A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House of Representatives, Magaji Aliyu, has said that President Buhari was categorical in telling the lawmakers to tow the party line.
Mr Aliyu was a guest of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television to discuss the outcome of the APC lawmakers’ Monday evening meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ahead of the resumption of the House on Tuesday, July 28, there had been agitation over the leadership crisis in the House regarding the choice of candidates for the principal positions.
Aliyu, in explaining what happened at the meeting, said that President Buhari told the lawmakers to “do the needful”.
He said, “Needful means that we should tow the party line.
“The party has written a letter a very long time ago but there was up and down and I feel very soon the party will also make what the party line is obvious by today (Tuesday).”
Lawmaker on both factions had on Monday made conflicting statements to newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, an indication that different interpretations were given to the President’s statements, creating the impression that the meeting had ended in a deadlock.
Aliyu, however, insisted that there was no ambiguity in the President’s position as well as the party’s.
“What the President said is not relative, people can decide to be economical with the truth. The Party Chairman stood and talked immediately after the President had spoken and what he had said was that ‘Gentlemen, lets start from where the party begins’ and I am sure the party will explain this further.
“I believe that all the 360 of us that were there plus some that were not there clearly understood the direction.
“We are not here (in the House) to be arguing over leadership or to be having one problem or the other. We are here to make laws, so we should please bury our hatchets and forget our differences as the President has said and go back to the chambers to make laws.”
Aliyu also expressed reservations over the use of the word ‘deadlock’ in referring to the meeting across the media.
“Deadlock with who? The President, the party leader has spoken in unequivocal terms on what to do and how to go about having peace. I believe people should take this serious and begin to see it as a directive that will be good for all of us and the party,” he said.
The APC lawmaker added that there were other factors that had contributed to the lingering crisis. He believes the role played by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the emergence of Speaker Yakubu Dogara had also worsened the crisis.
“On the election day when Speaker Dogara was elected, (with) 174 of us out of 210, you could see that only about thirty something percent followed PDP to vote for him. We didn’t vote for him but God has made him the leader.
“We promised to be loyal and work with him. So I feel we have drawn it long enough for whoever has anything in his mind to drop it for the sake of this country, our party and the change Nigerians desire.
“Nigerians did not vote for PDP, they voted for APC. So APC must be allowed to work.”
