Speakership: The Odds favour Abbas
By Femi SALAKO
Writes for Triangle News Media
The race to produce the speaker of the 10th House Representatives is becoming 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 Federal House of Representatives.
Tajudeen is the House Committee Chairman for Land Transport and he has convinced every of his colleague 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, groups and a large majority of the newly elected and reelected members of the House of Representatives.
Tajudeen possess 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 of Representatives. 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 region 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 of Representatives. He is a man of impeccable character and his moral standing as well as intellect depth are far beyond any trace of doubt.
The 59 year-old Abass Tajudeen 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 of Representatives 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 the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto
He was awarded his Ph.D in year 2010. Earlier, the lawmaker had in 1993 obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University. The Iyan Zazzau is also a Bachelor’s degree holder in Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He obtained the degree in flying colours in 1988.
Abbas Tajudeen also obtained a Diploma in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University in 1984. He had much earlier attended Kaduna Teacher’s College (KTC) Kaduna 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 carer 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 up interest in the academics when he took up employment as Lecturer II and equally doubled as the pioneer Head of 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 the 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 poineer Head of 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 Chance (CPC). He was
made the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Compliance and served in this position until 2015. He was again in 2015 re-elected to represent Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He also served as the Chairman of House Committee on Solid Mineral until 2019.
Abbas Tajudeen in 2019 repeated the same political feat by getting re-elected as member representing Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He was again made the Chairman, House Committee on Land Transport till date. He has yet been re-elected in 2023 to represent the same good people of Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The Iyan Zazzau is a member and fellow of several professional bodies in Nigeria. 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 Abbas 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, Hon. Abbas 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 Representative 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 geo-political zone in 2021.
Hon. Abbas 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 federal House of Representatives.
