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| Yakubu Dogara (Speaker of the House of Representative) |
The two All Progressives Congress members of the House of
Representatives from the South-East geopolitical zone on Tuesday grumbled over
their alleged exclusion from the House leadership positions by the party
caucus.
The South-East Reps rejected the argument that they were first-timers
hence not qualified to hold principal office in the lower federal chamber.
They argued that the Senate Minority Leader, ex-Akwa Ibom State
Governor, Godswill Akpabio, was also a fresh member of the upper chamber.
One of the South-East Reps, Chuka Okafor, who had been initially
nominated by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, at the height of the leadership crisis
in the House to serve as the Deputy Whip spoke on Thursday on behalf of the
zone.
Okafor said, “You may recall that the South-East APC had nominated me
for the post of deputy majority whip, a nomination that was duly accepted by
the presiding officers of the House.
“As you already know, the final position is that the South-East is the
only zone that is excluded from the leadership caucus, while one zone has two
plum positions. On principle, I accept the outcome of that session in good
faith and sincerely congratulate the new leadership of the House as presently
constituted.”
He urged the national leadership of the party to stop
placing the South-East on the fringes in the scheme of things, adding that as
far as the Nigerian project was concerned, every region must count, if things
are to go right.
He said, “If indeed our ideology of leadership involves, even in the
minutest way, the integration of every section of our country, Nigeria, then
our pontificating on Federal Character should go beyond lip service and
rhetoric to practical embrace of every section of the country in the spirit of
the change which we have promised.”
“A number of persons hold the erroneous view that the APC did not have a
good outing in the South-East but every sincere Nigerian that understands the
politics of the region can attest to the fact that the party in the South-East
fought against stupendous odds and the statistics are there to prove it. It is
needless to mention that the region has been a stronghold of the PDP since
1999. In the last election, PDP in the South-East states merely managed a
paltry average that was less than half a million votes due to the efforts of
APC faithful in the region.”
“In that election, APC in the South-East exhibited the highest level of
courage, doggedness and fierce loyalty to the party; in most cases to the point
of risking their lives.”
The complaint from the South-East lawmakers came even as Dogara and his
erstwhile “enemy”, now the Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, said at the
end of the APC caucus meeting midnight Wednesday that the leadership crisis in
the party had been “buried for good.”
Dogara and Gbajabiamila had emerged from the APC caucus meeting smiling
and holding hands.
The meeting, which was called by Gbajabiamila, was the first after the
speaker conceded to the Lagos lawmaker’s nomination by the leadership of the
party as the House leader on Tuesday.
“You can see that all is now well. We are a family and we are better
now,” Dogara also said.
On his part, Gbajabiamila, who was full of smiles, admitted that “APC
has come out of the crisis, better and stronger.”
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