Taiwo Amodu, Abuja
A member of the House of Representatives representing
Owo/Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the Green Chamber, Honourable
Timehin Adelegbe has faulted the agitation for the slot of Speaker of the 10th National Assembly by the North West.
As returning and fresh federal lawmakers continue with intense lobbying and permutation over which zones to produce presiding officers ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, indication has emerged that the North West zone may have decided to soften its stance on producing the Senate President and concentrate on giving the emerging Parliament the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Checks by NIGERIAN TRIBUNE revealed that despite the pronouncement by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin Barau, who won a fresh election to represent Kano North senatorial district and former Zamfara State Governor, Abdul Aziz Yari who won a Senate seat in the last February election to represent Zamfara West to throw their hats into the ring, power brokers from the North West are starting to talk the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the party national leadership to consider zoning of the office of Speaker to the zone.
Contenders from the North West aspiring to take the exalted seat presently occupied by Femi Gbajabiamila from the southwest include former Chairman of the House Committee on National Intelligence in the 8th Assembly, Honourable. Aminu Jaji from Zamfara state; Honourable Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna and Majority Leader of the House, Alhassan Ado Doguwa from Kano state.
Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the North West zone have continued to insist that based on the zone contribution to the victory of the president-elect, it should be adequately rewarded in the zoning arrangement for Presiding Officers of National Assembly that will be sealed at the National Executive Committee meeting slated for this month.
Speaking with select journalists in Abuja on Sunday, Honourable Adelegbe noted that the zone has produced four Speakers of the House of Representatives since 1999 and should therefore be precluded from the race.
The federal lawmaker recalled that the North West during the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo produced Salisu Buhari and Ghali Umar Na’ Abba while the incumbent governors of Katsina and Sokoto States, Aminu Masari and Aminu Tambuwal had also occupied the position of Speaker during their stewardship in the National Assembly.
He said:” Well, naturally, it is a very simple thing if we don’t put emotions into all those things. If you look at it generally, in the north there are three regions, and in the south, there are three regions. The South-west has produced the President, naturally, the Speaker can not come from the South-west. The North-east has picked the Vice President, naturally, the Speaker can not come from that area which means from the two bipolar levels of south and north, two regions have left.
“So, in the north, we are left with north-west and north-central. And looking at the advent of democracy till today, the northwest has produced four speakers. They produced Tambuwal, they produced Salisu Buhari, they produced Ghali Umar Na’aba and they have produced Aminu Masari; that is north-west. So, morally this should not be a big thing. ”
“Yes, the northwest has contributed hugely to the electoral victory of Asiwaju. Can we say that because of the electoral victory we are going to block out southeast and south-south from taking leadership of the National Assembly? No. ”
Honourable Adelegbe further suggested that the APC NEC should consider zoning the position of Speaker to the North Central geo-political zone.
“In fact, if I am to advise, this is very simple, there is no way again that since the north-east has picked the Vice President, the south-west has picked President, naturally the Senate President should either come from south-south or south-east. And since north-west has produced four speakers before, they should look into the area of Deputy President of the Senate and allow north-central which has enjoyed the luxury of being President of the Senate before now to taste the speakership. There shouldn’t be too much emotion in this. This is very simple.”
