Conference of APC State Publicity Secretaries (CAPS) in the South East has called on Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, who is most favoured for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to drop his ambition for the sake of equity.
In a statement signed by members of the group, including the publicity secretaries of the party in the five south east state, and made available to Our Team in Awka, Anambra State capital, the group said it was unwise to leave out the South east while sharing positions in the country.
The group which consists; Nwoba Chika Nwoba; Ebonyi State, Mrs. Kate Ofo; Enugu, Benedict Godson; Abia State and Okelo Madukaife, Anambra called on Gbajabiamila to continue to be the Majority leader of the House of Representatives.
Part of the statement read, “We wish to invite Hon Femi Gbajabiamila , an otherwise distinguished and ranking member of the Federal House of Representatives to drop his ambition to be the Speaker for now and continue to serve as Majority Leader, because ‘this house must be built on equity.”
“It is our considered view that the South West Geopolitical zone cannot take the office of Vice President and Speaker, the North East, Senate Presidency and Secretary to the Federal Government, while the South East goes home ‘whipping’ and weeping.
“We think that Gbajabiamila should be part of this solution, sacrificially. We expect a rework of what has been passed to the public domain as ‘APC zoning’, which the National Chairman of our great party gladly says has not been concluded, going by his recent interview on Channels Television.”
The group said even though the party did not perform excellently in the south east in the just concluded elections, it still recorded over 40 percent success, and also succeeded in upping the number of National Assembly members elect, compared to 2015, and as such deserves to lead an arm of the national assembly.
“It, therefore, stands to reason that a presiding-officer position in the National Assembly will set the balancing tone for inclusiveness. For the avoidance of doubt, the 2019 election into the National Assembly is a different ballot from the presidential polls. Yet the South East recorded 2015-to-2019 improvement in both.
“We remain loyal and committed to APC and its noble cause of creating viable, valuable and desirable change in the politics of Nigeria, and hold that such must eschew brazen exclusion.
“We do not envisage a post-May 2019 Federal Government in which the three arms of government will be led by persons from the same part of the country. We, no doubt acknowledge the qualities of the men seeking offices from various parts of Nigeria, but insist that Nigeria needs only one standard in carrying on its affairs.
“The South East has every reason to be represented in the governance map.”