The All Progressive Congress, APC, has received knocks for shutting out the South East from getting a key position in the leadership of the 9th National Assembly.
The group, Imo Awareness Coalition, IAC, in a statement in Owerri signed by its President, Emmanuel Okwu, said the outcome of NASS leadership election “is a clear manifestation that the South East occupies no place and has no future in the APC.
The group pointed out that never in the country has a particular region, particularly the South East, been excluded from holding any principal position in the National Assembly.
The group added that the APC failed to take cognisance of the nation’s diversity and it’s political configuration
“The exclusion of the South East from the leadership of the 9th National Assembly is against the spirit of inclusivity which has been the bedrock of the unity of the country” the IAC stated.
It said since the inception of the National Assembly in 1999, no region was excluded from the leadership of the federal legislature, stating that the ruling party failed to take cognisance of this fact and allowed itself to be driven by baseless political semantics to deny the South East a place in the leadership cadre of the ninth National Assembly
“The election of principal officers of the National Assembly where the South East was completely blocked from producing one of the principal leaders is also a clear indication that the ruling party does into give a hoot about the region.
“It is clear signal that the South East should bury the thought of aspiring for the Presidency in 2023 on its platform.
The argument that the South East did not vote for the APC during the 2019 general election thus does not deserve a key position in this era is a take for the birds, tales at moonlight and is not tenable.
“When Olusegun Obasanjo was President elected on the platform of the PDP, his home region, the South West, was dominated by the Alliance for Democracy, AD. Did such political configuration stop Obasanjo from appointing those from the South West into key positions of the Nigerian government.
” The APC since it came to power in 2015 has continued to demonstrate it’s disdain for the South East by scheming out Igbos from key positions in the country.
“The omission of the region from the leadership of the 9th National Assembly is an elongation of its systemic plan to shut out the South East from the ruling party and a further extension of the Buhari administration agenda to continously marginalize the region.
“Never in the history of this country has so much bile shown for a particular region by the ruling party.
The IAC made reference to the manner Rochas Okorocha’s Certificate of Return as Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District was immediately released by INEC, after the conclusion of the NASS leadership election, is a pointer that there was indeed a grand plot against the South East prior to the National Assembly leadership election.
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