A member of the House of Representatives representing Owo/Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the Green Chamber, Hon Timehin Adelegbe, has said the North West zone should yield the Speaker of the House of Representatives position to other zones.
Speaking with select journalists in Abuja yesterday, Adelegbe noted that the North West zone has produced four Speakers of the House of Representatives since 1999 and should therefore be precluded from the race.
The lawmaker spoke against the backdrop of federal lawmakers from the North West declaring interest in the office of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
A meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) where a position will be taken on the zoning arrangement for presiding officers of both chambers of Parliament has been fixed for this month.
However, the federal lawmaker recalled that the North West during the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo produced Salisu Buhari and Ghali Na’Abba while the incumbent governors of Katsina and Sokoto States, Aminu Masari and Aminu Tambuwal had also occupied the position of Speaker.
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, in the south there are three regions. The South West has produced the President, naturally the Speaker can not come from the South West. 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 North West has produced four speakers.
They produced Tambuwal, they produced Salisu Buhari, they produced Ghali Na’abba and they have produced Aminu Masari; that is north-west.
should not be a big thing.
“Yes, the North West has contributed hugely to the electoral victory of Asiwaju. Can we say because of the electoral victory, we are going to block out the South East and South South from taking leadership of the National Assembly? No.”
Hon 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 the 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,” he said.
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