Speakership – Presidency, PDP Seal Deal With Reps – Slot to Remain in South West

Daily Independent (Lagos)

Sola Shittu

29 May 2011

Abuja — The Presidency and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the weekend sealed deal on where the next Speaker of the federal House of Representatives should come from.

At a dinner exclusively attended by no fewer than 40 selected PDP members of the House of Representatives cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country, the former Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, Tony Anenih and the acting National Chairman of the party, Haliru Mohammed, believed to have been detailed to honour the ceremony by the presidency, addressed the lawmakers on the need to maintain the status quo in the House over the zoning matter.

The dinner was at the instance of a group in the House whose members are determined to ensure that integrity and respect are followed with regard to the zoning formula of the party.

The group formed by over 70 ranking members is made up of lawmakers from the six geo-political zones of the country.

Members said their aim was to ensure that the in-coming House of Representatives members are not in any way linked with the alleged rot associated with the out-going leadership.

“Our interest is to protect democracy, because it is democracy that brought all of us here. If you look at where Nigeria is coming from you will know that we have a responsibility to ensure that democracy is a success not only in Nigeria but the entire African continent.

“The whole world is looking up to this country to provide the leadership direction for the continent. If we fail, we would have disappointed our generation and the generation unborn and of course, the entire black race will surely not forgive us,” said one of the members.

We also gathered from the group that members will not allow any one with questionable background to take up any leadership position in the emerging dispensation.

“What the House needed now is a clean departure from the rots of the past in order to set a good agenda for the 266 new members of the 7th Assembly that will be inaugurated on 7th of June,” our source explained.

Sunday Independent gathered that the dinner which held at Dunes Restaurant on Aguiyi Ironsi Road, a highbrow area of Abuja started at 8 p.m. and was originally meant to be for the selected members.

But the invitation of Anenih known as Mr. Fix it was said to be a signal that both the PDP and the presidency had a hand in it.

Apart from the presence of two principal actors in the race for Speaker from the South West, Muraina Ajibola and Mulikat Akande-Adeola, those in attendance also included- Friday Itula, Beni lar, Patrick Asadu, Elizabeth Ogbaga who arrived in company of Mulikat, Jisalo Zephania, Sokonte Davies, Yakubu Dogara and Eziuche Ubani among others.

The dinner later metamorphosed into a close-door session around 9.20 p.m. that lasted for more than two hours.

Sunday Independent investigation also revealed that Anenih who represented the presidency at the meeting briefed the lawmakers on why the party zoned the Speaker to the South West despite its poor performance in the April general election.

According to our source, the party leaders told the gathering that the zoning was in line with the all inclusive government planned by President Goodluck Jonathan after today’s (May 29) swearing-in.

“You know now that he has won the election he is not the president of the PDP, in fact there was nothing like that even though the party produced him. He is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the whole country. So the intention is to suite the nerve of every zone. No zone will be left out in the new government.

“Yes it is true that the South West has almost gone into opposition party except for the few seats we have in Oyo State, but the party could still not risk leaving the zone like that without a sense of belonging,” said our source.

He also said the zoning of the Speaker to the area was also a deliberate plan by the party to create an in-road into the place in the future election so that it would not look like only the BoT Chairman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo would come from the zone.

“We want an elected person who is strong enough to hold the party together and save it from disintegration in the area.”

Though Sunday Independent learnt that the team of Anenih and Mohammed also reportedly discussed with both Muraina and Mulikat, it was also learnt that what they discussed with them was kept secret.

On the absence of Aminu Tambuwal, another Speaker hopeful from the North West at the meeting, our source said it might not be unconnected with the fact that he is not from the zone the party had chosen for the Speaker.

Already,Vice President Namadi Sambo was said to have conveyed his support for a Speakership candidate from the South West just as the North East members also declared support for the party’s zoning formula but with a caveat that the Deputy Speaker must also come from the zone.

The North East Caucus of the House had on Wednesday last week thrown its weight behind the zoning of the Speaker’s office to the South West but insisted that the zone must also produce the Deputy Speaker in line with the status quo.

Chairman of the caucus, Anthony Madwatte who addressed reporters in Abuja said the decision to adopt the zoning of the Speaker to the South West by the party was reached at a meeting of the caucus held in the House.

A communiqué jointly signed by Madwatte and the zonal caucus secretary, Adamu Gurai said the matter was thoroughly discussed before the decision was adopted by all the members from the zone.

According to the communiqué, the caucus believes that since the zoning arrangement entails that the status quo be maintained, that invariably means that the zone should be allowed to produce the next Deputy-Speaker, a position the zone is currently occupying.

The caucus is of the opinion that any other arrangement that seeks to re-zone the office of the Deputy Speaker to another place other than North East will amount to total disregard of the entire North East zone and her contribution to the Nigerian project.

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