Seven facts about Ghali Umar Na’Abba and his robust leadership of Nigeria’s House of Representatives
Ghali Umar Na’Abba was born on September 27, 1958. He studied political science at the Ahmadu Bello University and graduated in 1979.
Ghali Umar Na’Abba started politics at the Ahmadu Bello University where he was elected as an executive committee member of the ABU chapter of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP). The PRP was founded by Mallam Aminu Kano. As a student of Mallam Aminu Kano school of political thought, he joined mainstream politics after leaving school and won election as a House of Reps member in 1999. He later emerged as Speaker of the House of Reps following the resignation of the then Speaker, Salisu Buhari
In line with his position to defend the independence of the legislature, Ghali Umar Na’Abba’s House of Representatives remains the only Legislative House in Nigeria to mobilize more than 300 members out of 360 to overturn a presidential veto, like they did to President Obasanjo’s veto on NDDC.
The House of Representatives under Ghali Umar Na’Abba remains the only House that listed 32 impeachable offences against President Obasanjo, and continued to check him against the use of civilian dictatorship.
The presidency under Obasanjo plotted severally to oust Ghali Umar Na’Abba as the Speaker following his hardline stance. He survived till the end of his four-year tenure on June 3, 2003.
In the 2003 re-election, the presidency under Obasanjo feared that allowing Ghali Umar Na’Abba to return to the House of Representatives could lead to his re-emergence as Speaker. To stop that, the PDP on whose platform both Obasanjo and Ghali Umar Na’Abba seeking re-election, decided to sacrifice the entire Kano to the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) just to stop Na’Abba. Na’Abba lost his re-election.
In April 2003, the Presidency’s fear was that given his level of performance in four years in the House and his high popularity rating, if he should be allowed to win the election to return to the House he would logically re-emerge Speaker. Essentially, this resulted in the regrettable conspiracy to ambush him to lose the election. This time again, the backlash of the perfidy expanded and consumed PDP in the state as the party lost to All Nigeria People’s Party.
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