APC spokesman opposes Gbajabiamila’s House of Rep speaker bid

A spokesman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Yekini Nabena Tuesday opposed the party’s decision to back Femi Gbajabiamila to emerge speaker of the House of Representatives.

“The zoning arrangement must also respect the fact that the Northwest and Southwest have already produced the President and Vice President respectively,” Nabena told journalists in Abuja.

“So, for equity and adherence to the principle of federal character which is a constitutional requirement, the positions of Senate president, deputy Senate president, speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives in the incoming 9th National Assembly must be occupied by APC members from the remaining four geopolitical regions of the country.”

Gbajabiamila, a member of the House of Representatives representing Surulere 1 constituency in Lagos, is the party’s anointed choice for the speakership position since the National Assembly election.

However, Nabena, APC’s deputy national publicity secretary, believe Gbajabiamila’s emergence as House of Reps speaker will be unfair to lawmakers from other geopolitical zones in the country when the 9th National Assembly assumes duty.

Nabena said that the APC leadership have agreed on zoning the seat of the Senate president to the northeast where Ahmed Lawan, who is contesting the seat hails from.

“The APC has elected National Assembly members from all geopolitical zones of the country. Hence, the party’s leadership and indeed the presidency must take deliberate efforts to provide a fair and justifiable zoning arrangement for the 9th National Assembly leadership.”

“The Southwest already has a slot filled by the Vice President. In any case, the Southwest does not necessarily translate to Lagos or Ogun state. This is a sentiment widely shared by our members from the zone.”

Nabena, however, suggested that the party should zone the “deputy Senate president to the South-south while the speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the North-central and South-east in any order agreed by the party’s leadership.”

He urged the party leadership to take steps to provide “a fair and justifiable zoning arrangement for the incoming 9th National Assembly leadership. Our actions and inactions will have serious implications on party unity and positively or negatively affect our standing ahead of 2023.”