The All Progressives Congress, APC, must zone the position of speaker to the Northcentral for the sake of justice and equity, the Northcentral, APC Young Patriots have said.
The group said the APC must consider the contributions of the Northcentral to its recent political victory at the polls, noting that the party must avoid the pitfalls of 2015 when some of its elected lawmakers rebelled against it to emerge as leaders of the National Assembly.
It said, since the position of the Senate President has been zoned to the North-East, which produced the second highest votes for the APC during the presidential election, the Northcentral should naturally have the position of speaker as it contributed the third highest votes.
In a statement in Abuja on Friday, the president of the group, Dominique Alancha, said “it was expected that the Party will zone the various leadership positions of the National Assembly based on clear, identifiable and equitable criteria that will be understood by all players.
“So far, the party has done the right thing in zoning the Senate leadership to the North-East. As for the House of Representatives, although the Party has not formally announced the zone that will produce the Speaker, there are indications that the Party intends to zone the Speakership position to the Southwest. If this is true, the salient question will then be: what criteria is the party using to zone these leadership positions.”
The statement said “all APC loyalists, stakeholders and lawmakers must prevail on the party hierarchy to do the right thing as any wrong move in getting things right now will not only spell doom for the party in the coming four years but adversely affect the party’s chances in 2023 by totally alienating the North Central which is already a politically polarized zone.
“Now that the Senate President has been taken from them and given to the North East, it is only fair to compensate the zone with nothing short of the position of Speaker to appreciate their contribution towards the Party’s success at the general elections,” it said.
The group noted that there are eminently qualified persons within the North Central to be elected as speaker such as the current Deputy Majority Leader Ahmed Idris Wase, “who is the most ranking North Central member, having returned to the House for the 4th term.”
