BY: COSMAS IGWE
Recently, the All Progressive Congress, APC, South East, stated that it ought to produce the Speaker of the 9th Incoming House of Representatives.
The demand became imperative after the zone had lost out in the zoning of all key positions in the National Assembly.
The party’s zoning formula designed by the National Working Commitee, NWC led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had relegated the South East out of any key position in the next National Assembly.
This had raised concern among leaders of the party in the region who argued in strong terms that the zone deserve the Speakership of the House of Representatives.
A commitee headed by Minister of Science and Technology, Dr.Ogbonnaya Onu was constituted by the APC South East caucus at the end of its meeting in Enugu, to interface with the national leadership of the party on the issue.
However, political pundists argue that the South East APC have no justification whatsoever to demand for the position of the Speaker of the House for many reasons.
One of such reasons is the fact that none of the States in the South East is of the APC. Imo which was the only APC State has been taken over by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It is also important to add that the APC has no single member in the Imo State House of Assembly after producing 20 members of the legislative House in 2015.
It has one or two Senators select fron the zone and a handful of members of the House of Representatives which puts in the South East in the minority among other zones who fully voted for the party during the 2019 elections.
Since the formation of the APC in 2014, the APC has never had it so good in the South East. This could be attributed to either outright rejection of the party in the region or inability of the party leadership to effectively market the it in region which seem to tilt to the PDP. The party gave President Buhari a misery 190,000 votes in 2015. It went up to a little over 400,000 votes in 2019 compared to the South West which turned in over 3 million votes during the 2019 presidential election.
The party has been in comatose state in the South East. Plagued by massive rejection, one wonders why it is so eager to grab a key position as Speaker of the House of Representatives when it could not even win a Councillorship seat across the entire South East zone.
It is even more worrisome when shocking revelations have been made why the party have been unable to make a headway in the South East region.
Former Governor of Abia State, Dr.Orji Uzor Kalu made a stunning revelation at the Enugu meeting of leaders of the party. He revealed that some party chieftains connived with the PDP to win the South East States during the 2019 general elections.
It is therefore not out of place if the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, decides not to concede any key position of the National Assembly to the APC South East.
It will be political loss on the part of the party if the APC conceed the Speaker of the House to the South East APC at a time the party needs to compensate other geo political zones such as the South West who voted for the party massively in order to strength President Buhari’s victory in the region.
As the scramble for positions in the National Assembly intensifies, the APC in the South East must realize it has nothing to offer on the table to negotiate for a key position such as the Speaker of the House of the Representatives.
What would it use to bargain for such position? Nothing. In politics, you must posses strong bargaining powers to negotiate for something. In this case, the APC in the South East have nothing to offer except a sweeping defeat by the PDP in the last general elections.
Parading a begging bowl to secure a key position such as Speaker of the House of Representatives is a defeatist approach which in the long run may end up in a wild goose chase.
Cosmos Igwe Wrote This Piece From Abuja.
