Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa caused a sprawling laughter at Tuesday plenary when he sensationally said he was targeting 30 children to have a family unit for his family.
Doguwa, 56, representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada federal constituency of Kano state is the longest serving lawmaker in the House of Representatives.
A First Class Graduate of Mass Communications from Bayero University Kano, Doguwa joined politics immediately after his graduation and became an elected member of the House of Representatives under the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP in 1992.
He was reelected in 2007 and has been in the House since then.
In the course of plenary proceedings yesterday, Doguwa announced that one of his 4 wives has given birth to a bouncing baby girl.
With the arrival of the new born, the lawmaker now has a community of 28 children, and according to him, still counting.
Responding to a congratulatory remarks on the delivery of his baby by the minority leader of the House, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Doguwa said he was still active.
He informed that the baby was born in the last 24 hours, adding that she was doing well with her mother.
He said: “This is no longer news. It is no longer news because this thing happened in the last 24 hours. It is true that my beloved family has gotten an additional one person. It is a baby girl. Bouncing. The mother and the baby are hale and hearty. The husband is still active. I am here. And I thank God that I kept my word with the House that while I had 27, I promised you that I would continue counting. I want by the grace of God and your prayers that the count would continue.”
Speaking further before the ratification of the electoral bill by the House, Doguwa said the target was to hit 30 children before 2023 elections have a polling unit.
“Now that we are considering the Electoral Act amendment, I would also add when we get to the floor perhaps in the Committee of the Whole, I would appeal to my members so that we suspend relevant rules and we have a clause in the Electoral Act where it permits families that do have up to 30 kids in their homes to have an electoral polling unit in that family,” he said.
Reacting, the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajbiamila, asked if he was working towards a polling unit in his house with two more children.
In response, Doguwa said: “At least between now and 2023 before the elections come, if you allow that, then I would have a polling unit within my home.”
It will be recalled that the lawmaker was also in the news about this time last year when he was inaugurated as the majority leader.
He had come to the House with his four wives for the brief ceremony.
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to let you know that with me today here, are my four respected wives,” he said, before requesting all four to stand up to the cheering of his colleagues.
“Mr. Speaker, these four wives you have seen have produced 27 kids for me, and I am still counting. I am still counting,” he said at the time
He told the House of Representatives that his father who died at 86, left behind 40 children including a 4-year-old at the time he passed on.