Source: The National, Wednesday 22nd Febuary 2012

OPPOSITION leader Dame Carol Kidu has welcomed Wabag MP Sam Abal to the opposition bench as her deputy leader.
Dame Carol said sitting on the opposition front-bench was lonely.
She praised Abal for showing humility in adjusting from the position of acting prime minister to deputy opposition leader.
“Abal comes from a proud family whose father (the late Sir Tei Abal) was the first opposition leader and hopefully we will make a good team,” she said.
Her message to the women in the country was for them not to thank the government for putting her up as opposition leader which was a wrong perception.
“Government and even the speaker cannot put in place an opposition leader,” Dame Carol said.
She said there was a parliamentary process in place and her major task now before the national election was to strengthening the parliamentary process.
Dame Carol also admitted that an opposition leader must be the alternate prime minister going into the election.
Because she was quitting politics at the end of her term, she named Abal as the alternate prime minister going to election.
She said there was so much work to be done between the two to cover all the shadow ministries and hoped that the opposition numbers would increase to keep the government in check.
Abal congratulated Dame Carol for her courage in taking up the challenge to become the opposition leader.