman of the Legislative Compliance Committee from May 2011 to May 2015.
The vastly experienced legislator is a doctorate degree holder in Business Management from Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.
He was awarded his PhD in the year 2010. Earlier, the lawmaker had, in 1993, obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University. Iyan Zazzau is also a Bachelor’s degree holder in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He obtained a degree with flying colours in 1988.
Tajudeen also obtained a Diploma in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University in 1984. He had much earlier attended Kaduna Teacher’s College (KTC) where he obtained a grade II certificate in 1981. He also studied and passed his West African School Certificate Examination at the Government Secondary School, Makarfi in 1978. He had earlier obtained his First School Leaving Certificate at the LEA Primary School, Lemu, Zaria in 1976.
The federal lawmaker has a very robust career trajectory that covers education, management and marketing. He worked as a primary school teacher from 1981 to 1988 with the Education Department of Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State. He afterwards worked with Trust Acceptance Limited as an Investment Officer from 1988 to 1989. He also worked at the Bursary Department of Kaduna State Polytechnic as Accountant II in 1989.
Tajudeen picked interest in academics when he took up employment as Lecturer II and equally doubled as the pioneer Head of the Department of Accounting and Finance Department of Kaduna State Polytechnic Zaria from 1989 to 1993. He however left the academic environment to pick up employment with the Nigeria Tobacco Distributions Company Plc, now known as British–American Tobacco as Area Marketing Manager from 1993 to 1998.
Meanwhile, Tajudeen also worked as the General Manager of Jos Tobacco Distribution Company Limited from 1998 to 2001. He equally found his way back to academics in 2001 when he served as the Head of Department and Senior Lecturer in the Banking and Finance Department of Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic Zaria till 2005. He afterwards moved to the Kaduna State University, Kaduna in 2005 where he worked at the Accounting Department as Lecturer I and the pioneer Head of the Department until year 2010.
The highly resourceful federal lawmaker successfully published 13 academic papers in international journals and also attended more than forty national and international seminars and conferences while working as a lecturer.
In 2011, he, however, contested and
won election as a member representing Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State on the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). He was made the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Compliance and served in this position until 2015. He was in 2015 re-elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He also served as the Chairman of House Committee on Solid Mineral until 2019.
The Iyan Zazzau is a member and Fellow of several professional bodies. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTS) in year 2020. He also became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketers in 2013 and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Administrators in 2016. He was decorated as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Treasury Management in 2010 and also became Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Nigeria in 2015. He also became an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management in 2008.
The outstanding qualities of Tajudeen have earned him several honours within and outside of Nigeria. In year 2019, he was made the Treasurer of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (African Chapter). In the same year, he was also made a Governing Council member of the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) where he represents the North West Geo Political Zone till date. He served as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committees on four different occasions from 2015 to 2022.
Tajudeen has won several back-to-back awards as the Best Performing House of Representatives member for several years. Above all, Tajudeen sponsored 43 Bills and 13 Motions in the 8th Assembly which was the 3rd highest number of Bills from any member. In the 9th Assembly, he equally sponsored 78 Bills and 7 Motions which turned out to be the highest by any member in the House.
Interestingly, 20 of the Bills sponsored by Abbas have been assented by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Remarkably, Tajudeen has been the APC Caucus Leader for Kaduna State in the House of Representatives from 2019 till date. He also served as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Constitutional Review Conference for the North-Central in 2021.
Tajudeen has seen it all in the House of Representatives and he definitely possesses all the leadership attributes to become the next Speaker of the 10th Assembly.
The happily married lawmaker is obviously the right man for the speakership position and he is evidently poised to be the best Speaker that will ever preside over the affairs of the House of Representatives.
Additional reports from NAN, Vanguard, Tribune
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