called to resolve issues concerning the zoning of top offices in the
incoming majority party in the National Assembly ended in a deadlock,
Wednesday night.
The meeting came to a deadlock on account of the tussle between
leaders of the North-East and South-West for the office of Speaker of
the House of Representatives.
The leaders at the meeting, nevertheless, agreed on the zoning of the
office of Senate President to the North-Central and the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, SGF, to the South-East.
Meanwhile, returning members of the House of Representatives were,
yesterday, understood to have forged a consensus on breaking the
deadlock by throwing up two of the returning members as their choice
for speaker and deputy speaker. Sources in the House confided in
Vanguard last night that the returning members have thrown up outgoing
minority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila and Yakubu Dogara for either
speaker or deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
Among those that attended the meeting on Wednesday night at the Rivers
State Governor's Lodge on Hassan Usman Katsina Street, Asokoro, Abuja
were President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd);
Vice-President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; party leader, Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu; governors-elect, senators-elect as well as some executive
officers of the party.
Deadlock over zoning of speakership position
Vanguard gathered that besides reaching a consensus on the Senate
Presidency which it zoned to North-Central, the meeting reached a
deadlock on the issue of the Speaker as both supporters of the zoning
of the office to the North-East and the South-West maintained their
grounds.
A source, who was in the meeting, said the meeting at one stage
degenerated to a hot verbal exchange between the supporters of the two
zones. The development, it was gathered, forced the meeting to mandate
the president-elect and the vice-president-elect to resolve the issue
on a later date.
A senior member of the National Executive Committee, NEC, who was
present at the meeting, however, played down developments at the
meeting as he said what took place was not a formal meeting.
He said: "We have not held our NEC and our NEC is going to resolve all
these issues, so there is no need for anxiety."
Returning Reps members root for Gbajabiamila, Dogara
Meanwhile, returning members elected on the platform of the APC and
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are said to be urging the APC to
produce either the outgoing minority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila and
Yakubu Dogara for either speaker or deputy speaker of the House of
Representatives.
The members were said to have passed on the message that they would be
comfortable with either of them as speaker and the other as deputy.
Gbajabiamila is from Lagos State while Dogara is from Bauchi State,
the two zones that are in contention for the speaker.
However, speaking to journalists, Senator Ali Ndume, APC, Borno South,
pleaded that the party should consider the North-East in zoning the
position of speaker of the House of Representatives.
He said: "You see, the North-East produced the second largest vote for
APC during the last election and if you are looking for people that
will be consistent for being in opposition all this while, Borno and
Yobe in particular have been consistent in opposition. Now that the
power has shifted from the former majority party, PDP, to the
opposition and we happened to be there, that is one reason.
"Secondly, we are the most devastated in terms of the level of
insurgency and marginalization during this political dispensation.
Thirdly, North-East is among the poorest regions on earth according to
the United Nations Human Development Indices. Because of her natural
position, we will need to be placed in the power kitchen whereby we
will not be lacking.
"Because we were marginalized, we are in a desperate need to ensure
that he who is in the kitchen will never stay hungry. But I told you
that all these are statistics. And lastly in the last election,
North-East produced the second largest votes and then we took over two
states from the PDP -- Bauchi and Adamawa -- and we are hopeful that we
will take over Taraba.
"So, looking at these credentials now, they qualify us to get the
highest possible office that is available. That is our argument but if
the party has other considerations, then we will look at it."
--Vanguard
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