Prince Tony Momoh, former Minister of Information and Culture and former national chairman of Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, has come out hard on those advocating for respect for party supremacy in selecting leadership of the 9th National Assembly. He says it won’t work.
Momoh disclosed this in Abuja during an interactive session with journalists on the occasion of his 8th birthday.
He said that the reliance of the APC on party supremacy to impose its candidates would not work. He said that claims of party supremacy could only be effective in a parliamentary, not presidential system of government because the political party with the majority would always form the government in the former. Momoh recalled that since 1999, efforts by political parties to impose their candidates on the nation’s parliament had always been resisted by federal lawmakers. He added that the National Assembly had its own personality that it always protected, in spite of political party differences, adding that the party’s choice could only succeed if there was cooperation and not by imposition.
“In 1999, Evans Enwerem was not the choice of the senators. They wanted Chuba Okadigbo. So, Enwerem did not last when he emerged. Also in 2015, the party wanted Femi Gbajabiamila but Yakubu Dogara got it. “Since 1999, there have always been problems between the legislators and the party’s candidates. The legislators come together to pursue common interests and party supremacy is obviously not one of them. “In the parliamentary system, the party with the majority will dominate leadership positions in the parliament. The prime minister is also a member of the parliament.”
Momoh was born on 27 April 1939 in Auchi, Edo state. The 165th child of King Momoh I of Auchi, he attended Government School Auchi between 1949–1954 and Anglican School Okpe 1954.
He later went to the Provincial Teachers Training College, Abudu, and Government Teachers College, Abraka in Western Region between 1960–1961.
He thereafter attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (September 1964 – October 1966) where he earned a degree in Mass communication, and then the University of Lagos where he studied Law. He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos from October 1974 to May 1975 and was called to the bar in June 1975.
He is married with children.
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