10th National Assembly: Orji’s South East and Genuine Inclusivity .
By Tyowase Andrew
Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly next month, the race for Senate Presidency and chairman of Nigeria’s highest lawmaking institution is fully activated .
Civil societies, support groups, political party supporters , Senators and members both returning and newly elected are grouping , re-grouping and making cases for there preferred zones and in some cases candidates .
The All Progressives Congress,APC with the highest number of returning senators for the 10th Assembly is yet to announce the zoning of offices for the yet-to-be inaugurated National Assembly .
A number of offices ,namely ; Senate President ,Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Senate President , Deputy Speaker , Senate Majority Leader, House of Representatives Majority leader, Senate Minority Leader ,House of Representatives Minority Leader, Senate Chief Whip ,House of Representatives Chief Whip, Senate Minority Whip ,House of Representatives Minority Whip as well as there deputies will be in contest when the leadership of the APC rolls out the zoning .
Suffice to say , while the rest of the offices ,which constitutes the selection committee of both chambers will be fielded after the inauguration ,the four offices of President of Senate ,Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker regarded in parliamentary palace as Presiding Officers shall be fielded on the inaugural day ,following the proclamation of the President ,Commander In-Chief who shall be sworn-in on May 29, 2023.
While the agitations over the position of the Senate Presidency continues , four front runners have emerged .
From the South East , former Abia state Governor and current Chief Whip of the Senate , Dr Uzor Orji Kalu ; Former Governor of Akwa Ibom state and one time Minority Whip ,Godswill Akpabio (South South ), senate’s Appropriations committee chairman Senator Jubril Barau from Kano (North West ) Senator-elect and out-going Governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi (South East ) all have there eyes on the number three position in the order of protocol of Nigeria’s leadership hierarchy .
While the various zones and individuals continue to push for the headship of the 10th National Assembly, there is a school of thought that speaks to the tricky issues of fairness, justice ,equity and inclusivity .
There is also the clamour for, particularly , the lopsidedness in the religious balancing where the President-Elect and His Vice are both of the Muslim Faith .
There is renewed narrative of marginalisation of particularly the South East , a zone yet to take a shot at the Presidency within the South since advent of democracy in Nigeria since 1999.
These and many other factors will certainly determine where the pendulum swings as the APC gets set to announce her zoning of offices of the Presiding and leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
There is yet another argument that since Nigeria’s return to Democratic rule in 1999 , the South West produced the President , the North East Produced the Vice President, the South East Produced the President of Senate ,the North West produced the Speaker of the House of Representatives for eight years .
It also argued that while the North West had there shot at the Presidency , the Senate Presidency was zoned to the North Central and it remained when the South South took over the Presidency, following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
When power later shifted to the North West after the South South Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate Presidency rotated between North Central and North East .
It was then argued that with the power shift to the South West , understandably instead of the South East , the Senate Presidency should be zoned to the South East .
Those clamouring for the South East have identified the Chief Whip of the Senate ,Orji Uzor Kalu as the round peg in the round hole giving his experience, zone-advantage , religious faith , such that will address the seeming marginalisation of the entire South East ,which has undoubtedly fuelled the restiveness in the zone .
There are people who are of the opinion that healing and rebuilding a more united Nigeria ,the South East should be pacified to have confidence in the country they can call there own.
While Senators Kalu and Dave Umahia are both of the South East extraction gunning for the office of Senate Presidency of the 10th National Assembly, the later stands a chance as a returning Senator otherwise regarded as ranking as contained in the standing Rules of the Senate as one of the major prerequisites for approval to even contest for the office of both Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives . This does not mean a new senator cannot contest ,but the standing Rules provides an advantage for returning and ranking senators as a parliamentary proceedure which rightly places an advantage to senator Orji Uzor Kalu ,the Senate Majority Whip.
There is also a section of the country that believes that the unity of Nigeria and the healing process which the present administration promises must begin with justice that must be seen to have been administered in the case of the South East as well as a deep sense of belonging.
This school of thought urges other zones ,particularly the Senator Godswill Akpabio’s South South to consider the unity of Nigeria as paramount and support the South East for the Senate Presidency.
It is important to stress ,that besides the argument of a Senate Presidency of the South East having to address the cascading and galloping restiveness in the zone, it should be noted that the South East is the proper zone to produce the Senate Presidency going by the principles of justices and fairness and this is regardless any restiveness and separatists agitations . But to further calm and address these agitations and reset the country on the wheels of progress and fairness ,the South East should be allowed to produce the Senate Presidency of the 10th National Assembly.
Tyowase , a public Affairs Analyst writes from Makurdi .
