Following the push by Salihu Moh Lukman, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to be zoned to the South-South geopolitical region, citing the overwhelming support for the APC in the just concluded general elections as reason.
A proposal has already been made to the APC leadership by Lukman who stated that the South-East geopolitical zone should drop the clamour for the National Assembly (NASS) leadership because of the voting pattern of the zone in the last election.
Recall that Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, and the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, who was elected into the senate in the last general election, both from South East zone, have indicated interest to run for the nation’s third top job.
According to him, the leadership structure should have followed the 1999 pattern when President Olusegun Obasanjo emerged from the South-West, Atiku Abubakar from the North-East, while the South-East produced the Senate President because of their overwhelming support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Lukman said that if the proposal sells through the much the South-East geopolitical zone should expect in the unfolding dispensation will be the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He challenged Abdullahi Adamu the APC national chairman to act quickly to halt what he said is an unregulated contest of NASS leadership positions, with keen focus on the country’s diversity, stressing with sadness that a laid back attitude led to rebellion during the 8th Assembly.
According to Lukman, with a contentious Muslim-Muslim ticket still burning in the polity, there is need for the party to move fast to ensure that another Muslim doesn’t emerge to lead the NASS.
He suggested that all aspirations for the NASS leadership should stop, especially in the North-West, to allow the party to lead the way, bearing issues of national cohesion and sensitivities in mind.
He said, “This public appeal has become necessary given the flood of aspirants for leadership of the 10th NASS, which if left to continue unregulated could throw up unexpected people in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
“Should that be allowed to happen may result in producing the undesirable consequences of destroying the electoral viability of APC in future elections. As a ruling party, mandated to provide political leadership to the country for the next four years, everything must be done to sustain the confidence of Nigerians.
“As a concerned party member and leader, I make this appeal conscious of where we are coming from. We have proven to Nigerians that nothing is impossible in Nigerian politics. We have successfully consummated the first and only merger of opposition parties in the political history of the country. We are the first party to successfully defeat a ruling party. It is therefore not impossible to be the party that can facilitate the emergence of Nigeria as a strongly united country. For that to happen, we need to douse the current ethnic and religious tension in the country.
“Dousing ethnic and religious tension in the country will require sacrifices on the part of all of us both as leaders and members of APC. Without going into the details of the sacrifices required, we certainly would need to invoke the powers of superior organs of the party where all proposals could be tabled, debated and decisions taken, which should be binding on everyone, including elected representatives in the National Assembly. Perhaps, we need to acknowledge that the critical issue before us as a party today is the decision about the zoning formula for offices in the National Assembly and in the Asiwaju Tinubu-led government,” he said.
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