House of Representatives Wants Speaker’s National Honour Upgraded to GCON
By Juliet Vincent
The House of Representatives at plenary Wednesday urged President Bola Tinubu to upgrade the National honours on its Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen to Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), same as that of the Senate President.
Preedsent Tinubu in his Independence Day broadcast Tuesday, conferred on Senate President Godswill Akpabio, National Honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) just as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Speaker Tajudeen and Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau were conferred with the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR).
According to the House, Akpabio and Tajudeen are “first among equals” and frowned at the description of tagging it “lower chamber” compared to the Senate.
It also constituted an ad hoc committee, chaired by the House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, to look into the issue and report to the House within three days.
These resolutions followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Philip Agbese (APC, Benue) and supported by the 359 members of the House.
Agbese also rejected the description of the senate president as the “chairman of the National Assembly,” stating that the term is unknown to the Constitution.
Supporting the motion, Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) emphasized that both chambers are equal, and honour given to any of the presiding officers should be equal.
