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| The Northernisation of Nigeria: APC Finally Unveils their Northern Agenda |
The People of Southern Nigeria had long suspected that the opposition All Nigeria Progressive Congress that have just won the 2015 presidential election is promoting northern agenda, however, our brothers from the west said the South East and South South are playing the ethnic card. Now it has happened.
The victorious APC has zoned the number 1, 3 and 4 most important government positions to the North.
The No 2 position is negligible as it can only be important if No 1 is not available.
No 1: President: North
No 3: Senate President :North
No 4: House Speaker: North
What this means is that the three arms of Government Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are now under the control of the north.
Can someone remind me what is northern agenda again? This is what my northern brothers see as one united and indivisible Nigeria.
Interestingly, South-east and South-South did not get any position in the current APC allocation of ofices. The situation is akin to what was obtained immediately after the Nigeria civil war of the late 60's.
The people of the eastern region are once again CONQUERED PEOPLE!
“The vice presidency is a spare tire on the automobile of government”
John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner (1868-1967) was vice president of he United States from 1933-1941, but he never thought much of the vice presidency. On June 19, 1934, Garner was quoted as saying that a vice president “is only a spare tire on the automobile of government.” Another news report quoted Garner as calling the vice presidency a “fifth-wheel job—the spare tire on the national auto.”
Leadership of the incoming All Progressives Congress [APC], has decided to zone the offices of the number three and four citizens of the country to the North Central and North East respectively.
There were lamentations that the Senate Presidency would have been zoned to South East in the incoming dispensation, but for the inability of the people of the region to form majority members in the House of Assembly due to their massive votes for the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], which unfortunately are now in the minority.
Hence, APC has officially zoned the office of the Senate President in the 8th Senate to the North central geo-political zone, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to the North-east geo-political zone.
A source at the APC meeting which lasted till the wee-hours of Friday told THISDAY that the party leaders accepted in principle a prototype office sharing formula that would accommodate all vested interests within the party.
The source said: “After deft negotiations, the leaders agreed to cede the position of the Senate President to the North-central and that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-east. They also endorsed a zoning arrangement that would see the South-west producing the Deputy Senate President and South-south, Deputy Speaker.”
With the agreement yesterday, the current minority leader in the Senate, George Akume from Benue State and Senator Bukola Saraki from Kwara State are expected to engage each other in a fierce contest for the Senate Presidency.
It was learnt that the position of the Speaker was earlier allotted to the South-west but had to be moved to North-east following a strong lobby by leaders from the zone who argued that such arrangement was necessary to compensate them for the massive support for the party during the election.
Apart from the sharing arrangement for the principal positions, the APC meeting which had personalities like the former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu and some governors in attendance also considered the issue of ministerial appointments.
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| The Northernisation of Nigeria: APC Finally Unveils their Northern Agenda |
APC leaders also zoned the office of the Chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT) to Adamawa State, where the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is set to clinch the position that was hitherto held by the former governor of Osun State and former national chairman of the party, Bisi Akande.
The source hinted further that the party zoned the office of the Majority Leader of the Senate to the South-west.
However, South-east did not get any position in the current allocation but according to a top notch APC member, the zone will be compensated by other appointments to ensure some balance and equity. In all the eight senatorial seats in the zone, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all the seats. This has made it impossible for the zone to aspire for any principal office in the senate.
The same thing happened in the zone for the House of Representatives. No single member of the House of Representatives from the zone is from the APC.
PDP won all the National Assembly seats in both arms of the National Assembly. In fact, in the Presidential Election, the APC did not score up to 15 percent in any of the states in the southeast.
APC Zones Political Offices: Analysis by Okafor C. Udoka
Newspaper reports the zoning arrangement of APC National Caucus thus:
1. President- North West
2. Vice President- South West
3. Senate President- North Central
4. Speaker, HoR- North East
5. Deputy Senate President- South West
6. Deputy Speaker, HoR- South South
Note: South South and South East produces 3 HoR members-elect each under APC.
For me, principal officers of the NASS are nothing but "stomach infrastructure" offices; what South East need in reality from the FG is capital investment and security but given that Govs Ogbonnaya Onu, Anayo Okorocha, Senators Chris Ngige, Osita Izunaso, Chief George Moghalu, Joe Igbokwe, C. Don Adinuba, Chidi Amuta etc told us that they are in APC to "correct" the mistreatment of ndigbo in terms of political offices by PDP. What do we now call APC treatment of South East?
Please let nobody tell me that South East did not vote APC in the presidential/National elections because I'm aware that South West did not vote PDP in 1999. Yet it was compensated with the office of the President.
The inconvenient fact we might not readily accept today is this: APC is simply an Arewa-Yoruba contraption chiseled with the sole aim of dislodging a failed President from office. And for the next 4 year, Arewa-Yoruba will ride roughshod on us all to enjoy their election "booty." The ministerial, ambassadorial, Permanent Secretaries, Agencies and Departments Board appointments and distribution of projects under GMB presidency would confirm my position on APC.
By Ogbuefi Ndigbo
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