Some youths of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have called on President-elect Bola Tinubu and the party to heed the ‘patriotic advice’ of some leaders of the party to jettison the zoning arrangement adopted for the yet-to-be inaugurated 10th National Assembly.
The youths under the aegis of APC Youth Alliance for Progress, APC-YAP said ignoring the advice of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and other stakeholders on the protests against the zoning adopted by the party was a recipe for a fractured parliament, especially the House of Representatives.
The APC-YAP in a statement on Sunday in Abuja asked the party to listen to the voice of reason and tinker with the current zoning of speaker of the House to the northwest with Tajudeen Abass as the choice candidate; deputy speaker Benjamin Kalu (southeast); Godswill Akpabio (south-south) as Senate president, and Barau Jibrin, (northwest), as deputy.
The zoning arrangement has continued to attract opposition and protests from other aspirants for the positions who vowed to proceed with their ambitions.
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Governor Akeredolu’s advice came in a statement titled, “Proposed APC zoning formula for NASS leadership positions is a skewed arrangement that reinforces injustice and enhances inequity.”
He expressed concern that the purported zoning arrangement released by the party “represents early signs of steps aimed at attempts to cabin the hard-earned presidency for our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by a few individuals with eyes on Aso Rock Power Buttons.”
Harping on this, the youth group in the statement signed by Isa Pai and Wahab Adeyemi said it “stands logic on the head for the party to reward indolence and perpetrate injustice at a time for inclusion and national healing.
“It is urgent for the party to discard the notion of handpicking officers for the 10th House of Reps. Nigerians are already wary of the party and no attempt should be made to reinforce the idea that the party does not care about party development and democracy.”
Referencing the Ondo governor, the APC-YAP wondered why the party that allowed an open field in the presidential primaries will now micro zone offices for the National Assembly as if it was a department of the party.
Akeredolu had stated: “It is an insidious permutation that the north-east will be deprived in the face of the unsavoury generosity dispensed through two slots to a particular geo-political zone. It is self-repudiating for one to argue, therefore, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot also emerge from the North-east.”.
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