Cede House of Reps Speaker to South East – Owie
On May 14, 2011 · In News

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM
FORMER senate Chief Whip, Senator Rowland Owie, yesterday, faulted the moves by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to cede the position of the House of Representatives to the South West.

He argued that such arrangement would be unfair to the South East whom he said deserved the position of the Speaker or President of the senate due to the support the area gave to the PDP in the just concluded general elections.

He said that the current President of the senate, David Mark, deserved to remain as President so as to stabilize the system but that the issue of the Speaker of the House of Representatives does no need to be debated upon but should be ceded to the South East who supported the PDP more than the South West.

According to him, “Nigerians should recall that when Obasanjo was President from the South West, one of the other zones from the South produced the Senate President  and that was the South East.

When Yar’Adua came from North West, one of the other two zones in the North, North Central produced the senate President. Now the President is from the South South, therefore the logical thing is for one of the two zones in the South to take the senate President.

“ The ideal zone to take it should have been the South East. The Speaker of the House of Reps would have then gone to the zone that is not producing the National Chairman in the North. However, Senator David Mark has performed creditable as the leader of the National Assembly and he needs to be there to give stability to the system” he said.