Thirty-one year old Adebo Ogundoyin, who currently represents Ibarapa East state constituency in the Oyo state House of Assembly, is poised to emerge speaker as the ninth Assembly to be inaugurated tomorrow.
At the inauguration to be attended by Governor Seyi Makinde, the Babcock University graduate’s emergence is favoured by a combination of factors such as his party affiliation, zoning consideration and experience.
He will become the youngest lawmaker to be speaker in the history of the Assembly.
For the election of Speaker, Section 2 (3a) of the House rule stipulates that “a member-elect shall propose another member-elect with legislative experience as a member of the House of Assembly to be Speaker, and move that such member-elect do take the chair of the House as Speaker of the House of Assembly.”
According to Nigerian Tribune, Ogundoyin is one of four members that meet the house rules to be Speaker of being returning member and possess legislative experience while the other three are Wumi Oladeji who emerged on the platform of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Oyeleke Adebola and Ashimiyu Alarape who both were elected on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, Ogundoyin who emerged winner in the June 2 by-election held to fill the vacant seat left by the late Honourable Michael Adeyemo, has the edge above other returning members for being of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It will only take political abracadabra for a returning member from the minority to emerge as in the 32-member makeup, the ruling PDP boasts of 26 members, APC has five members while ADP boasts of one member.
Ogundoyin also has an edge going by zonal consideration as he represents Ibarapa, a zone which does not occupy any of the two top positions of the governor (Ibadan) and deputy governor (Oke-Ogun).
Furthermore, Ogundoyin is said to have the backing of the top echelon of the PDP leadership in the state.
Those not favoured to Ogundoyin’s emergence argue that he only has about a year’s experience and has not shown enough legislative pedigree as compared to the trio of Oladeji, Alarape and Oyeleke who command four years legislative experience.
The PDP leadership is expected to influence the decision of the Assembly in determining other principal officers in the house viz, deputy speaker, majority leader, the deputy majority leader, the chief whip, deputy chief whip and chairman, parliamentary caucus.
Having the highest number of members in the minority, one of the five members elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be the minority leader.
