The aspirant, Yusuf Gagdi, said the silent approach is part of the strategy by his team to woo the governors.
Yusuf Gagdi, one of the aspirants for the speaker of the House of Representatives, said he has met with 24 out of the 36 governors in the country in his quest to occupy the position.
Mr Gagdi, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Plateau State, disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the silent approach is part of the strategy by his team to woo the governors.
Mr Gagdi also disclosed that he met with the Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti, to target the 34 Reps-elect on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).
He stated that he met with Mr Otti, a member of LP, in Lagos on Tuesday and also held another meeting with the party's governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga.
"Yesterday (Tuesday) I commenced my public engagements in which I visited Lagos to meet with the Governor-elect of Abia State and members of the Labour Party. Abia has seven members from the Labour Party in the House of Representatives. From there I flew to Enugu to engage and have interaction with the state party chairman of the Labour Party, as well as the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State.
"Engaging a governor who has a majority in the House of Representatives in terms of members-elect is important. Particularly in the House of Representatives. Yesterday was the first public engagement I had but silently I have visited 24 governors across the country," he said.
While Mr Gagdi did not mention the governors he visited, however, it is possible the governors cut across political parties because his party, the APC has 21 governors.
I'll end the duplication of projects in the budget
Speaking on his plan for the House, Mr Gagdi said ending "duplication of projects" in the budget is his major objective, if elected.
He promised to reform the budgetary process to achieve efficiency.
He noted that often projects are listed in the budget based on political considerations at the expense of economic factors.
"I have seen a lot of wrongs in the National Assembly that need to be right. In terms of budget--how do I intend to stop the proliferation of projects? Projects will commence with taxpayers' money and it won't be completed, another similar project will be initiated due to political interest. That is what is wasting taxpayers' money. I have intentions to correct these."
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Campaign heats up
Candidates for the speakership election have been making overtures outside their parties.
Deputy Speaker Idris Wase (APC, Plateau) also visited Governor Nyesom Wike in Rivers State to draw support for his aspiration.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the ruling party has been unable to form a majority in the House, and the combined strength of the opposition parties is higher than the APC.
The ruling APC has so far won 162 seats out of the 325 seats declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The combined strength of the opposition is 163 seats-- the PDP has 102 seats while LP and NNPP have 34 and 18 seats respectively. APGA has four seats, ADC and SDP two each while YPP got one seat.
The ruling party is yet to take a decision on the zoning of the principal offices of the two chambers.
Some members of the PDP had on Tuesday also organised a parley with several minority parties in a bid to form an alliance to "checkmate" the ruling party.
Speaking on the meetings with LP members, Mr Gagdi said it is part of a strategy to get the buy-in of the people outside the APC and to build a consensus ahead of the inauguration of the National Assembly in June.
