Old faces Nigerians will miss in 10th National Assembly
While some of them, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, are aspiring for other elective positions, others failed to secure the tickets of their parties to re-contest parliamentary elections. Few others chose not to seek re-election based on the political exigencies they found themselves in.
While some of them, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, are aspiring for other elective positions, others failed to secure the tickets of their parties to re-contest parliamentary elections. Few others chose not to seek re-election based on the political exigencies they found themselves in.
Prominent among such lawmakers in the Senate are Senate President Ahmad Lawan, James Manager, Ike Ekweremadu, Oluremi Tinubu and Smart Adeyemi.
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In the House of Representatives, the list includes former Speaker Yakubu Dogara; Deputy Minority Leader Toby Okechukwu, Leo Ogor, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, Herman Hembe, Pat Asadu, among others.
Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan (Yobe North)
Senate President Ahmad Lawan is among the longest serving federal lawmakers in Nigeria’s history. He was first elected into the House of Representatives in 1999 to represent Bade/Jakusko constituency of Yobe State. He was re-elected in 2003.
Lawan moved to the Senate in 2007 to represent Yobe North. He has been representing that senatorial district since then. By June 2023 when the life of the 9th National Assembly will elapse, Lawan must have spent 24 years in the federal parliament.
However, the Senate president’s two decades of lawmaking career is coming to an end as he failed to secure the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest the Yobe North senatorial election in 2023 after losing the party’s presidential primary election to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Although he did not take part in the senatorial primary, the party had sent his name to the INEC as its candidate; however, the electoral body refused to acknowledge him.
Bashir Machina, who won the primary election, had refused pressure to step down for Lawan and headed to court to seek justice.
Subsequently, a Federal High Court in Yobe ordered the INEC to recognise Machina as the authentic candidate for the senatorial district.
Responding in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, Lawan accepted the judgement of the court and decided not to appeal.
Ike Ekweremadu (Enugu West)
Ekweremadu, a three-time deputy Senate president, is also among the league of federal legislators who will bow out of the National Assembly in June 2023 after he must have spent 20 years.
He was first elected into the Senate in 2003 to represent Enugu West. Since then, he has been representing the senatorial district.
Earlier this year, he declared interest to run for Enugu governorship, purchased Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) form but withdrew from the race few hours to the primary.
Ekweremadu is currently facing trial in London, United Kingdom, for an alleged organ trafficking offence.
James Manager (Delta South)
Manager, fondly called the indigene of the Senate because of his long time in the federal parliament, is also ending his lawmaking career after 20 years.
In the Senate, he had held various committees, including power and Niger Delta.
He contested the governorship ticket of the PDP for Delta State but lost to the Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori.
Abdullahi Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East)
Senator Gobir represents Sokoto East senatorial district. He was named the Senate leader after his predecessor, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi defected from the APC to the PDP.
Gobir, a third-term lawmaker, was a member of the PDP until 2014 when he decamped to the APC.
The 67-year-old lawmaker contested the Sokoto APC governorship primary but lost to Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, the state’s former deputy governor.
Ajayi Boroffice (Ondo North)
Boroffice is the deputy leader of the Senate. The three-term senator represents Ondo North senatorial district.
He declared interest to contest for the office of the president on the platform of the APC. Senator Boroffice and seven others later stepped down for a former governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the venue of the presidential primary.
Unlike other aspirants who went ahead to secure senatorial tickets after losing the presidential bid, Boroffice did not seek re-election to the Red Chamber.
Mr Ipinsagba Emmanuel Olajide is seeking to replace the deputy leader of the Senate, having emerged as APC’s candidate for Ondo North.
Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger North)
Sabi, the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, sought to retain his Niger North senatorial seat in the 10th Senate but failed.
His decision to go ahead to contest the APC ticket for the senatorial zone after other aspirants had stepped down pitted him against his governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, who is also seeking to represent the same zone.
The Niger governor, like his colleagues in other states, deployed his power of incumbency to clinch the party’s ticket.
Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central)
Mrs Tinubu is also set to leave the Senate in 2023 after 12 years in the parliament, representing Lagos Central.
Her decision not to seek re-election to the federal parliament may not be unconnected with the move by her husband, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to contest the presidential election.
In the Red Chamber, Mrs Tinubu chairs the Senate Committee on Communications.
Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West)
Senator Adeyemi contested for the ticket of the APC to represent the Kogi West senatorial zone in the 10th Senate but lost to Sunday Karimi.
The three-term lawmaker blamed his failure to bear the party’s flag for the 2023 election on his stance to speak critically on national issues despite being a member of the ruling party.
He alleged that the leadership of APC in Kogi State also wanted him out of the Red Chamber to weaken his political power should he decide to contest the state’s off-season governorship election next year.
Yakubu Dogara (Bauchi)
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, will bow out of the Green Chamber in 2023.
Dogara, who represents Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal constituency of Bauchi State, was first elected in 2007, and has been in the House since then.
He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019.
He did not seek re-election, signaling an end to his lawmaking career after 15 years in the House of Representatives.
In his almost 15-year sojourn in the House, Dogara also chaired various standing and ad-hoc committees.
Leo Ogor (Delta)
Leo Ogor, who represents Isoko North/South federal constituency of Delta State, was first elected into the House of Representatives on the platform of the PDP.
He was re-elected in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. In 2011, he was elected Deputy House Leader and had chaired various committees of the House.
The ranking lawmaker will not be returning to the National Assembly in 2023 because he chose not to seek re-election, having spent over a decade in the Green Chamber.
Toby Okechukwu (Enugu)
The House Deputy Minority Leader, Okechukwu, who represents Oji River/Awgu/Aninri of Enugu State, lost his return bid, having failed to clinch the PDP ticket.
Okechukwu condemned the process that produced Anayo Onwuegbu as the party’s flag-bearer.
Except the lawmaker reclaims the ticket through the court, he will be one of the ranking lawmakers who will be missing in the parliament in 2023.
Pat Asadu (Enugu)
Asadu represents Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South federal constituency of Enugu State.
The four-term lawmaker sought a return ticket to contest election for the same parliamentary seat but lost to a former chairman of the PDP in the state, Vitalis Abba, an engineer. The medical doctor’s loss came amidst an opposition to his fifth term bid, especially from the people of Nsukka Local Government Area.
Ossai Nicholas Ossai (Delta)
Another ranking lawmaker who will not make it to the House of Representatives in the 10th Assembly is a third-term member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani constituency of Delta State, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, who lost his bid to clinch the ticket of the PDP.
Ossai scored 24 votes while Nnamdi Ezechi, a commissioner representing the Ndokwa nation on the Board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), polled 44 votes to win the ticket.
Ossai heads the House of Representatives Committee on Treaty and Protocol, and has been a member of various committees of the House.
Herman Hembe (Benue)
Hembe, who represents Jechira federal constituency of Benue State, which comprises Konshisha and Vandeikya local government areas, will not be returning to the National Assembly in 2023.
The third term lawmaker has opted to seek a higher position by contesting the governorship position in Benue State under the platform of the Labour Party (LP) come 2023.
Uzoma Nkem-Abonta (Abia)
Another ranking lawmaker who will not be returning in 2023 is Uzoma Nkem-Abonta who represents Ukwa East/ West federal constituency of Abia State. The lawmaker, who was first elected to the House in 2007, will not be returning to the National Assembly in 2023, having lost his bid for the 5th term.
The PDP lawmaker lost the ticket to Nkwonta Christian.
He has served as chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions and was a member of various committees of the House.
Umar Mohammed Bago (Niger)
Another ranking lawmaker who will not be returning is Umar Mohammed Bago, who represents Chanchaga federal constituency of Niger State. The lawmaker, who was first elected to the House in 2011, will not be returning to the National Assembly in 2023, having opted to contest the governorship seat of Niger State on the platform of the APC.
He has worked in various House committees, such as Anti-Corruption, Media and Public Affairs, Banking and Currency, among others.