*House of Reps’ spokesman: He is qualified to lead Nigeria
Femi Adewale, Abuja
MEMBERS of the House of Representatives from the North-West met at the weekend in Kaduna to endorse the presidential ambition of Speaker of the Lower House, Alhaji Waziri Tambuwal.
The meeting was held in the house of one of the federal lawmakers.
It is not clear the platform Tambuwal, who hails from Sokoto, will use to realise his ambition because of the belief that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will endorse the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
At the meeting were about 60 of the lawmakers.
A source at the meeting said a committee, headed by one of the lawmakers from Jigawa State, was set up to approach their colleagues from the remaining five geo-political zones “to buy into the presidential project”.
Although the Deputy Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee of the House of Representatives, Victor Ogene, could not confirm the meeting, he, however, said yesterday that “Tambuwal is qualified to lead the country”.
He said: “As it stands today, Tambuwal has displayed good leadership in the House of Representatives. It is only left for Nigerians to determine who will lead them in 2015. It does not matter that he is a member of the PDP”
“One thing I want to tell Nigerians is that Tambuwal is not a PDP Speaker. He is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He can relate with any party in the best interest of Nigerians”