‘Zone House of Reps speaker to Southeast’

A group of young professionals, under the aegis of the League of Young African Leaders (LOYAL), has urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the Southeast to ensure balance in the polity.

In a statement signed by its President, Francis Udoka Ndimkoha and Secretary, Gift Okedinma, the group argued that since 1999, the Southeast had not produced the President or Vice President and so should be allowed to produce the next Speaker.

The statement reads: “Since this democratic dispensation, the Southwest has produced a President and a Vice President in the person of Olusegun Obasanjo and Yemi Osinbajo; the North two Presidents, Musa Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari; the Southsouth a President and a Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

“During the period, the Southeast produced the Senate President between 1999 and 2007, and has since been left with Deputy Senate President; it only produced a Deputy Speaker in 2011.

“It is understandable that the Southeast would have produced the Senate President from 2015-2019 but for the fact that no senator emerged under the APC, and this has denied the zone that position. “So, the next best thing would be to swap the slot of the Senate President for that of the Speaker, bearing in mind that the APC has two members from the Southeast.”

The group argued that these two members should be considered based on qualification and experience, not minding that they are first-timers.

It added that “a look at the history of the Speakership reveals it has not always been a question of being a ranking member or even a lawyer, rather it has been about experience in public administration and governance. The ranking member rule is rather a ploy by the PDP leadership to keep new members at bay.

“From Independence till today, the Southeast has only produced one Speaker in the person of the late Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, in 1979. If the Southeast fails to clinch that position this time, it means that by 2019, it would have been 40 years since the Southeast last produced the Speaker.

“Above all, it is imperative to accommodate the Southeast in the first five positions in the new political arrangement in appreciation of the contribution of its revered leaders like Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, former Governor of Abia State Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and former Governor of Anambra State Senator Chris Ngige to the cause of the APC, from the formative stage till date”.