By Aaron Ossai
As the race for the speakership seat of the House of Representatives peaks, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has faulted the arguments being canvassed in some quarters that the North East geopolitical zone cannot produce the Speaker for the 10th House of Representatives.
It would be recalled that the proponents of such arguments had postulated that a frontline and leading aspirant in the race, Hon. Mukhtar Aliyu Betara should not be in the contest because his zone produced the vice president.
However, Akeredolu was of the opinion that such proponents in their biased views failed to acknowledge the fact that the current Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila who is from the South West geopolitical zone emerged as Speaker despite the fact that the incumbent Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo also hails from the same South West region.
The governor while stressing the need for fairness and equity on the part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zoning template for the next Speaker of the House, faulted the arguments being canvassed against the North East, describing it as “insidious permutation”.
Akeredolu in a statement he personally signed said there was need for equity, justice and fairness in the zoning arrangements by the party.
“It is an insidious permutation that North-East will be deprived in the face of the unsavoury generosity dispensed through two slots to a particular geo-political zone. It is self-repudiating for one to argue, therefore, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot also emerge from the North-East”, he declared.
Akeredolu, who doubles as the chairman of the South West Governors Forum (SGF), described the zoning arrangement as a skewed one that reinforced injustice and enhanced inequity.
The governor specifically wondered why a political zone would be favoured with two slots at the instance of others in the “permutation” carried out by the ruling party saying that the intentions and motives of the zoning formula already represented early signs of steps aimed to tackle the hard-earned presidency seat for Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
