10th Assembly: Lawmakers Reject Proposed Zoning Formula By APC –

10th Assembly: Lawmakers Reject Proposed Zoning Formula By APC

Some members of the House of Representatives have criticised the zoning formula of leadership for the 10th National Assembly proposed by governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governors under the umbrella of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), in a memo exclusively had recommended the zoning of the Senate President to either the South-east or the South-south regions and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to either the North-west or the North-central regions while the deputy speakership should be zoned to South-East or South-south.

The memo was sent to the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, for his consideration.

The ruling APC, which will also form majority in 10th Senate and House billed to be inaugurated on 13 June, has yet to zone the four positions.

But, two members of the House of Representatives Akin Alabi (APC, Oyo) and Rolland Igbakpa (PDP, Delta) criticised the recommendations, saying it may not be easy for the ruling party to zone principal positions to the Northern region considering that the President-elect, Mr Tinubu, and his Vice, Kashim Shettima ran on Muslim/Muslim Ticket.

Messrs Alabi and Igbakpa stated their positions while speaking on a Twitter Space organised by PREMIUM TIMES and titled, “How should 10th National Assembly Leadership be zoned?”

Mr Alabi, who represents Egbeda/Ona-Ara federal constituency of Oyo State said he is “not sure” if the ruling APC “can afford” to zone the Senate President to a Muslim aspirant.

“It is definitely a question that is going to be raised and it is something that our party must look at. There is no question about that. Look, we have the same faith ticket for the election. Yes, there are many reasons for that and the most obvious being that the presidential candidate is from the South and he is a Muslim and Islam is a minority religion in the South,” he said.

“In the entire South, Islam is a minority religion. If he chooses a Christian running mate, Christian is a minority religion in the North. So the ticket is not all that strong when you look at the religious factor. And whether you like it or not, no matter how educated you are, we are talking about Nigeria, not just competence. There are still millions of people that will still look at the issue of religion and as a good leader you still have to carry people along.

“We now have the president-elect. We are now talking about the number three. Can we get away with Muslim/Muslim? If we do Muslim/Muslim, questions are going to be raised. Maybe the president-elect and leadership of the party will feel, okay. I think we need a Christian, maybe Christian southerner. So that brings to the table South-east, South-south but that automatically knocks out North-east guys and then North-east was very valuable in this last election to our party. They gave us the highest number of votes.

“So they are going to be asking for the number three position but, can we afford another Muslim/Muslim? I am not sure we can afford it. But I believe that after Sallah, everything is going to be clear and leadership will come up with a position. But no one is going to be surprised if that goes to the South-east or South-south.”

Mr Igbakaba, a PDP, lawmaker, however recommended that the National Assembly leadership should consider lawmakers from the South-east because of the agitation that people from the region believe they are being sidelined in national politics.

“There shouldn’t be a factor because you must agree that in the South-east, there is a candidate whether we like it or not. Like I said the country has never been so divided and everybody seems to be looking after their region. But now a president has emerged, a Nigerian president not an APC president. The earlier we start thinking nationalistic, having a global review of Nigeria as a country, the better for all of us.

“What if tomorrow, you give the South-east or whatever the representation they are looking for and they become number one in this election, this is what we call patronage. I am not from the South-east and I don’t want to sound this ethnic record but the South-east people feel they are not being looked upon as part of the country. They feel that they are not carried along like other regions. I think doing it for them will help the next election,” he said.