N’Assembly: Ohaneze insists on speaker

Posted by admin House, Legislature Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

The apex Igbo socio-political group, Ohanaeze, yesterday lent its voice to the clamour for the South-east geopolitical zone to produce the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. It argued that both President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) owed that to the zone.

President-General of Ohanaeze, Chief Raph Uwechue, said in Abuja that considering the overwhelming support the South-east gave to the PDP in the just concluded general elections, it was only reciprocal that Jonathan and leadership of the PDP must not waver in acceding to aspirations of the people of the zone to produce the next speakere of the house.

Insisting that the “reward system must be commensurate with the support” the party got in the zone, Uwechue said: “The PDP as a political party got total support from Igboland. The long and short is that we want something from the National Assembly and they have said it: it is either Senate presidency or the speaker of the House of Representatives.”

Observing that the people voted massively for the party during the last elections, Uwechue added that it was only fair that they were given appropriate positions now that it was ‘payback” time. He warned that the Igbos must not be excluded from getting deserving positions under any guise.
“We want a position that is commensurate with the PDP success in the zone, a just position; a position that is fair to the Igbos, to Nigerians and to everybody,” he said.

The Ohaneze leader said the demand of the people of the zone was legitimate, adding that a major stakeholders’ forum was in the pipeline to effectively articulate the zone’s position and how best to actualise it.
“But let us say that the support and contribution of Ndigbo to the victory of Jonathan and the PDP at the polls must be duly rewarded because the Igbo sacrificed a lot to get Jonathan to where he is now.

We are entitled to something that will reflect the investment and sacrifice in the power equation in the country.” he added.
The South-east caucus in the House of Representatives had earlier restated their demand for leadership of either the Senate or the House of Representatives, insisting that they would not accept any other office in the incoming National Assembly outside of any of the two offices.

-Sunwp_posts