Adeola-Akande Favoured To Take Over … As odds favour House Leader Amid the defection of the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to the All Progressives Congress, APC, the South-West which felt cheated with his emergence as Speaker in 2011 has moved to retrieve its lost position. Tambuwal emerged Speaker on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, contrary to the party’s internal arrangement which zoned the position to the South-West. His recent exit to the APC has rekindled old wounds of PDP’s zoning arrangement which was truncated by the Speaker, his allies in the House of Reps and members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. The South-West which felt shortchanged in the upturning of the zoning exercise has now seen the present situation as an opportunity to get what originally belonged to her. It has, therefore, called on the PDP leadership to redeem the imbalance in the sharing of top federal posts which has left the zone cheated in the last four years. The South-West zone had made a series of representations to President Goodluck Jonathan through the Yoruba Unity Forum on the need to consider the it for top appointments as a way of compensating her for the hijacking of her slot by Tambuwal, a North-westerner, from her nominee, Hon Mulikat Akande-Adeola. The Yoruba have now seen the current agitation for the removal of Tambuwal from the position of Speaker by top PDP hierarchy as a positive development. They are said to have received the support of President Jonathan and the PDP top echelon in retrieving the lost position. As a way of backing the PDP in its effort to ensure that Tambuwal is removed from office and that the position given to the rightful owner, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) dedicated to protecting and pushing the interest of the Yoruba who dominate the South-West has described Tambuwal as a usurper who hijacked the position since 2011, insisting he should immediately cede the post to a Yoruba legislator in the Lower Chamber. OPC also denied any security pact with the embattled Speaker, and that its members were not providing him protection. President of the organisation, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, in a press statement circulated in Lagos, denied the news report that it had dispatched about 60 of its men to provide protection for Tambuwal after police authorities withdrew the security detail attached to the Speaker, following his defection. According to Fasehun, there could be no meeting point between OPC and Tambuwal because he had usurped the position originally zoned to the South-West. The group recalled that it had protested in June 2011 when Tambuwal mounted the seat. “Back in 2011, we told Tambuwal that he was a usurper of a seat reserved for the Yoruba, and asked him to vacate the position. But he refused. No way can we now extend any form of assistance to him,” the statement said. “We still maintain our stand that Tambuwal should hand over the position to the Yoruba who have an authentic claim to it.” According to the OPC president, but for the maturity and restraint displayed by the South-West, Tambuwal’s occupation of the position would have created acute political crisis, as it did not only violate the Federal Character principle enshrined in the Constitution but amounted to a slap on the Yoruba. He said with the Yoruba robbed of the position, it meant the South-West region had been shut out of the country’s power equation, as the South-South produced the President, the North produced the Vice-President, the Senate President and the Speaker, the South-East produced the Secretary to the Federal Government, while the South-West had nothing. “OPC and the Yoruba believe this is the time to right the wrong of the last three years, by letting the post of Speaker devolve back to its rightful owners, the South-West,” he said. “We have Yoruba sons and daughters in the Lower Chamber capable of discharging that responsibility,” Fasehun said. There are strong indications that whenever the House reconvenes, Tambuwal will be persuaded to step aside. It was gathered that Akande-Adeola’s denial of the post in 2011 has been seen as a betrayal of trust that the majority of the PDP leaders have in its zoning arrangement. Sources said party elders across the geo-political zones are set to give Akande-Adeola the opportunity to take over whenever the House reconvenes. To the South-West leaders and the top PDP hierarchy across the six geo-political zones, Akande-Adeola possesses intimidating credentials to occupy the position. They cited her being a good party person who despite the ‘coup’ against her remained dedicated and loyal not only to the party but the presidency. They were also said to have cited her good sportsmanship which she has displayed in her cooperation with Tambuwal and other House leaders since 2011. Akande-Adeola who has been representing Ogbomoso North/Ogbomoso South/Orire Federal Constituency of Oyo State in the House since 2007 holds a master’s degree in Law, and has had an exemplary private practice. She is also said to have legislative interests in women employment, poverty alleviation, infrastructural development and foreign affairs. Many also see her as a mature and well informed legislator who should be the second female House Speaker after Mrs Foluke Etteh. It was also gathered that many top Yoruba Obas, religious leaders, opinion leaders as well as politicians are calling for the emergence of Adeola as a way of ensuring fair play as they feel the time has come to right the wrong. It would be recalled that in May 2011, the then Acting Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bello Haliru, after attending a meeting convened by the party governors at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, said the meeting had resolved that the position of Senate President and Speaker should not be contested by any lawmaker elected on its platform because David Mark and Akande-Adeola were the party’s choices. Haliru added that he led a delegation of the PDP, which comprised Vice-President Namadi Sambo and the then National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, to intimate the governors with the party’s position on the issue of zoning. He had said then that the nomination of Akande-Adeola was based on the party’s 35 per cent affirmation on women representation and that the party had instructed the governors to go to their various geo-political zones to prevail on their elected representatives to support the party’s position. However, in a twist of events, some of her colleagues in the ruling party joined forces with the opposition, especially the then ACN members to disrupt the party’s zoning arrangement. This resulted in Tambuwal winning the election of Speaker with 252 votes against Akande-Adeola who scored 90 votes. The emergence of Tambuwal was condemned by the PDP immediately after the election. In a statement issued by the party then, its National Working Committee said it noted with great concern the unfolding developments in the House of Representatives, especially the outcome of the election of principal officers. “While the party believes in, and indeed encourages the exercise of, freedom of choice for all Nigerians, including members of the National Assembly, it is important to reiterate that the principle of zoning is still an integral part of the PDP constitution. “The idea of zoning is a well-thought out philosophy for national stability and integration. It is the only guarantee that every segment of the country enjoys a sense of belonging by being represented in all the decision-making organs of the government,” the NWC stated. National Mirror.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 16:14:07 +0000