The All Progressives Congress, APC, will not have anything to do with the opposition parties over determining those to be chosen to the leadership posts of the National Assembly.
This is because APC controls the majority in the National Assembly and can decide the leadership with ease.
The National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja.
He spoke at a dinner organised in honour of House of Representatives members-elect at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“We do not need to do business with the devil for us to survive in the ninth assembly,” he said.
According to Oshiomhole, the party would guard against a repeat of the mistake of 2015 where members of the opposition were elected into key leadership offices.
He said, “In life, mistakes are permitted but it becomes a problem if the mistake is repeated twice.
”We are determined not to repeat the mistakes of 2015 in 2019, we have learnt our lesson.”
He explained that with 223 APC members out of the 306 of the House of Representatives, his party was sure of having the power to determine who is elected into what post.
His words: “Out of 223 APC elected members, about 67 were re-elected, the rest are new members.
”In other climes, you don’t go into coalition when you are in the majority, you do so when you don’t have the numbers. We have the numbers, out of 306, Nigerians elected 223 APC members because they don’t want Mr President to face the trauma of 2015.
“Most of those who decamped were rejected and even those who led it were uprooted. We cannot as a party which has a comfortable majority, entrust critical committees in the hands of the PDP or opposition.
”If Nigerians wanted them, they could have voted them. In the days of PDP, every committee was chaired by PDP members.”
He stressed that the new members of the APC were good enough to chair the different committees of the National Assembly, and should be allowed to do that.
He said the essence of the meeting with the president was to make sure that the election of officials of the National Assembly was carried out smoothly.
Said he: “In African family, we sit down in a closed door to address issues, the good news is that there is a role for everyone.”
