5th May, 2015
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
As senior members of House of Representatives from different zones continue to lobby for the position of Speaker, the South South Equity Forum has called on the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) and the president-elect to cede the position to Hon. Pally Iriase.
The group which comprises of past and present members of parliament (state and national) within the South-South zone and led by its National Coordinator, Sir Harrison Omagbon, said their agitation was in the interest of equity, justice and fairness.
Leading 16 other members of the Group at a press briefing in Benin City, Sir. Omagbon, said since the president-elect, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the incoming Senate President are coming from the North and the only office in the South is the Vice-President which has been ceded to the South-West, it was only fair and just that the South-South produce the Speaker of the House of Rep.
“As at the moment, the President-elect, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the in-coming Senate President are from the North. The only office in the South is Vice-President-elect that is from the South-west. The North-west and South- west already have positions of President and Vice-President respectively. It is only fair and just and as a matter of necessity if the Senate Presidency goes to either the North-east or North-central, for the Speaker to go to the South-south. While the South-west has the Vice-President, invariably the Speakership should come to the South-south since the South -east has no ranking member.
“Section (14), subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, ably amplified equity as a bases for mutual coexistence, adding that, “The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons fron a few State ot from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies,” Omagbon said.
He also noted that in spirit of give and take, in the interest of inclusive governance by every standard, and considering the economic importance of South-south geopolitical zone as the goose that lay the golden egg has to be forced into the distribution of high political offices in order to suppress opportunistic agitation, part of which led to the Niger Delta militancy.
“The APC as a party can ill-afford the crisis that will arise from the mismanagement of her victory which was the same reason the PDP roundly lost the elections across the country”, the SSEF national coordinator stated, recalling that recently, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of Kano State hit the bull’s eyes when he sounded a note of warning on the party leadership to ensure equity distribution of positions to avoid the mistakes of PDP which lumped positions to certain preferred areas while others had nothing, a situation that really killed the party.
“It is in this contest we are calling on the leadership of out great party to consider the person of Hon. Pally Iriase, a Chartered Accountant, a former ALGON Chairman of Edo State, a former Deputy Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly; a former SSG and two-time member, Federal House of Representatives for the position of Speaker of the House,” the group declared.