A former vibrant member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abubakar Chika from Niger State has described the zoning of the National Assembly leadership position as undemocratic and very dangerous trend for the survival of democracy in Nigeria….CONTINUE READING...CONTINUE READING
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, he stated that “the legislature is an independent body and they most choose among themselves, neither the President or the party have the right to dictate who should lead the national assembly”
“The National Assembly like any other arm of government is independent to decide who will lead as an arm of government, so I don’t see any reason that either the party or anyone will micro zoned or nanozone, so you can’t microzone the legislature. This is undemocratic and very dangerous to democracy and I don’t think this will fly”
“I have been speaking about the injustice we have been having within the APC and it is not because I have an interest in Aliyu Betara but because I am speaking as a former legislator who don’t want to see that arm of government being bastardized in dictatorship.
“APC has been cantankerous because of the advice that has been coming from so many quarters. You can see even from sharing of seats. How did you exclude the North Central, so I think it is a biased thing. Somebody just think I must make this person whether he is going to cover up for me”
“But I think the President-elect is an honourable man and should think beyond Lagos State, this is Nigeria and not Lagos State House of Assembly and we have a national assembly consisting of people from everywhere and with different character. APC should know that they do not have the majority particularly in the House of Representatives, the minority is greater in number and with that you can’t dictate”
He further stated that “the law did not say APC member-elect must be the speaker but the law says, member must choose among themselves so if APC becomes very careless as a single party even as a majority other people will take it up, so APC should have a rethink because the manner at which we are going, we are not in a military administration, we are in a democratic administration”
“If you cannot allow zoning to take place because you want to balance certain things then you cannot nanozone the position of the national assembly, this is carelessness. And Mr President if you want to govern well you should be able to take a stand right from now.
“Anybody who knows Betara will know he is generous, empathy and humility personified. No human being will come to Betara with an issue and he will not look at the issue though I have never gone to him for any assistance but we need a National Assembly where when someone served and we know his capacity should not be given even the current speaker call him head boy because he has seen how he gathered members and carry them in the national Assembly”
“Betara often put himself in the position of every human being he meets, he is back in the house for the 5th time and if you can do this without losing election I think there is something in you. He has led Army, Defence, NDIC, Banking and now Appropriation Committee no complain”
“The speaker calling him Head boy means somebody who is a leader, I am shock that the speaker today is only with one person who is unpopular”
He recalled that Gbajabiamila created an office for the welfare of former members, but that office was abandoned, it was Betara who singlehandedly take care of that office so you can’t tell me that such person does not have the quality and pedigree to be the speaker.
“If the issue of zoning has been done democratically they would have carried other contenders along. All the major contestant have said that there is no way the party will zone the speaker without carrying the major contender along even excluding the north central where they have over 40 percent of the total vote in the North. And if they could do this they deserve to be considered”
The former lawmaker further said that “Some people think they have Tinubu in their pocket and have started the cabal who will be this and that, this is not Lagos State, this is Nigeria and Lagos is just a state in Nigeria.
“We have started seeing a regional agenda to divide the people because at the Betara declaration non of the South West lawmakers came. This cannot fly. We need to start on a good footing, if we continue like this our suspicion, our apprehension is coming to reality”
Also speaking in the same vein, Governor of Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu faulted the arguments being canvassed by some traducers that the North East geopolitical zone cannot produce the Speaker for the 10th House of Representatives.
Recall that the proponents of such arguments had postulated that a frontline and leading aspirant in the race, Rt Hon. Mukhtar Aliyu Betara should not be in the contest because his zone produced the vice president.
However, such proponents in their biased and jaundiced views failed to acknowledge that the fact that the current Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila who is from the South West geopolitical zone emerged as Speaker despite the fact that the incumbent Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo also hailed from the same South West region.
Akeredolu while stressing the need for fairness and equity on the part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zoning template for the next Speaker of the House, faulted the arguments being canvassed against the North East, describing as “insidious permutation”.
Akeredolu in a statement he personally issued on Wednesday said there was need for equity, justice and fairness in the zoning arrangements by the party.
He said: “It is an insidious permutation that North-East will be deprived in the face of the unsavoury generosity dispensed through two slots to a particular geo-political zone. It is self-repudiating for one to argue, therefore, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot also emerge from the North-East.”
Akeredolu, who doubles as the chairman of the South West Governors Forum (SGF), described the zoning arrangement as a skewed one that reinforced injustice and enhanced inequity.
The governor specifically wondered why a political zone would be favoured with two slots at the instance of others in the “permutation” carried out by the ruling party.
Akeredolu said the intentions and motives of the zoning formula already represented early signs of steps aimed to tackle the hard-earned presidency seat for Bola Ahmed Tinubu….CONTINUE READING
