South-West may lose House speakership 
By Niyi Odebode, Olusola Fabiyi and Olamilekan Lartey, Abuja   
Tuesday, 17 May 2011   

   
 

The division in the South-West Peoples Democratic Party is threatening the chances of the zone in clinching the speakership of the House of Representatives.

Investigations on Monday showed that the South-West PDP was currently divided between the candidacy of Mr. Muraina Ajibola and Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola.

The National Working Committee of the party had at its meeting last Wednesday zoned the speakership of the House to the South-West and the Senate Presidency to the North-Central.

Shortly after the announcement, the South-West PDP had met at the Abeokuta home of former President Olusegun Obasanjo last Thursday and picked Ajibola as its consensus candidate for the speakership.

But it was learnt that some chieftains of the party, including a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, Alhaji Shaibu Oyedokun, were opposed to the selection of Ajibola.
Those criticising Ajibola’s selection comprise mainly party members, who were opposed to Obasanjo’s leadership in the zone.
A member of the House, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, who has also signified her intention to contest the speakership, had in an interview with journalists, said the decision to pick Ajibola was taken by few members of the party in the zone.
Akande-Adeola said, “We have members of the party’s National Executive Committee, who were not part of that meeting. I think in a contest where you have three or two people, you must hear them out. I don’t think it was right to pick one person without this.”
A source in the PDP headquarters told THE PUNCH on Monday that the South-West’s inability to put its house in order might be its undoing when the members of the House would resume to elect the speaker.
He said, “We have done our best for the South-West by giving the speakership to it . If our members from the zone fail to unite, the position may elude us.”
Besides the infighting among the PDP members in the zone, the chances of the zone producing the speaker was being threatened by the decision of the re-elected members of the House to resist external interference.
It was learnt that most of the re-elected members met at Zone B of the Apo Legislative Quarters on Sunday over the issue.
At the meeting, it was learnt that the lawmakers analysed the chances of candidates that had emerged from the South-West and concluded that they were not independent.
A lawmaker, who attended the meeting, said, “Many who spoke, believe that Ajibola is Obasanjo’s candidate, while some were of the view that Akande-Adeola had the support of the Presidency.
“We are looking for somebody that is independent. We will go to any length to get such a person, even if it requires working against the PDP zoning formula.”
Our correspondents also learnt the chances of the zone were further dimmed by the position of two main opposition parties— Action Congress of Nigeria and Congress for Progress Change — to work against the PDP zoning of the post.
Investigations showed that the ACN, at a closed-door meeting with its National Assembly members-elect, agreed that its lawmakers would vote against any candidate annointed by the PDP as Dimeji Bankole’s successor.
An ACN chieftain, who spoke to one of our correspondents, said supporting a PDP candidate from the South-West would not be in the interest of the party (ACN), which swept the National Assembly polls in the zone.
He said, “The PDP has said that it will use the zoning of the speakership to the South-West to revive itself in the zone. We do not want South-West PDP to get the position. We want the party dead in the zone permanently.”
In its reaction, the CPC said its members would not work with the PDP in its quest to select a speaker for the House.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said, “Our party members will do what is right and form alliances with the right party, but definitely not the PDP.
“We shall have alliances with parties that share the same values with us.”
Also in Abuja, a member of the Senate from the South-East, Chief Uche Chukwumerije, said that the South-East was not been treated fairly by the PDP in the zoning arrangement.
He lamented that no Igbo man was at the caucus meeting where the zoning issue was discussed because the zone was not being represented at the PDP NWC.
Chukwumerije said it would be against natural justice for a zone that laboured hard for the party to be sidelined when plum offices were being zoned.
He said, “We have now reached a critical turn. After giving the highest percentage support to the national party and the federal project in the last four elections, the South-East and Ndigbo have nothing else to do to prove their prime candidacy for a frontline position in Nigeria.
“The least which we should get now is a high leverage appropriate to this performance record.
“The minimum due to us is either the Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives. This insult of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ must stop.”
Meanwhile, an organisation, the South-East Revival Group, has blamed the ordeal of the South-East in its bid to produce the Speaker or the Senate President on a cabal in the Presidency.

“We know that this is a product of the machination of the cabal around the President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan),” the group’s Chairman, Chief Willy Ezeugwu, told journalists in Abuja.
He, therefore, urged Jonathan to ensure that the office of the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to the South-East.
Ezeugwu claimed that governors from the zone were being intimidated to keep quiet over the ‘injustice meted out to the Igbo’ because of fear of the massive rigging of governorship election in the zone.
Four re-elected members of the House from the South-East — Mr. Emeka Iheodioha, Mr. Bathel Amadi, Mr. Ezeuiche Ubani, and Mr. Ogbuefi Ozomogbachi— have all indicated interest in the post.
The Deputy Whip of the House, Mr. Aminu Waziri-Tambulwai (from Sokoto State), who has been in the House since 1999, is being tipped for the post also .




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Jonathan seems to be playing his cards but should be very careful not to lose support in the process. You want to give speakership to south west so that PDP doesn't lose out south west and here ACN says they don't want your PDP at all in South west. North East is trying to use the majority votes in the north to win it too. By the time they do that and succeed, it means that president Jonathan's fate will be hanging because the North will be in charge of both the Upper and the Lower House of Assembly. And when he loses some support from south west and some south east, that means his presidency will be in danger because as soon as the North discovers that his support base has been depleted, it becomes easy for them to impeach him with any implicating thing they find in him. Again, its very risky if Jonathan should allow two men who are Obasanjo's boys to head both houses in the national assembly. I hope Jonathan understands the card he is playing. Obj cannot be trusted. He should be his own man. Yorubas have shown that they dont want any person linked to Obasanjo to hold any political post and they manifested it by voting his candidate and his daughter out in ogun state. How does Jonathan think he can appease this people by going through the same man (OBJ) that they don't want? Honestly I like South west and how they stand against what they don't want. Quite alright they have their negative points just like any other zone but I like this people. I hope our Igbo politicians should learn from this people. Now doesnt this stand of the south west differ from that of some of them here who are so foolish here rejoicing that they have been given the speakership. I have always said it that when true yorubas talk we know them. when the true Yorubas talk you see wisdom, you see determination to do the right thing, you see discipline. not the likes of bluetooth, zstranger, eko ile, rhino.5dm and co. who are misrepresenting the Yoruba nation. People should begin ignore this set of confused people in here.

SSMH @ post

While the SW is busy with consolidating the gains of democracy and regional integration for development, some idle(read PDP) minds are talking about the spoils of war. Different strokes. What did the SW gain from the years of Etteh/Bankole's speakership? Abi no be the same Bankole go borrow N10b from banks?

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