Gbajabiamila speaks on rumoured plan to oust and replace Dogara

– The majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, spoke on issues of national importance

– Gbajabiamila also spoke concerning the speculations that he is still plotting to remove Speaker Yakubu Dogara from office

– He expressed confidence in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari despite the current economic challenges

The majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has denied new speculation that his utmost ambition is to oust Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Femi Gbajabiamila says Nigerians must leave the issue of speakership and forge ahead

Gbajabiamila, who spoke with NAIJ.com in Mauritius where the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is holding its 47th conference, said it was time for Nigerians to move away from such rumour and think of forging ahead.

The lawmaker from Surulere was primed to be the speaker of the House after the election in 2015.

He however emerged the majority leader after a heated tussle between him and current Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

He said his support for the speaker, who is currently having a hard time convincing Nigerians that he did not pad the 2016 budget, does not have any political undertone.

“There is nothing anybody can do about speculation. Anybody can speculate whatever anybody wants to speculate.

“I have said it over and over again, the election has come and gone and it ended on June 9, 2015. If people want to drag it for four years, it has nothing to do with me.

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“I am not interested, I am facing my job in whatever capacity I find myself.

“I will only ask people to forget this issue and move on,” he said.

Concerning the sliding economy and a reported recent criticism from Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Gbajabiamila said: “For me, we all have to start from a premise. Does the president mean well for this country? The answer is yes. Is he surrounded by people who are economic experts? The answer again is yes.

“So we all have to look beyond that and begin to understand that the problem of economic downturn is a universal thing particularly amongst oil producing countries.

“No oil producing country in the world that is not going through this, some even worse than Nigeria. It is not an isolated problem. It is universal.

“I don’t know what Soludo said, but I know who Soludo was when he was serving the other government that actually brought us to this sorry state that we are.

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“When you have a mono-economy, and we have said it over and over again for years, and you don’t diversify, when that product goes down, you are going to run into trouble. You don’t need to see a rocket scientist to tell you that.

“Oil is no more selling like it was before and that is where we get our foreign exchange from. It is this government that is now beginning to consider diversification in the area of tourism, taxation, agriculture and information technology.

“But it is a process. Change is not an event. There is a short term, medium and long term and we should set our eyes on that long term where there is light at the end of the tunnel and not look at what is happening now.

“We have to clean up the mess in the system; we are actually building a country from scratch and people need to understand that.

“When Barack Obama came into power, the country was in a mess. They are just beginning their recovery and some people are still complaining.”

He said he had learnt a lot from the conference and that he was sure the experience would further shape lawmaking processes in Nigeria.

“What I have seen here is that there is a lot that unites and binds us.

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“It is an ongoing engagement and a lot of issues have been discussed and these range from security to discrimination. I believe that the resolutions made would strengthen our country and grow our democracy,” he said.

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