Collins Nnabuife
The Oduwa Frontiers has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to desist from meddling in legislative affairs and allow the lawmakers to use democratic process to elect their principal officers.
This is just as the group called on the ruling party to jettison zoning which it described as undemocratic and follow democratic principles by allowing the lawmakers to choose their principal officers freely.
In a statement by the Convener of Oduwa Frontier, Kolawale Adediji Kazeem, called on the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to interrogate the skewed arrangement and give direction that reflects the country’s collective commitment to equality, fairness, and inclusivity as a basis for participatory democracy.
He said the plot to zone the position of the principal officers of the National Assembly is a grand plot to paint a dark picture of the Bola Tinubu and by implication the entire Yoruba nation by introducing a new deliberate twist in the leadership tussle for the National Assembly.
“We therefore join the Southern Governors Forum and other concerned Nigerians in calling on the National Working Committee of the APC to follow the path of honour and justice by reversing the unsolicited, unpopular zoning proposal and allow democracy and its tenets to thrive.
“As stakeholders in the affairs of the South-west and Nigeria generally, we hereby corroborate the Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum’s views and adopt all the issues raised which are very sensitive, not only to the president-elect and the APC but also to the corporate existence of the country.
“We warn the President-elect not to wave aside the views of the Southern Governors Forum and majority of his genuine lovers in other regions, in order to avoid falling into the traps laid to set him up against other sections of the country and damage the image of his administration even before it takes off.
“We hereby state our strong position that the manner in which the party leadership directly meddled in the affairs of the legislative arm of government, which is an independent body, amounts to an infringement on the constitutionally guaranteed legislative independence and autonomy.
“We warn that the APC cannot afford to make the mistake of allowing the repeat of what transpired in the eighth Assembly when Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerged Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“On a final note, we call on the APC to replay its exemplary leadership of allowing open contest and level ground for the party primaries that paved the way for the emergence of the Asiwaju as its Presidential Candidate.
“It is therefore expedient for the APC to allow open contest for all interested candidates irrespective of region or geopolitical zone and allow the members of the National Assembly to vote for their leaders”, the statement noted.
