FOR the first time in Nigeria's political history, a female legislator was yesterday elected Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party's 54-year-old Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh (PDP, Osun) was unanimously elected Speaker shortly after inauguration of the House.
However, spirited efforts by former governors who just got elected to the Senate to have one of their own as Senate president failed, as the PDP's anointed third-time senator retired Brig. Gen. David Mark (Benue) got elected to the office.
Mark polled 68 votes to beat his state's immediate-past governor George Akume's 39 votes to clinch the nation's number three citizen's job at exactly 11.50 a.m. yesterday.
Speaker Etteh who was nominated by the duo of Farouk Lawan (PDP, Kano) and Ita Enang (PDP< Akwa Ibom), is to be assisted by 35-year-old Babangida Nguroje (PDP, Taraba) who was also elected unanimously as deputy speaker.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has however congratulated the new Speaker in a letter she received within an hour of her taking oath of office. The President said, "I write to felicitate with you on your election as the speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I look forward to a productive partnership with the legislative arm in driving the accelerated development of our dear nation."
Etteh, who is immediate past deputy whip of the house was elected into the lower chamber on the platform of Alliance for Democracy in 1999 before she defected to the PDP in 2002.
Election of the duo was the climax of intrigues and horse trading that trailed jostle for the plum jobs since the PDP zoned offices of speaker and deputy speaker to south west and north east zones, respectively.
In her acceptance speech, a visible elated Etteh pledged to run an open administration where every lawmaker would be part of any major decision of the lower chamber.
Her words "colleagues, we must see ourselves as agents of progressive change; we must realize that we are the hope of our people and therefore cannot afford to fail".
In the Senate, week-long bid by former governors to produce the next senate president failed flat with yesterday as senator David Mark finally clinched the plum job.
Flat with Mark's election as the sixth senate president of the fourth republic.
Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu) was returned opposed as deputy senate president.
Former governor of Kaduna state Ahmed Makarfi, his Kebbi state counterpart Alhaji Adamu Aliero and other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) voted against Mark to defile the party's instruction to back the Idoma-born senator.
Senator Mark in his inaugural speech however extended hands of fellowship to his opponent, saying that he intend to run a more focused and purposeful leadership.
It is my vision that the senate must collaborate with other arms of government without compromising its independence.
"My action will be guided by the principle of equity, fairness, justice and above all the fear of God," he promised.