Opposition against zoning Speakership to North West grows

From Fred Itua, Abuja

There are strong indications that members of the 10th House of Representatives may resist any attempt to zone the Speakership of the lower legislative chamber to the North West geopolitical zone.

This is even coming amidst intense lobbying by power brokers within the All Progressives Congress (APC) to push for a candidate from North Central.

A meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC), where a position would be taken on the zoning arrangement for presiding officers of both chambers of the National Assembly has been fixed for this month.

Key APC members from the North West, have indicated interest for the office of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

From the same North West, former chairman of the House Committee on National Intelligence in the 8th Assembly, Aminu Jaji from Zamfara state; Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna and Majority Leader of the House, Alhassan Ado Doguwa from Kano State, are already campaigning to replace Femi Gbajabiamila.

A member of the House of Representatives representing Owo/Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo State, Timehin Adelegbe, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, faulted the agitation for the slot by the North West APC members. He noted that the zone has produced four Speakers since 1999 and should therefore be precluded from the race.

The lawmaker recalled that the North West during the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo produced Salisu Buhari and Ghali Na”Abba while the incumbent governors of Katsina and Sokoto States, Aminu Masari and Aminu Tambuwal had also occupied the position.

“South West has produced the president, naturally Speaker cannot come from South West. North East has picked the vice president, naturally the Speaker cannot come from that area which means from the two bipolar level of south and north, two regions have left.

“So, in the north, we are left with North West and North Central…North West has contributed hugely to the electoral victory of Asiwaju. Can we because of electoral victory say we are going to block out South East and South South from taking leadership of National Assembly? No.”

Adelegbe further suggested that the APC NEC should consider zoning the position of Speaker to the North Central geo-political zone.

“There shouldn’t be too much emotions in this. This is very simple.”