The former federal lawmaker said seats and offices in the National Assembly are privileges that should be lobbied for.
A former Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, says the seat arrangement row between Senators Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio should not be reduced to a gender affair.
Shaibu, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, said seats and offices of federal lawmakers are privileges and not rights. According to him, seats and offices must be lobbied for by federal lawmakers.
The former deputy governor once occupied the Etsako Federal constituency House of Representatives seat in the National Assembly from June 2015 to March 2016. Before then, he spent eight years at the Edo state House of Assembly as a lawmaker.
Shaibu said, “Interestingly, Natasha is my friend. Senator Akpabio, the president of the Senate, is my political leader.
“There are rules guiding the House. When I was in the National Assembly, it was the prerogative of the leadership of the House to allocate office and to allocate seats, and in the House, there is what is called lobbying; you lobby for everything.”
